Sometimes We Talk Past Each Other

SATB choir & string quartet
7:24 approx.

 

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Sometimes We Talk Past Each Other is a commentary on our inability and oftentimes unwillingness to hear perspectives that do not align with our own. We have become so polarized as a soceity that even when we do have conversations, it is a struggle to find a middle ground that everyone can agree on. Individual, unwavering opinions have become the hill we choose to die on.

Musically, I tried to represent “talking past each other” by textures that start homophonically but eventually fray apart from each other. The call and response between the choir and string quartet mimics a conversation, often echoing themes from each other that are recolored or reinterpreted—mirroring the fact that people from both sides often want the same thing but have vastly different approaches in trying to achieve it.

This work was commissioned by Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson, artistic director. The world premiere was given in Austin, Texas by Conspirare and the Miro String Quartet in October 2022.

Sometimes We Talk Past Each Other

 

Sometimes we talk past each other
Other times it’s the same.
Other times it’s equal sounds
Other times it is round and round

Other times it’s maybes
Other times amazed
Other times it’s another time
Other times not made

Sometimes I wish your wishes were like mine
Finding another like our kind
Where we are from both sides
Forgetting about the right times… 

Sometimes we talk past each other
Before a sound unfolds
Let not this passing be a passing
And be one of our soul.

–James Patrick Satcher