TTBB
SATB with Piano
4’20”
truth
"Truth is a new setting of a poem by Stephen Crane, entitled, "XXVIII, 'Truth,' said a traveller." The work is a consideration of how truth, and the search for truth, have become somewhat nebulous in our lives. Those things we believe to be wholly true are often sanitized for our "benefit". Truth requires complexity and openness, which is what Crane expresses in the poem. Truth is a "shadow, a phantom.""
In my life, I’ve come to associated this piece with my own personal accountability. I try to look back on the past with honesty and vulnerability, and own up to my mistakes, so as to blossom into the future.
““Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;
“Often have I been to it,
“Even to its highest tower,
“From whence the world looks black.”
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a breath, a wind,
“A shadow, a phantom;
“Long have I pursued it,
“But never have I touched
“The hem of its garment.”
And I believed the second traveller;
For truth was to me
A breath, a wind,
A shadow, a phantom,
And never had I touched
The hem of its garment.”