Becker-Never in Word (SP)-B/V/Cro./M/SVX/PN

Never in Word by Bob Becker is a piece scored for solo soprano and four percussionists. The piece begins in a very fast tempo which is maintained until the palindromic line in the second stanza: "time in change and change in time", when the tempo shifts to a somewhat slower pace. Two places in the poem suggest extended musical development. The first is after the last line of the first stanza: "but music heard". There is no punctuation following the word hear, even though the first word of the succeeding stanza is capitalized. It is as if the poet pauses here momentarily to listen, perhaps to some imagined music. This section of the piece is purely instrumental - the singer is tacet. The second development occurs after the last line of the fifth stanza (the very end of the poem): "never in word". This time the development includes vocalise - wordless singing. The piece ends with a return to the fast tempo and opening material, played by the instruments alone.

The lyrics are from a short poem by the American author Conrad Aiken. The poem itself is untitled but appears as number eighty-three in an extended series of ninety-six poems under the collective title TIME IN THE ROCK or Preludes to Definition (first copyrighted in 1932 and published in 1953 by Oxford University Press).

Instrumentation: Soprano solo and 4 players. Marimba (4.5 F), vibraphone, 3va glockenspiel/crotales and piano. All parts are challenging. Soprano requires high B-flat. 10 minutes.

Music will more nimbly move
than quick wit can order word
words can point or speaking prove
but music heard

How with successions can it take
time in change and change in time
and all reorder, all remake
with no recourse to rhyme!

Let us in joy, let us in love,
surrender speech to music, tell
what music so much more can prove
nor talking say so well:

Love with delight may move away
Love with delight may forward come
Or else will hesitate and stay
finger at lip, at home,

But verse can never say these things;
only in music may be heard
the subtle touching of such strings,
never in word.