Solstice

(expected completion winter 2026)

Instrumentation: SATB Chorus, a cappella
Duration: 5'
Text: Joyce Sutphen (Minnesota Poet Laureate 2011-2021)

 

Poet Joyce Sutphen and composer Ryan Homsey

Scrolling Score Video of Solstice (Work in Progress)

Note: Disregard the scroll bar that trails behind the MIDI playback.

“Solstice” by Joyce Sutphen from This Long Winter. Copyright © 2022 by Joyce Sutphen. Used with permission.

Solstice

The cover image of Joyce Sutphen's book of poetry entitled This Long Winter that displays shades of green and blue and an abstract horizontal pattern that could be interpreted as looking through window blinds to a wintry outdoors.

This Long Winter by Joyce Sutphen is the third volume in The Cox Family Poetry Chapbook Series of Carnegie Mellon University Press

The earth is tilted
as far away from

the sun as it can go.
The longest nights

pass like tall ships
on an endless ocean.

We hear nothing, and
then we hear that you

have stopped eating,
that you are fading.

Oh fierce and beautiful
friend! The sun hangs

low on the horizon,
the shadows are long.

I think of how the light
always returns, how

this time you will be
on the other side of it

with the sun and
the moon and stars.

Program Notes

Coming soon…