Shop for Music
Cantus
To My Brother
Joseph Gregorio
A moving tribute to an LGBTQ victim of cyberbullying.
TTBB a cappella
Set in a style that allows the text to shine “To My Brother” is Gregorio’s tribute to Tyler Clementi, who died by suicide after being victimized by cyberbullying. The setting is very sensitive to natural speech rhythms and the musical texture is shaped by the text. Mostly homophonic writing deftly navigates undulating harmonic shifts, and slight tempo shifts throughout provide welcome pacing changes to the delivery and allows special musical moments the chance to shine.
Composer’s Notes
On September 22, 2010, eighteen-year-old Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University, died by suicide after discovering that his roommate, Dharun Ravi, and a hallmate, Molly Wei, secretly used a webcam to broadcast an encounter between Tyler and another man. Tyler’s death sparked nationwide outrage, kindled a national discussion about bullying of LGBTQ youth and cyberbullying in general, and ultimately resulted in the creation of the Tyler Clementi Foundation (www.tylerclementi.org) by Tyler’s parents, Jane and Joseph Clementi.
Tyler’s brother James penned a series of letters to his deceased brother, which were published in Out Magazine in 2012 and which express by turns James’s bereavement and his admiration, affection, and love for Tyler. The text of “To My Brother” is drawn from these letters, and from James’s introduction to them, with certain minor adjustments to punctuation and tense for consistency.
I thank James for his kind permission in allowing me to set his beautiful words to music, and Jane and Joseph Clementi for their support of this collaboration. I am also grateful to Ilene Wong, who adapted and arranged James’s words into poetic form.
– J.G.
Text
I was browsing at the newsstand and I saw you.
I always do –
a brief glimpse at a life with none of the detail.
I’m not sure when I first realized
the rainbow-colored elephant;
it was just something we left dangling
in the air, unsaid –
an unbreakable barrier.
I never really told you how much I admired you.
I always thought that, between us, you were the stronger one.
When I was biking a mile, you were unicycling two.
Where I was shy, you were fearless.
When I imagined your future, I saw the world at your feet.
You were one noisy kid.
I remember walking inside
and the most beautiful sounds of Tchaikovsky and Mozart
would waft through every room.
It is so quiet now.
You were youth,
potential just beginning to unfold.
You were beauty,
fleeting and marvelous.
I know there was pain, and I’m sorry for that,
but you were joy, too.
You were never alone; it just felt like it.
You were so easy to love,
with your kind eyes and gentle heart.
You will always be my sweet, tender little brother.
Your voice,
your smile,
tiny hands clinging to mine.
I will never let go.
– James Clementi
$1.80 per licensed PDF
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.