speak
Length: 5:30
Voicing: SATB divisi, a cappella
Difficulty: Intermediate to Intermediate Advanced
Year: 2025
Text (by Shane Scott Cook):
speak
stand
say:
what is right
what is wrong
what is
About the work (written in February 2025):
The idea for this work came to me as I found myself feeling helpless in the face of actions taken by the current administration of the United States government. Each day brings new attacks on different communities: stripping away rights, denying access, and making this country increasingly inhospitable for so many. I felt (and still feel) paralyzed by the enormity of it all, uncertain whether anything I could do would make a difference in an increasingly catastrophic reality. And so, I did nothing. But I’ve come to realize that in doing nothing, I only hold myself back from the possibility of making a difference.
I wrote speak as a reminder, to myself and to others, that even the act of acknowledging and speaking out against injustice has the power to unite people. Often, the greatest obstacle to taking action is ourselves — an idea represented in this piece by the recurring motif of a hand over the mouth. Textures in the first half of the piece are meant to feel trance-like and overwhelming, mirroring the constant deluge of information we receive from social media, the news, and those around us. The second half represents waking up from the trance and feeling the reality of the situation.
I hope this piece serves as a reminder to performers and listeners alike, as writing it has reminded me, that this is a moment for courage: to take action, to call out injustices and to come together in the pursuit of a more just and equitable world.
This work was selected as the winner of The Capital Hearings’ 2025 Young Composers Competition