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Racing the Moon (SATB)
Naomi LaViolette
Celebrate life as an ongoing communal dance and song, rather than a competition to be won or lost.
for SATB choir and piano
Naomi LaViolette’s compositions have been performed worldwide in professional, amateur, sacred and scholastic settings. In 2018, her piece “Melancholy Flower,” co-composed with Steven Craig Goodwin, was included in Gothic Records release of the Shadows on the Stars album by Oregon Repertory Singers, winner of the American Prize. She studied Music Theory and Composition while pursuing her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Piano Performance, and her professional work as a choral accompanist and chamber musician since 2001 greatly influences her composing. She is a published composer with Santa Barbara Music Publishing, the composer and arranger for the Oregon Symphony Lullaby Project, and the accompanist for the Oregon Repertory Singers since 2004. Her music for choirs, chamber ensembles, soloists, and orchestras reflect an authentic connection to nature, spirituality and humanity. To inquire about commissioning a work, contact Naomi through her website, www.naomilmusic.com.
“Naomi LaViolette is among the very finest musicians with whom I’ve worked during my long career. A superlative pianist and composer/arranger, Naomi is acclaimed for her musicality and is a leading figure in the artistic culture of Portland, Oregon. I am honored to be her colleague and friend.”
– Dr. Morten Lauridsen
Composer’s Notes
With text adapted from poetry by my daughter, Lucia LaViolette, the first half of “Racing The Moon” addresses the common struggles of proving oneself, getting ahead, and the angst of comparison. Through minor dissonance and regular occurrences of 2 against 3 rhythms, the music expresses the contrast of rigid striving with fluid, more circular movement. As the song gives way to a major key modulation and change to compound meter, the second half settles into a state of flow. The text invites us to focus on the present moment and participate in the exciting race of life as an ongoing communal dance and song, rather than a competition to be won or lost. Read Lucia’s full poem on the final page of the score.
-Naomi LaViolette
Text
Racing the moon
Watching from my car
Keeping time in my window
Turn left she falls behind
Turn right she’s leagues ahead
A race that’s never won, and never ends
Turn left she falls behind
Turn right she’s leagues ahead
A winless race that never ends
Night after night she gallops beside us
Peeking through stars and shrouded in silence
The moon in her climb, striving to win
Leaping ahead just to fall back again
Racing the moon
I feel like the moon
Never stopping this race
Constantly working, reaching, trying
Turn left I fall behind
Turn right I’m leagues ahead
A winless race that never ends
Always something to run to
Somebody better
Those that surround me
All are ignored
I race the sky, night after night
All I can see is what I could be
I feel like the moon
Racing the moon
Join in the dance, join in the song
Waxing and waning she pulls us along
No one will win, no one will lose
Racing the moon
I’m learning how
there only is now
Racing the moon
-Adapted from poetry by Lucia LaViolette
$1.95 per licensed PDF
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