Secular

Choral score

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Note:

Writing a piece for Akademiska Damkören Lyran was a treat. They had recorded my piece “And I Saw” so well, so I knew they had the chops. But this text was so different. Setting Julia Klatt Singer’s “Born Into a Fairy Tale” was a journey into familiarity, into warmth, into honor, and a small bit of grief. Comparing a life to any of those found in fairy tales we find that although we were given none of the common fairy tale tropes (both good and bad), our mother has instead given us the only thing we really need at the beginning of our lives - love.

- Timothy C. Takach, 2018

Text:

I came into this world
knowing nothing but her voice.

No needle pricked my skin
no curse upon my head
no apple to bite (although I would) 
no prince charming, 
no fleet of men mining for my keep.

It’s only me, watching this cold rain fall, 
Trying to remember
the spill of her laugh
the color of her lips.

No kiss, no dragon, no
frog, no drink, no mirror, no bed. 
No window barred--
my hair braided—but not tossed 
for climbing. No moat
to swim, no seed to plant.

Only me, watching this cold rain fall, 
Trying to remember
the spill of her laugh,
the color of her lips.

I cannot blink away
the image of her dead.
Picture myself, my August self 
Sitting by her side.
Picture myself there,
Morning glorious, the sun that fell 
golden on her bed.

I came into this world
knowing nothing but her voice, 
the beat of her heart,
the curve and strength of her arms. 
I came into this world
knowing nothing
but her love.

- Julia Klatt Singer
- Commissioned for this piece. Used with permission.