The Weft and Weave Between Us (2023)
C flute doubling bass flute, Bb clarinet doubling bass clarinet
c. 9 minutes
Composed for and dedicated to Synergy 78
Movements:
i. The best thing we can do is talk about it
ii. Just one blade of grass
iii. Love is an action verb
This piece evolved out of my conversations with performers Michelle Kiec and Carol Shansky of Synergy 78, who expressed both a love for our planet—from hiking its mountains to exploring its cities—and a concern for it. Our conversations led me to the podcast A Matter of Degrees – stories for the climate curious, hosted by Drs. Leah Stokes and Katharine Wilkinson. This podcast, in turn, led me to two phenomenal collections of essays by women on the climate crisis: All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis (2020), edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Wilkinson, and Love Your Mother: 50 States, 50 Stories, and 50 Women United for Climate Justice (2023), by Mallory McDuff. These books introduced me to the authors who directly influenced each movement of my own composition.
The three movements of The Weft and Weave Between Us (2023) each take their title from essays that are tied in some way to the climate crisis. The first movement, “The best thing we can do is talk about it,” is a reference to McDuff’s closing chapter. In it, she recalls the words of Katharine Hayhoe: that we can start helping the planet by openly talking about the climate crisis. In the movement, mutters and murmurs in the flute and clarinet gradually transform into confident declarations.
The second movement, “Just one blade of grass,” comes from Mary Annaïse Heglar’s essay “Home is Always Worth It,” which is included in All We Can Save. Here, Heglar asserts her willingness to risk everything to fight for the planet’s survival without any guarantee of success. If she can save just one blade of grass, her fight is worth it. In the movement, solo lines in the bass flute and bass clarinet slowly join together, as if making a whole world out of a single salvaged blade of grass.
The third movement returns to the C flute and B-flat clarinet. The movement’s title refers to another essay by Heglar, this one entitled “But the Greatest of These is Love” (2019). In her essay, Heglar depicts love as a catalyst for change. This movement begins with blips of activity that grow and culminate in joyful celebration, bringing the work to its close.
The title of my work is a snippet of a line from the introduction of All We Can Save. The weft and weave between us are the collaborative, supportive relationships we build with one another. In composing this piece, I was immediately drawn to the way Michelle and Carol described their relationship as friends and performers—that they think alike, really like each other as people, and have fun playing together. This felt, to me, like the collaborative relationships that the authors of All We Can Save emphasize are necessary to save the planet. To paraphrase Johnson and Wilkinson, to build a better world, we must first build community.
Further Reading and Listening
c. 9 minutes
Composed for and dedicated to Synergy 78
Movements:
i. The best thing we can do is talk about it
ii. Just one blade of grass
iii. Love is an action verb
This piece evolved out of my conversations with performers Michelle Kiec and Carol Shansky of Synergy 78, who expressed both a love for our planet—from hiking its mountains to exploring its cities—and a concern for it. Our conversations led me to the podcast A Matter of Degrees – stories for the climate curious, hosted by Drs. Leah Stokes and Katharine Wilkinson. This podcast, in turn, led me to two phenomenal collections of essays by women on the climate crisis: All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis (2020), edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Wilkinson, and Love Your Mother: 50 States, 50 Stories, and 50 Women United for Climate Justice (2023), by Mallory McDuff. These books introduced me to the authors who directly influenced each movement of my own composition.
The three movements of The Weft and Weave Between Us (2023) each take their title from essays that are tied in some way to the climate crisis. The first movement, “The best thing we can do is talk about it,” is a reference to McDuff’s closing chapter. In it, she recalls the words of Katharine Hayhoe: that we can start helping the planet by openly talking about the climate crisis. In the movement, mutters and murmurs in the flute and clarinet gradually transform into confident declarations.
The second movement, “Just one blade of grass,” comes from Mary Annaïse Heglar’s essay “Home is Always Worth It,” which is included in All We Can Save. Here, Heglar asserts her willingness to risk everything to fight for the planet’s survival without any guarantee of success. If she can save just one blade of grass, her fight is worth it. In the movement, solo lines in the bass flute and bass clarinet slowly join together, as if making a whole world out of a single salvaged blade of grass.
The third movement returns to the C flute and B-flat clarinet. The movement’s title refers to another essay by Heglar, this one entitled “But the Greatest of These is Love” (2019). In her essay, Heglar depicts love as a catalyst for change. This movement begins with blips of activity that grow and culminate in joyful celebration, bringing the work to its close.
The title of my work is a snippet of a line from the introduction of All We Can Save. The weft and weave between us are the collaborative, supportive relationships we build with one another. In composing this piece, I was immediately drawn to the way Michelle and Carol described their relationship as friends and performers—that they think alike, really like each other as people, and have fun playing together. This felt, to me, like the collaborative relationships that the authors of All We Can Save emphasize are necessary to save the planet. To paraphrase Johnson and Wilkinson, to build a better world, we must first build community.
Further Reading and Listening
- Heglar, Mary Annaïse. “But the Greatest of These if Love.” Medium, July 17, 2019.
- Johnson, Ayana Elizabeth and Katharine K. Wilkinson, eds. All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. New York: One World, 2020.
- McDuff, Mallory. Love Your Mother: 50 States, 50 Stories, and 50 Women United for Climate Justice. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023.
- Stokes, Leah and Katharine Wilkinson. “What Can I Do? Part 1 – The Personal.” A Matter of Degrees, September 15, 2022.