Night Runs Deep

Night Runs Deep (2011)

Night Runs Deep, for four-part men's choir and cello, was written in the fall of 2011. The piece stems from the continual inspiration that I find in Dana Gioia's translations of the unconventional love poems of Eugenio Montale. The piece was initially conceived for a cappella men's choir, but I quickly added the cello as a means of heightening and highlighting the emotion of the poem.

Night Runs Deep was written for and commissioned by the Apollo Men's Choir of the USC Thornton School of Music under the direction of Yohan Partan.

Stella Cho, cello
Abram St. Amand Poliakoff, Tenor 1
Jordan Nelson, Tenor 2
Gabriel Fanelli, Baritone
Lucas Hausrath, Bass
Yohan Partan, conductor

original text by Eugenio Montale

Lontano, ero con te quando tuo padre
entrò nell'ombra e ti lasciò il suo addio.
Che seppi fino allora? Il logirío
de prima mi salvò solo per questo:

che t'ignoravo e non dovevo: ai colpi
d'oggi lo so, se di laggiú s'inflette
un'ora e mi riporta Cumerlotti
o Anghébeni--tra scoppi di spolette
e i lamenti de l'accorrer delle squadre.

translation by Dana Gioia

Far away, still I was with you
when your father
went into darkness and left you his goodbye.
What did I learn
in that moment? That until then
the ravages of the past
had spared me
only for this:

I had not met you yet
and had to. I know this
from the pain of today, and would
even if the hours bent
back on themselves and brought
me once again to Cumerlotti
or Anghébeni, among the exploding
shells, the screams,
the panic of the squadrons.

Performance History -

Stella Cho, cello, Abram St. Amand Poliakoff and Jordan Nelson, tenors, Gabriel Fanelli and Lucas Hausrath, basses, and Yohan Partan, conductor; Jordan Nelson's D.M.A. Composition Recital, September 29, 2012; Newman Recital Hall, USC Thornton School of Music, Los Angeles, CA

premiere:
USC Thornton Apollo Men's Choir, Yohan Partan conducting, and Stella Cho, cello
March 30, 2012; Newman Recital Hall, USC Thornton School of Music, Los Angeles, CA