Can You Touch the Sky?
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In the early 2000s’s I was appalled at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, so-called extrajudicial renderings, torture, and inhumane treatment of human beings that was being done in the name of our country. I composed “Can You Touch the Sky” in 2008 as a reaction to how state-sponsored cruelty had infected our political and moral sensibilities. “Can you touch the sky?” is an allusion to our imperative to have compassion for other human beings. Of course, since 2008, this song has become a chilling testament to the extrajudicial killings and detentions of people of color at the hands of law enforcement in our nation. I imagine Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Ahmaud Abrey, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Daunte Wright and countless others facing immanent death, pleading for answers to the questions posed in this song.
Lyrics in the first and last, most tonal parts of “Can You Touch The Sky”, are layered. Different voices sing similar, but different things. The intention is for a collage of words that cause various meanings to emerge out of a dream-like texture. The rhythmic, less tonal, sections are intended to be stark and relentless. “Can You Touch The Sky?” is dedicated to all human beings who suffer cruelty at the indifferent hands of other human beings. This composition is for mixed vocal quartet or mixed chorus. Tonality - 85%
Difficulty - Moderate Mendocino College Monday Night Singers • Janice Hawthorne Timm, Director December 6, 2021
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Can You Touch the Sky? Can you touch the sky? Can you touch the sky? Can you feel it? (Can you feel it in the wind?) Can you hold it in your thoughts? (Can you hold it in your hand... in your thoughts?) Hold onto me. I'm there. And in the closet of your pain; when no one is there, (Can you find me?) Can you always find your way? Can you touch the sky? Look now. Can you see a million stars; (When you look into the night can you see?) In your eyes and sing now. All of us part of a great song written long ago. Can you hear me? Hear me! When willows weep and snow falls into eyes Already wet with pain; wintry fingers call from the dark - Hasten you to follow deep into the night. Even then, can you touch the sky? Can you touch the sky? We have all known a thousand reasons to fear; A hundred wonderful ways to turn from each other... Hurt one another, and refuse the most simple comfort - A simple comfort! Even then, can you touch the sky? (Hear me?) Can you touch the sky? Can you touch the sky? Can you feel it? (Can you feel it in the wind?) Can you hold it in your thoughts? (Can you hold it in your hand when no one is there?) Hold onto me. I'm there. Can you always find your way? Can you touch the sky? Can you touch the sky? |
