Düsseldorf-based choir Nefesch-Vokalensemble premieres John’s latest choral piece, “At a Window,” commissioned by music director Constanze Pitz.

At a Window is a setting of the poem by Carl Sandburg, an American writer who was based in Chicago at the start of the 20th century. The piece opens with a frenzied litany of the words “Give me hunger,” each time growing in intensity and desperation. There is an anger, even an irreverence, directed at the “gods,” the powers that be, the unrelenting masters of the circumstances that make up our daily lives. The “hunger” to which Sandburg refers was (and still is) a visceral reality for many. An escape from these conditions seemed impossible. 

Within these demands to be “shut out” by “shame and failure,” there is a listlessness in the music characterized by a somber chorale texture in a minor mode. But this momentary restraint steadily gives way to another bout of manic, unbridled rage that builds toward the words “shabbiest, weariest, hunger,” marked by a significant acceleration in tempo and stringent rhythmic activity. 

If these “gods that sit and give the world its orders” insist on instituting such an arduous life for the common man, then our protagonist demands the one thing that can offer respite from the trials of human life: a little love. At this point, the music takes on a flowing, hazy quality, a total shift from the first half of the piece, as our protagonist turns their attention to the window, to the future, knowing better days lie ahead.

As part of EC/21’s ten-year anniversary, John has composed a new work for the ensemble featuring mezzo-soprano Cherry Duke.

Setting the poem by Christina Rossetti, "Echo" captures the intensity of grief and nostalgia over a lost love as experienced within the liminal state between sleep and consciousness, juxtaposing hazy, dreamlike textures with more pointedly stringent ones. The singer implores their lost love to return to them in dreams, in a place of fantastical possibility, but they remain wounded by memories of "finished years." With time, the wounds of grief and loss become smaller, though still tender, as they never fully fade away. These experiences leave an indelible mark on our souls, a reminder of our fragile human hearts and our capacity to give and accept love despite the risks it carries. Even when love leaves us broken, there is solace in the strength it takes to be vulnerable enough to experience this precious gift.