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Katerina Gimon
Katerina Gimon
In Her Image
A celebration of sisterhood and individuality within a collective.
SSAA a cappella, with divisi
At its core, “In Her Image” is a celebration of sisterhood as well as an exploration of individuality within a collective. Mirroring the text written by poet Lauren Peat and the journey of self-discovery it describes, the music evokes a sense of curiosity, longing, reflection, and continual growth – with folk-like melodies, interweaving lines, and gradual textural transformation.
The music and text of “In Her Image” were commissioned by Canadian women’s choral ensemble Sirens for their debut album Boundless released on November 13, 2020.
Composer’s Notes
Note from the composer:
Mirroring the poem and the journey it describes, through the music I tried to evoke a sense of curiosity, longing, and at times, uneasiness. To convey this, as the piece unfolds it explores a number of musical ideas and textures, all the while with a steady growing sense of unease underneath (as the search for “her image” continues). Eventually, she sees a glimpse of what she has been searching for somewhere unexpected. The music then begins to shift and settle as she discovers “her image” quite close to where she began her journey.
– Katerina Gimon
Note from the poet:
Every choir is by definition a collective, and therefore a community—of voices, of course, but also of personalities and occupations, of pasts, presents, and futures. A community, in short, of stories. The beauty of every choir, I think, lies in this fundamental contradiction: that it exists as both “one voice” and “many voices.” In Her Image is at once a celebration of sisterhood and an exploration of what it means to be a unison of “one” and “many.”
As with most of my writing, I had to walk through this poem in order to arrive at its ending; I too had to move through the garden, the glade, and the waterfall, in order to settle into the idea that togetherness is, perhaps, less a quest than an acknowledgment of what is already.
–Lauren Peat
Text
I caught a glimpse of her image in my garden,
and for weeks tilled sand, silt, and soil, losing myself
to the earth—still I could not root her there.
I caught a glimpse of her image in a nearby glade;
for hours I rushed past the thin limbs of trees, confusing
my breath with their whispering: you will never reach her there.
I rushed as far as a far-off cataract, and caught a silver
glimpse of her image there. How many times my arms parted
its waters—relentless waters that declined to release her there.
I caught a glimpse of her image in a fountain;
with a frantic hand I split the stillness to retrieve her there.
I had all but lost her image, when something in me
settled, then glanced back—
as if it were simply this she had been waiting for.
Or as if I too had waited, and been patient there.
— Lauren Peat
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