Graphite Publishing In the Middle - Crooker/Trumbore - SATB

Lyrics: Barbara Crooker
Composer: Dale Trumbore
Format: Choral Octavo
Voicing: SATB with piano accompaniment

As this piece ebbs and flows, we are reminded to savour even the smallest moments of our lives.

Barbara Crooker's poem "In the Middle" describes our need to connect in the rush of ordinary life. In this setting, the piano serves as an unreliable time-keeper, ebbing and flowing as our perception of time does. The word "time" itself occurs over and over within the piece, serving as a sort of refrain, a reminder to slow down.

It is so easy to forget, in the context of everyday life, that time will ultimately catch up with all of us. There's no antidote, but in the meantime, we should "take off our watches" more often, finding ourselves "tangled up in love" with another or just with this life, and granting time permission, if not to stop, then to slow.
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In the Middle was commissioned by the Young New Yorkers' Chorus (Michael Kerschner, director). This piece is featured on Choral Arts Initiative's album How to Go On: The Choral Works of Dale Trumbore and was performed at the 2019 ACDA Conference by the Oakwood University Aeolians.