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Michael Hersch

a tearing loose from matter

for 2 violins

(2022)
Duration5'
PremiereSeptember 28, 2023; Duologue Festival, New York, NY; String Noise Duo
PublisherPSNY

Media

Program Note

a tearing loose from matter is a brief, single-movement work, written over two days in late 2022. I had been considering situations requiring resilience in the face of structural detachment, issues that poet Shane McCrae often traverses in his poetry. In creating the libretto for a new opera based upon McCrae's poetry, I found myself thinking about a particular few lines, lines which I never set in the opera but that lingered nonetheless:

"... he saw the tops of the other angels’ heads before he saw their bodies                               Before he saw their hands ...
Shaking like the hands of humans when humans are pleading..."

This in turn reminded me of a line from the end of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, a book I hadn't thought about in well over 40 years:

"The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied …"

In this piece of music, the violinists are called upon to vocalize throughout. The vocalized text is from poet Jan Zwicky's book, Songs for Relinquishing the Earth:

"... where the heart lay ... nothing ... sun tumbles down”

The title of the work is a fragment from the poem The Memory of the Eye by Ioan Flora - translated into English from the Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin and Elena Barta.

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solo part and piano reduction (Digital)

solo part and piano reduction (Print)

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This price covers the minimum cost of digital copies for performance.

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Pricing reflects cost of 5 digital scores.

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Full Score/Performance Score (5 copies required for performance) (Print)

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Vocal Score Set - License for 16 copies (Digital)

Vocal Score Set - 16 copies (Print)

Score (Digital)

Score (Print)

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Full Score/Performance Score (price reflects 6 copies) (Digital)

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The full score serves as a performance score for all players. A score PDF file is delivered via email upon receipt. Any electronic files associated with the work are included with every purchase. An email containing a link to download the electronic files is sent to the customer's email address.

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A print edition of the score and part(s) ship to the customer's address upon receipt. Any electronic files associated with the work are included with every purchase. The email containing a link to download the electronic files is sent to the customer.

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A print edition of the score is shipped to the customer's address upon receipt. Any electronic files associated with the work are included with every purchase. An email containing a link to download the electronic files is sent to the customer's email address.

Full Score/Performance Score (Print)
The full score serves as a performance score for all players. Print edition(s) of the full score/performance score are shipped to the customer's address upon receipt. Multiple copies are included if the work has more than one player. Any electronic files associated with the work are included with every purchase.

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A PDF file of the choral score is delivered via email upon receipt. The set is priced to allow multiple copies of the PDF to be printed for performance by the purchasing organization only.

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Mezzo-soprano, 2 tenors, baritone score (Print)

Study Score (Print)

Study Score (Digital)

SATB choral score (Digital)

Mezzo-soprano, 2 tenors, baritone score (Digital)