Speak to Me (Talk to Me)

Program Note:

Speak to Me (Talk to Me) is an art song written in collaboration with Dr. Lisa Neher about the politicized erasure of aspects of our identity that run parallel to one another: Lisa, as a woman who has long COVID, and I, as an autistic femme trans/non-binary person. The title of the piece comes from a phrase, “speak to me of things and I will listen,” that Lisa used she reconnected with people she hadn’t seen in months or even years due to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to, in Lisa’s words it “opens up a door for them to share what was really happening for them, without a need to quickly or simply sum up all the often conflicting experiences they had gone through.” Additionally, I quoted the opening motive of Lisa’s art song I Want to Be Soft and my setting of the word vulnerability from my piece “Vulnerability” from the Dead Fires Anthology to encapsulate the longing for society to take our honesty with publicly sharing our identities seriously. From admitting we have a secret, wanting to share that secret and have that secret take up space, we are only left with the option to make our anger palatable to polite society and questioning how we can live our truth when our truths are messy. I love you, Lisa, and hope that this piece provides you as much catharsis when you perform it as it has for me while I was writing it for you.

Instrumentation:

Voice & Piano

Recording:

World Premiere performed by Dr. Lisa Neher and Sequoia

Score:

Preview the score (Coming Soon)

Text: