alternate lifestyle

alternate lifestyle  is an introspective choral work that paints the text of Ann Applegarth’s poem, “alternate lifestyle for the quietly desperate.” It takes an evolving approach to the text—beginning delicately, expanding on itself, then letting loose before winding down and recalling the tender opening line.

 

The compositional process of this piece was led directly by the poem, as certain words evoke clear images, sounds, and feelings. Each word seems to have been written with great care, as the poem is quite short and simple. Its message speaks to the wondrously terrifying confusion people experience when they consider their own existence—the ever-present philosophical questioning of the significance (or insignificance) of their lives and the evolving awareness of the beauty that that entails.

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​Lyrics

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alternate lifestyle for the quietly desperate

 

o, let us prance

through each day

as if it mattered,

heads flung

back, toes pointed,

shaking

love sparks

from our fingertips

in time to celestial

tambourines,

whirling finally

into that last

glorious pirouette

that spins

straight

into

eternity.