Jump! (Choral Score)

The musical parameters given to me by Northfield Youth Chorus were few and open-ended, exactly the kind of commission that offers a composer both structure and freedom: a treble choir, a handful of auxiliary instruments, and the following theme: “To remember and renew.” At first I considered the sounds of history and change. Minnesota’s big woods, families, main streets, factories, wind farms… Perhaps a collage of nature, wind, voices, and machines?

As often happens, my initial idea went nowhere. It just sat there, week after week. But during that time I kept asking myself: “What comes between remembrance and renewal? What makes authentic renewal happen?”

It wasn’t until I happened to take an airplane trip that this piece finally “took off.” As I looked down at the clouds, I remembered Ray Bradbury’s pithy quote about taking risks: “Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.” Aha, I thought, that’s it! Leaps of courage! Blind faith! Guts!

In the end, I surprised myself (and the choir!) by asking the singers to sing just one word: “jump!” Within this small syllable lies a plethora of phonetic possibilities, like “j,” “uh,” “um,” and of course, the final “p.” Using only these vocal building blocks, I created a sonic landscape tracing Bradbury’s journey from solid ground to thin air, as the chorus considers, hesitates, jumps, falls — and finally flies!

-Elizabeth Alexander