works

8:46AM, Five Years Later



Info:

8:46 AM, Five Years Later
scored for: baritone and piano
duration: 4 minutes
text: Matthew Hittinger

Commissioned by/Premiere:

Five Boroughs Music Festival (commission and world premiere)
Jesse Blumberg, artistic director
David Adam Moore, baritone / Jocelyn Dueck, piano
October 6, 2012 / Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn NY

Watch/Listen:

8:46AM, Five Years Later
Jesse Blumberg (baritone), Jocelyn Dueck (piano)
from the 5 Borough Songbook Album
purchase from iTunes here

About the work:

8:46AM, Five Years Later was part of the Five Boroughs Songbook project, which commissioned 20 songs from 20 different New York-based conposers to wrtie about the city we call home. When asked to contribute a song, I knew the text would come from my friend, poet and Astoria resident, Matthew Hittinger. Though I never imagined I'd write a piece referring to a tragic moment in the early fall of 2001 - in fact I'd wanted to do nothing of the kind - Matthew's poem 8:46AM, Five Years Later pulled me in. Perhaps because the poem, layered and subtle like so many of his texts are, is not really a "9/11 poem". Matthew's gift is the ability to communicate both the immediacy and universality of an experience. In this case, the anxiety within all of us at can unexpectedly surface when a train delay breaks us from the rhythm of a morning commute. More about poet Matthew Hittinger