Voice: solo soprano, ob, pno, gtr, string quartet - Invisible Divide

Ensemble: vocalist, oboe, piano, guitar, string quartet

Duration: 25 minutes

Commissioned by: BalletCollective

Premiered: NYU Skirball Center, NYC, New York

Published by: Yes Daedalus Music

Note:

A collaboration with choreographer Troy Schumacher and photographer Paul Maffi, Invisible Divide is a song cycle written for Vanessa Upson and chamber ensemble, written to accompany a ballet. It's a delicate thing to write music with lyrics that is meant for dance, as there's always the worry that the lyrics will get too prescriptive, or shape the dance in a pantomime-like way. So I kept the text fairly vague, favoring evocative but intentionally unspecific imagery, trying to leave room for the dance to tell its own story. The piece consists of nine songs and interludes, each inspired by a photo that Paul took. It was a fascinating study in mood and style to try to capture the character of those photos, first in lyrics and music, and then to see it transposed to choreography.