Afterwards

Scoring: Soli SABar, Coro SSAATTBB

A text by the American poet Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) forms the basis for the composition Afterwards by choir director and composer Lucia Birzer. The poem There will come soft rains deals with our earth in a post-human age. Teasdale wrote this work as a reaction to her experiences of the First World War. For Lucia Birzer, the motivation to set these words to music is the climate catastrophe.

Musically, the work is meditative and reflective. Initially, three soloists tell the story almost like recitative, while the choir intones atmospherically in the background. Then the choir takes over and brings the narrative to a dramatic climax: “Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree if mankind perished utterly.” In closing, the piece returns to the pensive, subdued mood of the beginning.

• Accessible and easy to perform, even for amateur choirs
• Current topic “Our Voice for Our Planet”
• Setting of a poem by a well-known American female poet
• Dramatically effective structure
• Prize-winning entry in the chamber choir category at the "females featured" composition -competition of the Baden-Württemberg Choir Academy 2023