Stars In Your Bones

Poet/Lyricist: 

Alla Bozarth

"Stars In Your Bones" was composed as a gift to Aurora Chorus to celebrate the ensemble as "A Place Where You Belong", the theme of its 25th Anniversary Season (2016-17).The opening chords and exuberant opening unison suggests the “big bang”— the singular explosion theorized by astronomers as the origin of our expanding universe. (black note clusters at M.1-6 and at M.64-69 are to be played with forearm and side of hand). The piano ostinato that follows beginning at M.7 consists of a 5-note 16th-note pattern over a steady quarter-note 5/4 pulse, lending an unstable, fluctuating quality to the the lyrics: “Earth changes…” As the underlying rhythm in the accompaniment settles, the lyrical quality of the setting takes hold, building toward a galvanizing, uplifting expression of “belonging.” Drawn to Alla Bozarth’s imagery and to her universal expressions of spirituality, this is the third prose poem by Bozarth set by the composer.

Level: 

Moderate
Item Voicing/Instrumentation Duration Price Audio View Score Quantity
JS-078D
licensed PDF
SSAA, piano $2.25
JS-078 digital purchase only 4:00 N/A https://joanszymko.com/sites/joanszymko.com/files/audio_samples/06%20Stars%20in%20Your%20Bones.mp3

Audio Credits: 

Western Washington University Advanced Women's Choir, Tim Fitzpatrick, director
Text

Belonging

by Alla Bozarth

The small plot of ground

on which you were born

cannot be expected

to stay forever

the same.

Earth changes,

and home becomes different

places.

You took flesh

from clay

but the clay

did not come

from just one 

place.

To feel alive,

important, and safe,

know your own waters

and hills, but know

more.

You have stars in your bones

and oceans

in blood.

You have opposing

terrain in each eye

you belong to the land

and sky of your first cry,

you belong to infinity.