When Darkness Falls (TTBB)

Text:

Ooh

When darkness falls
When the cold overtakes you
When darkness calls
When the cold nearly breaks you 

When snow begins piling,
When faces stop smiling,
When skies begin greying,
When children stop playing,
When warmth starts receding,
When hearts slow their beating,
When winds begin howling,
When stomachs are growling,
When hearts turn to stone,
When you most feel alone,
darkness falls!

When darkness falls!

When darkness falls,
I reach for a friend.

I reach! I reach! I reach! I reach!

And in the end, darkness falls away.
So in the end, when darkness falls away:

Shine! Shine! Shine!

Program Note:

With winter comes darkness - both literal and figurative – to challenge our resolve. It becomes difficult to hold onto who you were and even more difficult to grow through it. So, what do we do when darkness falls? How do we survive dark times? And perhaps the boldest question of all: how can we gather and celebrate from within that darkness?

Personally, it can be very easy for me to get overwhelmed with the weight of the darkness that this season and this world are capable of, so I set out to create a piece that honored that heaviness but also searched for the light that might sustain us. The text and music poured out from there.

This piece starts with icy and melancholy winds, trudges through falling snow, then hits a wall of darkness. Suddenly, the perspective shifts from the macro to the micro, from what’s happening around us to what we can do from inside us: “as I feel the darkness envelop me, what can I reach for to pull me through it?” In a moment of musical stillness and clarity, an answer emerges. And so we reach – or at least we try. And that’s all we can do. And that’s all we have to do: find something to reach for. Cause if we reach for the right things and we keep reaching for long enough, we remember that darkness doesn’t last forever. I hope this piece reminds you to find that which will sustain you through your own darkness.