Mark Adamo: Same Train - SATB A Cappella

Composed for Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare, the composer writes: Same Train in many arrangements seems to sing of good news coming. But - maybe it was the relentlessness, the conclusiveness of the title phrase - I wondered if what was coming might actually have been a funeral train: coming for our sister, our mother, and soon enough for us too. I thought of so many other spirituals which sing about dark truths in bright music, and wondered if I couldn't use the imitative, ch-ch-train ostinato to honour that willfully smiling aspect of the piece, while also freeing the harmonies to make audible the more disconsolate feelings underneath.

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