Controlled Burn

Composer / Arranger Notes:

This piece was a collaboration between hip-hop artist Dessa and composer Jocelyn Hagen. Written for a festival of over 600 high school singers and players, the choir and orchestra parts are suitable for young musicians.

The piece can also be performed with SATB voices and either a small chamber ensemble (GP-D023.1) or an orchestra (GP-D023.2). The pdf purchased here is an SSA piano/vocal score, to be used for the singers and in rehearsal.

We’re born with a fuse

timed to ignite

It burns through our youth

then sets us alight

for a while

And when we’re older

we’ll laugh and say that we were only kids

but no one gets closer to the burn of love and loss than this

When the fires pass over

all you’ll recall

is the ash on your shoulders

some lines on your palm

The world’s made in motion

we’re carried along;

the current won’t hold for long

If you could stand your younger selves behind you

then turn and walk the line,

how many strangers might surprise you,

too changed by time to recognize

When the fires pass over

all you’ll recall

is the ash

on your shoulders

some lines on your palm

Memory relents

like rain melts the limestone

the years that you spent

in flame seem so strange now

– Dessa

Text Source

Dessa