one more breath

commissioned by Deutscher Chor London as part of CoronaCommissions 
premiere 31 October 2020

one more breath was written for choir and was commissioned as part of the Deutscher Chor London CoronaCommissions. The text is based on a letter by the miner Jacob Vowell (1866-1902) who died in the Fraterville Mining disaster, the largest mining disaster to date in Tennessee. In what became his last letter he wrote about his hopes for his family he knew he would never see again and the pain of both time and air slipping away. The basses emerge from a chorus of whispered voices gasping for breath. The piece has a peaceful, almost hypnotic quality, only being interrupted by the marking of time passing.