Waking (text and information)
•for male choir, and soprano saxophone
•commissioned by Joseph Piazza for the Golden Gate Men’s Chorus and soprano saxophonist Anders Paulsson
•premiered 18 May 2019 in San Francisco California by the GGMC, Joseph Piazza conductor, Anders Paulsson soprano saxophone
How good
to wake up
from all-holy sleep
and find the world still there,
hear the chattering of finches
at the feeder, raise
the window blind
of one squinting eye
and see the cold grey fog
unfurling from Deer Lake—
and then a blazing yellow
red and green and fiery van Gogh
painted on the morning air
as I slowly wake and walk
from one dream into another.
George Whipple (1927-2014); used by permission of the poet, granted prior to his death