Be Still

“Be Still” is born out of the soul's longing for peace –– stillness. This work seeks to embody an interwoven dialogue between self, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father. With King David's songs as inspiration, the text cycles through varying degrees of stillness while emphatically asserting God's authority and dominion over all things. 

The opening A section begins as a quiet and reflective prayer as the voice of the Holy Spirit begins stirring like a mysterious wind. The B section features an unstable additive meter with progressively layered ostinati. While the prayer remains the same, ideas of doubt, anxiousness, and worthlessness cloud the forefront of the mind, spinning and blurring a complete view of God. In this section, the repeated prayer is the only sense of security and clarity to help navigate the clashing rhythmic and melodic sonorities, symbolic of spiritual warfare tugging the mind and body in multiple directions away from God. In the C section, God's voice breaks through, asserts His omnipotence, and shatters these restless thoughts and feelings. The Holy Spirit intercedes, calms, and refocuses the soul before a plaintive meditation from the soloist guides the heart back to contemplative prayer and closes with the threefold voice of God. 

In rehearsal and performance, performers are encouraged to consider a primary distraction, struggle, or trigger that is keeping them from being still in God's divine hand. Collectively meditating on these ideas will help open the heart in order to receive the Spirit in full.