bring me your silence
for TAK Ensemble
Though there is no explicit text in this score, the piece is based around Anna Świrszczyńska’s poem, Our Two Silences. Here is the translation by Czeslaw Milosz and Leondard Nation in the collection, Talking to My Body:
Silence flows into me and out of me washing my past away. I am pure already, waiting for you. Bring me your silence.
They will doze off nestled in each other’s arms, our two silences.
The piece takes the line, “Bring me/your silence” as an explicit directive — a musical gesture that I explore throughout this score. I am hoping to find comfort and fragility in the liminal spaces between silence, utterance, and dialogue. Silence, in my interpretation, is political, oppressive, and liberating.
Seare Ahmad Farhat 