“rising sun, you (solstice),” “glimpse you,” and “we weathered winter (silence & shouting)” are three poems featuring descriptions of winter and thawing by South Carolina poet Paul L. Thomas. Life is lived in cycles, like the seasons. The word “promise” and variations of “long” (long, longer, longing) strike me as a subtle understanding of the deep power of memory and the deep hold of nostalgia. An entire year can pass with vivid connotations to each seasonal affection and somehow that remembrance is a mere glimpse of the actual lived experience.
The poems were modified from their original formats to fit the structure of the individual movements using the text as inspiration to determine form: “rising sun” is transformed with the structure of a pop song (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus), “glimpse you” is meditative and spiraling, using only fragments of the original poem, and “we weathered winter” emphasizes the first-person plural of the text to blossom into a triumphant duet of resilience and hope.
So often in poetry and music the season of winter is maligned as dark and brooding. Paul Thomas encourages a different approach, one that opens the idea of the winter season to the possibility of what’s to come.

Written for and dedicated to the University of South Carolina School of Music in celebration of the 100th anniversary.
Performed live in the University of South Carolina School of Music Recital Hall by:
Dominic Armstrong, tenor
Ashley Emerson, soprano
Ari Streisfeld, violin
William Terwilliger, violin
Douglas Temples, viola
Claire Bryant, cello
Jeff Francis, audio engineer

Text appears with permission from the poet. To read more of Paul’s poetry, please visit: https://plthomasselectedpoetry.wordpr...

For biographical information, to contact the composer, or to submit a program from a performance, please visit www.rachellwhelan.com or [email protected]