Splash! Leap!

Movements: 

I. Grace
II. Passion Play
III. Replaced By Streams

Instrumentation/Voicing: 
SSAA chorus and piano

Splash! Leap! is a result of planets aligning just right! After a dinner meeting with some Twin Cities Women's Choir fly fishing enthusiasts, I set out to find a text that would do justice to the banter about being one with nature, being fully present and alive, playfulness, and the beauty of interplay between water, light and fishing line. I found a gem in Ailm Travler's essay, "Run-Off", from an anthology entitled "A Different Angle" : Fly Fishing Stories by Women. Like Travler (a.k.a. Peggy Beck), I have tried to capture both playful and meditative feelings in my piece.

Perusal Score: 
application/pdf iconcomplete_score_splash_leap_perusal_copy.pdf
Audio: 

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Printed Sheet Music
Digital Sheet Music
Catalog Number: 
HP04-25
Duration: 
2:45
Total Pages: 
34
Commissioned By: 
Punch Van Grasstek for the Twin Cities Women's Choir
Premiere
Premiere Ensemble: 
Twin Cities Women's Choir
Premiere Conductor: 
Mary Bussman
Text
Text Author or Source: 
Ailm Travler
Language: 
English
Text: 

I. GRACE
"Grace. The pull of earthly passions and the compelling spiraling course of rivers is a balancing act. I want to feel my body as a river, with its tributaries to the spine and alluvial streams coursing outward; a witness trying to find her bearings, bearing witness to the waters that hold her in thrall."

II. PASSION PLAY
"Splash. Leap... fish all day -- in the morning the beavers' flooded willow valley, later back up into the basin meadows.
Splash. Leap... fish all day--SpIash. Leap... I stand up and play the speckled brookie, landing it before it tangles us in the dam,
and flip it off the hook into its glassy pool again.
Splash. Leap..I fish all day--Splash. Leap... want to play in dappled light, in the foam line, arc over grasses and into pools of fading stars."

III. REPLACED BY STREAMS
"Evening comes too soon. A breeze tosses the grasses, a thrush chimes from the woods... have just witnessed a passion play of insects, water and fish, I feel as if finally my circulatory system has been replaced by streams."

Text copyright Ailm Travler

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