The Sleepers (2019)

Instrumentation: Soprano and Accordion

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Duration: 5 minutes

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Text:

The Sleepers* by Walt Whitman

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I wander all night in my vision,
Stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly stepping

and stopping,
Bending with open eyes over the shut eyes of sleepers,

Wandering and confused, lost to myself, ill-assorted,

contradictory,
Pausing, gazing, bending, and stopping.

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How solemn they look there, stretch’d and still,
How quiet they breathe, the little children in their cradles,

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The married couple sleep calmly in their bed, he with his palm on the hip of the wife,

and she with her palm on the hip of the husband,

The sisters sleep lovingly side by side in their bed,
The men sleep lovingly side by side in theirs,
And the mother sleeps with her little child carefully wrapt.

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The sleepers are very beautiful as they lie unclothed,

They flow hand in hand over the whole earth from east to west as they lie unclothed,

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I too pass from the night,
I stay a while away O night, but I return to you again and love you.

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*The text is extracted from the original poem.

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Premiere: Asuka Kakiosa and Will Holshouser | May 13 2019 | Buchwald Theater, Brooklyn, NY |