a dance of light

part 2: the heavenly expanse

A Dance of Light is a six-part collaborative project by Lisa DeLong, Nicole Pinnell, and James Goldberg. This project, created in a time of darkness, weaves together visual art, music, and poetry in a shared meditation on light. Starting on the 2020 Winter Solstice, we’ll be releasing one part each Monday. Part 2 was posted on December 28th.

unloosed

composed and performed by Nicole Pinnell

Unloosed is written for cello in D Dorian, the mode that has a lowered 3rd note and a lowered 7th note in its scale. After a brief prelude for a single voice, the piece proceeds as a duet. The pizzicato accompaniment, punctuated by a double stop with the flat 3 and flat 7, is strummed with both the nail and skin of the index finger.

Recorded and mixed by Guy Randall at Rosewood Studios on the Provo River, Utah.

Inspiration is drawn from Facsimile I and its resolution in Abraham 1:15.

Moriah
A Song of Ascents

by James Goldberg

Is the sky hungry? 
our ancestors asked. 
Does heaven thirst? 

It will take 
what it will take--
unless you offer it first. 

(Sun rises early. 
Throat trembling,
he turns.)

Is the sky hungry? 
for our hands’ work, 
for our lives’ blood?

Can sacrifice slake fate 
and grant protection
from above? 

(See how smoke rises.
Smell how blood burns.)

Who would rob dark gods 
which rule from hungry height?   

Forsake old ways 
to gather promise left 
in pinpricks of light?