The Core (2014)
SATB
Text by Ronald Johnson
Total duration ca. 2'15"
Single movement work
Premiered in June 2015
in Baltimore, MD
by Joshua Glassman and the Mt. Vernon Consort
Listen to a recording of this work on Spotify
Audio clip performed by David Moore and the First Readings Project
Purchase this score from
Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) for: $1 per copy
This short poem by Johnson addresses, in mystical tones, the desire for clarity, transparency, equivalency between perception and reality, so that words themselves have a physical quality of realness “you can put your foot through.” The Core, in aching brevity speaks to our search for truth, with the past tense “wanted” suggesting that this poem comes at the end of a long search, still not fully completed.
"The Core," by Ronald Johnson, from Poetry magazine, June 1972, used by permission of the Literary Estate of Ronald Johnson.