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About the Composer
Timothy C. Takach
Timothy C. Takach Publications
Cassiopeia
A moving tribute to a mother lost to cancer. Melodic and intimate 3-part writing, organic harmonic shifts.
SSA a cappella
Some things are hard to talk about. “Cassiopeia” has a text about losing a loved one to cancer and singers can inhabit it, can mourn with it, can access their own memories and relationships through it. The 3-part treble writing is subtle in it’s movement but powerful in the larger harmonic shifts throughout. Singers will connect with the music and words immediately, and will most likely count this as a highlight in their program.
Composer’s Notes
One thing that struck me while writing this is the intimacy of the scene in the poem and the non-intimate setting of a large choir. So I wrote that intimacy into the piece. The cast of characters is small – the poet, her sister and their mother. The piece has 3 voices – SSA, with no divisi. It’s a cappella, to draw attention to these voices. There’s no interruptions from other instruments. This idea of 3 comes into play in another way as well. The wordless section that opens the piece is sung 3 times throughout the piece. In this section, the counterpoint of the voices mirrors life – sometimes we need to lean on others for support, and in other times we need to be the support.
My hope is that this piece is sung with great emotional intent, and comes across as honest. It amazes me how many are at most only a few degrees removed from someone who has suffered from a form of cancer. Being able to tell this story, to sing these words out loud, should give singers a sense of amazing power – it’s hard to talk about these things out loud, in person. But when we’re surrounded by like-minded amazing people, it becomes a bit easier, doesn’t it?
– Timothy C. Takach
Text
My sister washes as I rinse and dry.
Looking out the window, all I can see
is in, the scene behind me,
table, now clear, our mother
sitting in a chair, hands like
small birds, flutter in her lap.
The light above the table, its harsh
rings of gold glint off the wood’s surface.
I wonder if there are stars tonight—
the days thick clouds blown south
by a Canadian wind. Wonder too
what wish she’d make, if she could make one.
I am beyond wishing, dry the last glass instead.
Want to bargain with time, with cancer, offer
whatever it’ll take to keep her here
with us at her side, we walk to the porch
stars so low we can hold them in our hands
stars to make a thousand wishes on
there, she says, is Cassiopeia. And there
the Archer. I try to take comfort in their names,
these constellations she’s pointed out to me
all my life. Try not to hate that they’ll
still be here, on the darkest of nights,
when she no longer is.
– Julia Klatt Singer
$1.60 per licensed PDF
Music from Timothy C. Takach Publications
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Even in My Time
Difficulty: 2Duration: less than 3 min. -
The Longest Nights (String Parts)
Difficulty: 3Duration: 10–20 min. -
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