About half these tracks are from a practice in October 2015, the last practice I attended with Bam Bam. The others are from a live, outdoor gig we had in July. They aren't mastered and were recorded on a handheld recorder. Bam Bam is the drummer on all these tracks.

10 Last Shall Be First

9 M&M's

8 Chemical Valley

7 Ticky Tockin'

6 Cry To Me

5 Blue Heart

4 I Didn't Do It

3 Sweep Time Away

2 Take It From Me

1 Puffed Away

The first piece in a three-piece set for solo female voice. Each piece sets a poem by Emily Dickinson to music (the title of the piece is the same as the first line of the poem). 

Each poem that comprises the lyrics for this set of pieces has a common theme: death. The first poem (presented here) treats death hypothetically, as a metaphor. In the second poem, the speaker is actually experiencing the act of dying during the course of the poem. The third poem deals with the grieving process that happens after death, or after a loss.

The first two pieces, which deal with death as a future event and death in the present, respectively, did not end up in any particular key. They are very difficult to sing, and they are very difficult to listen to because they do not have the underlying key basis that most songs have. The reason they don't have that key basis is that they are meant to be a little disturbing. The final piece does have a key center. It is much calmer and much easier to listen to. The idea is that after the loss actually happens, the grieving process is a way to settle into the idea that you've lost something. There is no more anxiety about future strain, and the stress of the event fades into the past.

Performed by Colette Unger (voice) and Sarah Mahler Hughes (piano), 2008.

Full poem by Emily Dickinson:

There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons --
That oppresses, like the Heft 
Of Cathedral Tunes --

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us --
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are --

None may teach it -- Any --
'Tis the Seal Despair --
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air --

When it comes, the Landscape listens --
Shadows -- hold their breath --
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death --

There's a certain Slant of light

Kelsey Verde

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