Video Information

• Piece: The Witches' Dialogue
• Composer:  Peter Duiverman
• Arranger:  lyrics by Anke de Bruijn
• Voices:  SATB
• Sheet Music:   www.stoneandtara.com/song...  
• Genres: Contemporary, Virtual Choir
• Our music for your choir - sheet music and mp3's available through www.stoneandtara.com/songbook
  
  The Witches' Dialogue©2021 Anke de Bruijn & Peter Duiverman
  For SATB choir a capella.
  
  Background notes to 'The Witches'...  moreOur music for your choir - sheet music and mp3's available through www.stoneandtara.com/songbook
  
  The Witches' Dialogue©2021 Anke de Bruijn & Peter Duiverman
  For SATB choir a capella.
  
  Background notes to 'The Witches' Dialogue'
  On a rainy November morning, I was taking a walk with a friend. We found ourselves talking about a man who we knew only vaguely and who had been very ill for several years. We had heard recently that he was dying of cancer. The only thing we really knew about him was that he had lived a fairly miserable life.
  
  My friend told me how she and two other women had once helped a dying man by holding his feet, letting him know that it was safe to let go.
  Then we stopped short on the forest road and looked at each other.
  ‘I think we should hold his feet,’ one of us said.
  ‘Now?’
  ‘We can always try. Thoughts have power.’
  So we closed our eyes, stood for minutes next to an old, gnarled tree, and focused on the man who we imagined as lying alone in a hospital bed.
  When we opened our eyes, we were not quite sure how we were supposed to feel. Had something happened? We did feel connected to him. It actually felt like we had cast some sort of spell.
  A few days later, I heard that he had died on the afternoon of the day we had stood in the forest.
  
  Years later, I thought about this strange coincidence and a poem poured out of me. Its takes the form of a dialogue between a young, enthusiastic witch and a wise and serene older one. The young woman starts off in a bit of a sensational manner, but the older witch tells her off immediately, explaining that their work is only to be channels of wisdom. The young woman then understands and imagines the end of her own life.
  
  I showed the poem to Stone. ‘I can hear music to this one,’ he said immediately after reading it. This is how The Witches’ Dialogue came into being*). The four-part choral piece has different themes, and th...    less