capable of anything
1. peace
2. joy
3. justice
4. tomorrow
for TTBB and chamber ensemble (fl/cl/pno/set/vln/vc/db)
In 2015, I was asked by the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus to write something for their upcoming tour of Israel and Turkey. You can find out more about that work, peace, here. A few months after I completed work on it, I got another phone call from the organization asking if they could take me along and have me be a musical stenographer of sorts for their momentous tour—the first LGBT chorus in the United States to undertake something like that—and of course I said ‘yes.’ What followed was nearly three weeks on the road spent seeing the sites with the choir, watching them put on concerts, interviewing them about their journeys and, ultimately, just being really, really inspired by music’s ability to gently cross so many geographic, personal, emotional, and political borders.
What I saw and took part in on that tour turned out to be lifechanging in a way I struggle to find words to express; the chorus visited some of the oldest sites in the western culture in Jerusalem, raised money for local LGBT folks in need by putting on a concert, witnessed the passage of marriage equality in the faraway United States at the steps of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and then, just a few days later, got turned away en masse from the Istanbul Pride parade blocks before they got to the tear gas and firehoses deployed by the homophobic president of Turkey to break up the parade.
The resulting work, capable of anything, is a testament to their bravery, ingenuity, and joy. The first movement is an orchestrated version of the original work they asked me to write for the tour, peace, followed by an observation one of the chorus members told me in an interview as we floated in the Dead Sea about how, despite all our differences, “everyone floats here.” The third movement, justice, comes from a testimony which uses Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s words from the Obergefell v. Hodges decision about how, thousands of miles away, the choir and I learned that marriage equality had come to our home. The final movement, tomorrow, is a summing up of the previous three.
capable of anything received its premiere March 16, 2016 by the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (Reuben M. Reynolds, III, conductor). Watch their premiere performance of the work after returning from their tour of Israel and Turkey and read the texts below.
Performed by the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus
(Reuben M. Reynolds, III, conductor).
The Texts
1. peace
Adapted from anonymous responses by members of the commissioning ensemble.
I was at peace when I looked in your eyes.
I was at peace when I left a bad job.
I was at peace when I didn’t feel guilty.
I was at peace only when I wasn’t sober.
I was at peace when I was in nature.
I was at peace when I beheld the stars.
I was at peace when I crossed the Charles and the view is the one thing that never gets old.
I was at peace when I finished college.
I was at peace when I stood up for what was right.
I was at peace when I got sober the second time.
I was at peace when you were born.
I was at peace when I first held our baby girl.
I was at peace when I saw myself through my son’s eyes.
I was at peace when the nurse told me he’s breathing on his own.
I was at peace when I kissed him for the first time.
I was at peace when I held my son’s hand in the incubator before he died.
I was at peace when I could finally let go.
I was at peace when I had faith.
I was at peace after fasting and prayer.
I was at peace when I felt God’s answer.
I was at peace when I chanted the Torah.
I was at peace when I prayed to Jesus.
I was at peace when I chanted the Quran.
I was at peace when I learned my truth.
I was at peace when I told my mom that I was an atheist.
I was at peace when she told me she loved me.
I was at peace when she passed as I sang to her.
I was at peace when I finished her eulogy.
I was at peace when I finally let go.
I was at peace when I found others like me.
I was at peace when they helped me to see.
I was at peace when I realized it wasn’t my fault.
When I looked in the mirror and finally liked who I saw, I was at peace.
I was at peace when I didn’t burn dinner and you asked for seconds.
I was at peace when we watched movies together.
I was at peace when I realized how much my family loves you.
I was at peace when I heard your laugh.
I was at peace when you read aloud to me every night.
I was at peace even though we had that fight.
I was at peace when I slept in your arms.
I was at peace when I woke up next to you.
I was at peace when I knew he could never hit me again.
I was at peace when I found the courage to walk away.
I was at peace when you decided not to leave.
I was at peace when you asked me to stay.
I was at peace when I let go of the past.
I was at peace when I forgave myself.
I was at peace when I realized I mattered.
I was at peace when realized I didn’t have to be anything more than who I am.
I was at peace when I realized we are all more alike than different.
I was at peace.
2. joy
Text adapted from an interview with choir member Jason Frankel
The Dead Sea.
Sand and salt and mud and
Hills in every direction.
But those aren't hills.
You are in one of the deepest places on Earth.
A giant pit.
You can only go up from there.
There, at one of the lowest places in all of the world,
My brothers and I floated effortlessly;
Giddy from weightlessness.
Boys again, for a moment.
A place like that can teach you if you let it.
At a beach
You tend to notice
Just how different everyone is.
Fat,
Thin,
Tall,
Short,
Hairy,
Smooth,
Young and old,
Arab and Israeli,
And every beautiful shade in between.
For a place with such a lifeless name, it is very much alive.
Laughing and splashing and smiling and floating in every language imaginable.
A muddy Pentecost bobbing in the brine.
But that's just it.
Everyone floats in the Dead Sea.
3. justice
Text by Joshua Shank, with excerpts from Justice Kennedy’s decision in the Obergefell v. Hodges case argued in front of the Supreme Court of the United States
June 26, 2015. Istanbul, Turkey.
Standing outside of a massive church.
Tourists, and cameras, and sunlight, and noise.
There was a British man next to us, asking about a “judge named SCOTUS.”
And then, thousands of miles away from our homes, we knew.
What followed changed some of our lives forever.
Some of us it changed very little, and some it may never change at all.
But that day.
That clear morning on the steps of the Sancta Sophia,
We heard what had happened and then walked into a church dedicated
To the thing that had just descended on our home:
Holy Wisdom.
---------------------------
Marriage is sacred to those who make it so.
Two people finding a life that could not be found alone,
Rising from our most profound hopes and aspirations
To something greater than they once were.
Not just a “him” and a “him” or a “her” and a “her.”
The highest ideals of fidelity.
The highest ideals of devotion, of accord, sacrifice, and family.
The embodiment of a love that may endure even past death.
Our hope was not to be condemned to live in loneliness,
Excluded from one of civilization's oldest gifts.
Equal dignity in the eyes of the law.
Not just for them, but for us, and for all.
It is so ordered.
4. tomorrow
Lyrics by the Joshua Shank and Robert Ressler (b. 1988)
We’re capable of justice, as fierce as it needs to be.
It may take a little patience, but every tree it starts with a seed.
Justice should always be done, though the heavens they may fall for some.
Hearts and minds they change one by one.
And before you knew you could win it,
It’s won.
We’re capable of joy, it makes life worth the living,
Sometimes it’s not a choice. Sometimes it takes forgiving.
You’ll find a truth to live in. Families can be chosen or given.
They may say that it’s not allowed,
But before you thought you’d find it,
It’s found.
You’re capable of peace. It comes from within.
Every storm one day will cease, but you have to ride out the winds.
The search for peace can sometimes come with pain.
But flowers don’t grow without a little rain.
I swear, you’re not alone, You’re not the only one.
And because you tried to begin it,
It’s begun.
You’re capable of tomorrow. Maybe you knew it all along.
Through the heartache and sorrow. Through the right and through the wrong,
Just go forward and face your day.
Bring this song with you in you own way.
Your future’s vast. You can be anyone.
And before you thought you could do it,
It’s done!
Trailer for the first movement, “peace”.
Trailer for the second movement, “joy”.
Trailer for the third movement, “justice”.
Trailer for the fourth movement, “tomorrow”.