Opus 1332

The Door (2019)

for SATB Chorus, Oboe, and Piano

Text by Jane Hirshfield

Duration: 4.5 min.

Dedication: for the installation of the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Landrum, May 5, 2019

Commission: Commissioned by the First Parish Church of Acton and Stow, Mike Pfitzer, music director

Publisher: Zimbel Press/Subito Music Corp.

Performance materials available from the publisher.

The Door
Jane Hirshfield

A note waterfalls steadily
through us,
just below hearing.

Or this early light
streaming through dusty glass:
what enters, enters like that,
unstoppable gift.

And yet there is also the other,
the breath-space held between any call
and its answer—

In the querying
first scuff of footstep,
the wood owls’ repeating,
the two-counting heart:

A little sabbath,
minnow whose brightness silvers past time.

The rest-note,
unwritten,
hinged between worlds,
that precedes change and allows it.

“The Door” by Jane Hirshfield from The October Palace (NY: HarperCollins, 1994); Copyright © 1994 Jane Hirshfield