John Mackey - Places we can no longer go (2019) [w/ score]

John Mackey’s chilling, heartbreaking masterpiece, “Places we can no longer go”, communicates a story from his personal life. Scored for solo soprano and wind ensemble, this work tells about John’s mother, Elizabeth, and her struggles with rapid-onset dementia. John Mackey writes about the creation of this piece:
In April 2016, I posted this on Facebook:
My mom has been suffering from rapid-onset dementia, and has reached the point that she can’t form a sentence that anybody but her can understand. Tonight, I saw her for the first time in several months, and in the car on the way back home after dinner, I turned on the radio. Within seconds, she said, “Oh - Scheherazade! I’ve played this piece.” And she started humming along. It was Scheherazade, and she has played it - decades ago. The only other complete and understandable sentence she said tonight, when I was leaving, was “I love you.” Music is an incredible thing. It doesn’t pay well, and maybe your parents said it’s a terrible career choice, but the fact is that it reaches people on a level that nothing else can. If you’re ever questioning “does practicing all of these hours so I can play this instrument - does it matter?” The answer is yes.
Two days later, Gary Hill, Director of Bands at Arizona State University, contacted me, and asked me if I would write a piece about my mother and her struggle with this terrible disease. My initial reaction: no way. I couldn’t imagine a scarier, more personal piece.
Gary persisted, and I eventually acknowledged that I was resisting writing the piece not because it was a bad idea, but because it was a terrifying idea - and that’s not a reason to say no. If anything, that’s a reason to say yes. So, 11 months after he first asked, I agreed to write “Places We Can No Longer Go.”... (you can read the full program note here: www.johnmackey...)
COMPOSER: John Mackey
POET: A. E. Jaques
CONDUCTOR: Cynthia Johnston Turner
SOPRANO: Lindsay Kesselman
BAND: University of Georgia Wind Ensemble
TEXT: “Places we can no longer go” by A. E. Jaques
I look for you in all the old places
a series of shabby apartments and a Mexican restaurant
that teal-slashed sweater from your yearbook photo
1992
gone now, land unmarks
I trace the trail of us in memory’s atlas
a dotted line crossing borders like in an old movie
big letters for your grandfather’s store, italicized
rivers of music
garbled now, lost-making
I run the roads of us all uncharted
boundaries blur like the lenses in old movies
I see you smudge-soft in Christmas and
Siamese cats
clouds hide the end of the world
called a nurse by your name, saw your face on a stranger
out of place, out of places, I find you everywhere
the bright arrow that fixes the map of vanished things
You Are Here
and so here I am
NOTE: This is a live performance! (Recorded in Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall on 3/28/2019)
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