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Timothy C. Takach
Timothy C. Takach Publications
Before We Get Dusty (from “Where Beauty Comes From”)
Children’s hospital patients’ words are a fun yet poignant view on living life to its fullest.
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Where Beauty Comes From
SSAA, piano
Written in collaboration with poet Julia Klatt Singer and the Children’s Hospital of Minneapolis and St. Paul, “Before We Get Dusty” sets the words and thoughts of patients from the Children’s Hospital as choral music. Bouncy, energetic lines and lyrics are contrasted with more subdued pleas to leave the walls of the hospital. The words are a clear window into the minds and thoughts of children – worthy to discuss in the rehearsal space.
Composer’s Notes
In 2010, poet Julia Klatt Singer and I spent time talking with some of the patients at the Children’s Hospital of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Our project was to listen to their words and stories, and create music from their experiences. One of the visits took Julia into the play room, where the patients had unstructured free time. The energy in the room was palpable. When you think about a child in a hospital, the first image you see is probably the hospital bed with it’s tubes, machines, generic art on the walls. But we forget that in most ways these kids are just regular kids. The text of this movement contrasts the energy of the patients with their desire to leave the hospital and get back to their regular lives.
– Timothy C. Takach
Text
I wish I had some bubble wrap
To pop with my feet
Want to jump, poke holes in paper
When it’s you, visiting me.
Feeling shy and thank you
Did you know my insides glow?
I swim like a fish, I dance like the wind
In the banana tree leaves.
I like pushing things
I like fighting and watching tv
I wish right now I was a bug
Climbing up your knee.
We’ll leave before we get dusty
We’ll run and climb every tree
Maybe tomorrow we’ll find some answers
Maybe we’ll all turn into bees.
I like to laugh and play with my grandpa,
I like ants in my p.j.s.
Do you wish you were a ball,
could roll and bounce off the walls with me?
I wish I was a builder
I’d build a house we’d decorate
With books and tickets, with money and dogs
With stickers and popsicle sticks.
On the ceiling we’ll find thoughts
Drifting and changing like the day,
We’ll lie on our backs and watch them
gather and carry our fears away.
We’ll leave before we get dusty
We’ll run and climb every tree
Maybe tomorrow we’ll find some answers
Maybe tomorrow we’ll leave.
Maybe tomorrow.
Maybe.
– Julia Klatt Singer (2010)
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