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B.E. Boykin

B.E. Boykin (Brittney Boykin) is a native of Alexandria, Virginia. After graduating from Spelman College in 2011 with a B.A. in Music, Ms. Boykin continued her studies at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey. She continued to compose music during her time at Westminster and was awarded the R & R...

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Klavia Press (B.E. Boykin)

i am

Name: i am
SKU: KP0021
Availability: InStock

Rooted and rising.

Difficulty: 3

Duration: 3-5 min.

KP0021

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for SSA div. choir and piano

i am is a meditative and striking treble choir work that sets Brittny Ray Crowell’s vivid poem Intermission of Aether and Earthe, inspired by Alison Saar’s painting of the same name. Rooted in imagery of bark, breath, waiting, and becoming, the piece invites singers into a sonic landscape where stillness carries power and anticipation gives way to creation. With richly textured choral writing and a sense of suspended time, i am invites treble ensembles into a world of embodiment, patience, and emergence

Text

i am bark brown in the saffron aether
my body whittled into whorls
textured by teeth of small crawling things
and i am waiting
like a god in repose that i am
a crown of cypress burls blossoming from my hair
and i am waiting
and the flowers shoot through the cypress into the aether
and still i am
waiting on my side arm propped to face
impatiently waiting for a world to break
through the yellow ether
waiting
to birth
for the morning to midwife
an eclipse
of fresh
earth