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Dale Trumbore
Dale Trumbore
The Piano Tuner (SATB)
As a piano is tuned, we reflect on the idea of our own transformation—what are we in the process of becoming?
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The Piano Tuner
SATB Chorus & Piano
This piece imagines the sound of a piano being tuned turning into an unintentional song. The chorus spins those sounds of tuning into melodies, bending pitches and using the tuning as a metaphor for their own personal transformation.
Composer’s Notes
This piece sets a text by Dale Trumbore and was commissioned by the Miami University Men’s Glee Club, Jeremy Jones, Conductor. The SATB arrangement was premiered by the Macalester College Concert Choir, Michael McGaghie, Conductor.
Text
Well-worn tones you’ve lived with for months
suddenly stand at attention,
every interval back in tune,
sharp-edged, fresh and still.
You try to make a song from the tuning,
the same note twice, and then six more times;
a third, fourth, fifth spiraled endlessly upward.
As the tuner strikes the same key,
the same key indefinitely,
we sit silently in another room,
we who have been trying for months
to turn into better versions of ourselves.
We huddle together as each note turns brighter.
We barely speak. We don’t dare disturb
the becoming that rings in the air.
—Dale Trumbore
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