Same Train

Composed for Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare, the composer writes: Same Train, in many arrangements seems to sing of good news coming. But – maybe it was the relentlessness, the conclusiveness of the title phrase – I wondered if what was coming might actually have been a funeral train: coming for “our sister, our mother,” and...soon enough for us, too. I thought of so many other spirituals which sing about dark truths in bright music, and wondered if I couldn't use the imitative, “ch-ch-train” ostinato to honor that willfully smiling aspect of the piece, while also freeing the harmonies to make audible the more disconsolate feelings underneath.