Quietness for mixed choir and string quartet (2019)

Quietness was one of those few works that I have now and then that transforms from an idea to a finished product in about a day or two. It pulls its text from 13th-century Iranian poet, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, and was inspired by American composer Ben Johnston’s own setting of the text. This version features a full SATB choir and string quartet, and employs strong elements of minimalism, as well as a few short sections where the strings play alone.

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone
suddenly born into color.
Do it now.

You’re covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet.

Quietness is the surest sign
that you have died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.

The speechless full moon
comes out now.