Commissioned by Volti.

Starting Places gently calls forth memories of places lived. They come sometimes as an isolated whisper, and at other times as overlapping waves of different voices. Whether these recollections are of street addresses, images, relationships, or experiences, they form the backbone of one’s identity.

Whenever an individual joins efforts in a larger ensemble, all of these small details of home contribute to a more colorful and dynamic community. Likewise, the spoken memories in this piece are deeply anchored into the musical fabric-- by means of a single word from each text. Sung vowels gradually give way to spoken texts, which open up the possibility of dream-like, whispered phrases and percussive consonants. The textual anchors from each memory are then sung alone as a final incantation:

As wild I would
Below every fire
I was mesmerized by the large house
We stayed in front In it the calm
Goodbye from a start
Looking after the vertical
We were made as one
Our neighbors in the day