![]() His songs are normally not directly about his faith, but “ To Be Alone With You” is an exception. He is a current, American-born, Christian singer-songwriter that combines musical elements of baroque, folk, and pop. Which brings me to the second point of this post: examining “ To Be Alone With You,” a song by Sufjan Stevens released in 2004. The point of this post is to speak about my gratitude for a God who listens, who wants to hear about us. Choose to be in a different place than He is. Why would I want to be anywhere else? Because I’m selfish, and there are many times I wrongly choose myself over Him. Using my voice to speak one-on-one to my God. I took advantage of the opportunity, speaking to Him out loud. This was not a busy hour at the chapel, and every so often, I’d find myself alone with Jesus. The parish has a 24-hour adoration chapel, and you could find me there every Friday at 9 p.m. Dominic’s Church, which is located in the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans. Catalog, Calendars, Schedules, Fees, Policies, Formsīefore I entered the seminary, I was a weekly adorer for St.Master of Arts (Philosophy for Theological Studies).Bachelor of Philosophy (Philosophy for Theological Studies).Songs after sufjan is dedicated to my mother, Cam Ly, who passed away from cancer in November 2020 as I was writing the piece. In these times, to choose to be alone with someone brings both comfort and risk, companionship and awkwardness. I found the lyrics of Stevens's song, which acknowledge the self-sacrifices required to be alone with someone and with God, especially relevant as I was making hard choices in my own personal life during the COVID-19 pandemic. The title of the third movement, "to be alone with you," is a reference to the eponymous song by Stevens, from his 2004 album Seven Swans. It takes some veiled influence from Stevens “Fourth of July,” also from Carrie and Lowell. It functions both as an interlude between the outer movements as well as the emotional center of the entire work. The second movement, “so/than,” is a study in ambiguity. My work, inspired by the drama of the lyrics, juxtaposes highly contrasting material based on chromaticism and 7 limit-just intonation. Stevens's lyrics concern his grief over his mother's death, and the conflicted nature of their relationship, before an unexpected turn towards the light that his newborn niece brings into his life. The first movement, "I should have known better," is a reference to the song "Should have known Better" from Stevens's 2017 album, Carrie and Lowell. Furthermore the ghosts of Stevens's lyrics, when re-contextualized against my own music, serve as a starting point for the unique emotional arc of my own work. My piece for piano trio makes use of some of the musical material of Stevens's songs, such as translating their carefully orchestrated pop production into dreamy microtonal harmony and extended techniques, as a means to evoke both the intimacy and delicate affect of Stevens's sound worlds. I wondered how this ambiguous combination of elements would be transformed if fragmented and cast as purely instrumental music. I found myself most intrigued with how Stevens's lyrics, often intensely lyrical, conflicted, and loaded with symbolism, are usually accompanied by music of simplicity and restraint. Songs after sufjan is, in part, an homage to the singer/songwriter/composer Sufjan Stevens.
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