O now the drenched land wakes (2007)
for double choir [4:30]

“O now the drenched land wakes” stretches a nine-line poem by Kenneth Patchen over five minutes, with varying levels of “zoom” on the simple text. Some words are repeated, turning in circles, or reduced to phonemes, smeared with expressive glissandi, while in other passages straightforward homophonic declamation advances the action. 
 

The piece is scored for double choir, with the second choir often providing a virtuosic counterpoint that shades the long harmonies of the first, for a maximum of textural variety. Composed throughout 2006, with my hometown of New Orleans in the first stages of recovery from its devastating flood, it can also be heard as a stark memorial.

“O now the drenched land wakes” was commissioned by the Providence Singers with a grant from National Endowment for the Arts and premiered March 4, 2007 in Providence with Andrew Clark conducting.

O now the drenched land wakes;
Birds from their sleep call
Fitfully, and are still.
Clouds like milky wounds
Float across the moon.

O love, none may
Turn away long
From this white grove
Where all nouns grieve.
[Kenneth Patchen]