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in Strand’s “White” — the most harrowing of the set — a pilgrimage through mid-life is conveyed by a self-transposing ground bass that underpins the music’s ever-shifting tonality, ever-thickening counterpoint and ever-rising register as the voice wends its way through the foreboding text. The bass line is transformed into a series of dodecaphonic vocal constellations at the words, “And out of my waking…” — a moment of revelation, universality and freedom.

lyrics

WHITE

Now in the middle of my life
all things are white.
I walk under the trees,
the frayed leaves,
the wide net of noon,
and the day is white.
And my breath is white,
drifting over the patches
of grass and fields of ice
into the high circles of light.
As I walk, the darkness of
my steps is also white,
and my shadow blazes
under me. In all seasons
the silence where I find myself
and what I make of nothing are white,
the white of sorrow,
the white of death.
Even the night that calls
like a dark wish is white;
and in my sleep as I turn
in the weather of dreams
it is the white of my sheets
and the white shades of the moon
drawn over my floor
that save me for morning.
And out of my waking
the circle of light widens,
it fills with trees, houses,
stretches of ice.
It reaches out. It rings
the eye with white.
All things are one.
All things are joined
even beyond the edge of sight.

Mark Strand
(1934-2014)

“White” by Mark Strand. Copyright © Mark Strand, used with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC. All rights reserved.

credits

from The White Album, released December 16, 2021

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Mark Kilstofte

Mark Kilstofte is admired as a composer of lyrical line, expert text setting and keen sensitivity to sound, shape and event – qualities stemming in part from his many years of vocal study. Winner of the Rome Prize, his honors also include ASCAP’s Rudolf Nissim Award, the Copland House Residency Award and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. ... more

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