A Gathering

A Gathering (2021)

for unaccompanied SATB choir (with solos and divisi)

Text by Paul Hetherington.

Duration: approx. 10 minutes

I can usually tell from an early reading whether or not a text will ‘set’ well. Needless to say, I found a lot to love in Gathering, a beautifully intimate exploration of the fragility of life by Canberra-based poet Paul Hetherington- so much so that the resulting work is a reasonable amount longer than I anticipated. One aspect of the text that seems made for music is the idea of words attempting to describe the indescribable. Every time I set text to music, I am trying to find the sound that will act as the best vehicle for the words; I am attempting to create something which is greater than the sum of its two parts. Failure feels almost inevitable, for who can say precisely what music ‘means’ at any fixed point in time, or how a phrase must sound when sung? And yet, I try and try again, approximating words with music, in a cycle of budding and blooming which feels equal parts futile (will I ever get it right?) and joyful; for all its frustrations and regular disappointments, it is a privilege and a true joy to create.

Gathering

Out of the enigma of our lives, this mystery.

Out of many different moments, love.

Despite the brittleness of sentiment, and words

too brutal for the feeling, still a joy

harboured closely, often shut away,

but efflorescent on the sunlit days

that contradict the winter. Out of words

a structure for the inexpressible,

an approximation of a green emotion

that buds, and blooms, defoliates, and buds.

Because of the end of blooming, disappointment,

because of winter, a hiding of the green,

because of budding, new-felt expectation

strong as rising sap; a gathering.

Paul Hetherington (Canberra, 2000, used with permission.)