commissioned by 113 Composers Collective

One’s musical limits, corporeal limits, and limits of intimacy are involved in an ever-evolving and unstable dialogue. Two vocalists occupy two agendas, where one is self-determined, not wanting to compromise a clear identity, and the other decidedly unpredictable and self-expansive, craving the ether. Undergirded and occupied by their instrumental counterparts, (being the contents of their sounds), both vocalists gradually separate from their instruments and evaporate. Guillaume de Machaut’s “Sanctus” from Messe de Notre Dame, an intimate relic of the past, remains as the most indispensable element, a dusting of love. 

Special thanks to my husband, Pablo Chin, for the music box and his tireless inscription of “Sanctus.”