A We, or an Us, or an Our for Alto Recorder Duo

This piece is inspired by an excerpt from Amanda Gorman’s interview with Kevin Young in the Poetry. section of The New Yorker from December 2021:

I think that poetry is not only experiencing a renaissance. That is to say a rebirth, but that this birth is different, that we're changing, we're transforming, we're metamorphosizing. And I think there also has been a larger type of movement to try to experiment with how it feels yet again to speak with a plural, collective voice.

And so there's so many poetry books that I read whose tradition I'm very grateful to be participating in, where they speak to that community. Whether Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith, or If They Come For Us by Fatimah Asghar. Oh, or even On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong, these titles, which speak to a we, or an us, or an our. And I think that's so exciting because the people who are doing that type of plural speak are those who for so long were left out of the plural. It's people of color. It's queer people. It's indigenous people who are saying, "We belong in the we as much as anybody." And we are reclaiming not just our time, but our share to humanity.

N.B.: Each recorder part has a vocal part which goes with it, to be sung/hummed through the instrument; that is the reason for four staff lines.  It is meant to be performed only by two people.