Length: 6'04"

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Composition Date: 2016

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Commissioned: by Choral Canada for the National Youth Choir 2016, Michael Zaugg conductor.

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Premiered: Winspear Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on May 20, 2016 as part of the 2016 Podium Festival.

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Text by Rayanne Doucet

from her poem I Hear Winter

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There is a sound winter carries on the wind.

And it is deafening in the silence

of this frozen season.

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There is a sound to frost as it brushes my fingers.

There is a sound to soil as it burrows

in and succumbs to the snow that falls from above.

There is a sound to sun as it touches your skin.

Crisp, alert; ready for rebirth.

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I hear winter hunch her shoulders

and curl into night.

I listen to trees as they groan

under the weight of the snow,

and sigh into the depth of winter.

I can hear willows talk while

turning from young green teenager

to Grandfather in his rocking chair.

Leafless branches shaking gnarled fingers into the cold.

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I hear human sounds.

Gortex jackets rubbing on Gortex ski pants.

Snowball battle cries.

Toboggan collisions.

Crunching boots on frigid ground.

Winter hearts beating loudly;

Taking cues from converted willows,

and two stepping with Old Man Winter.

I hear the ski hill roaring out his glory

in tune with snowboarders on his back.

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I hear children building snow forts;

mini architects directing skyscrapers.

I hear parent’s fingers squeaking on chocolate cups.

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There is a sound as icicles form around the fog of your breath

There is a sound to air, tightening our skin

There is a sound to winter as it inhales.

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Score Excerpt