Program Notes
Cold. Alone. Everyone promises that everything will be ok. With well-intentioned lies they rob me of the ability to truly grieve. Numb. I go on, despite tragedy, waiting for everything to return to normal until one day I am told the hard truth… that nothing will ever be ok again. But the damage had already been done. You see, the passage of time had dried the ink of the lies I thought were true. Now a part of me is doomed to wait for a sunrise I now know will never come.
Performance Tips
Like Invention 1 it is important to let the moments flow together. Despite the dark subtext, Invention 2 is not gloomy or dramatic. It is the cold reality of loss as it is in the real world and what happens when the natural grieving process is interfered with.
Moments (Music Gestures)
A young mind tries to make sense of what the roomful of tearful adults just said. She is gone… (m. 1)
They promise that if he’s good God will bring her back and they’ll be together again very, very soon. (m. 9)
Sad but hopeful, he soldiers on, hoping each passing day is the one that she comes back. (m. 14)
The truth is revealed by a new adult voice. (m. 21)
The boy now knows that she is truly gone. Despite this, every time the door opens he looks up expecting to see her standing there. (m. 24)