Rebekah Driscoll

What Pain Wants

Year: 2019

Duration (in minutes): 5'00;

Difficulty: High (professional)

Category: small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players, solo voice(s) with piano

Instruments: piano, soprano

Publisher: Rebekah Driscoll Music

Publisher website: http://www.rebekahdriscoll.com/music/what-pain-wants/

Video Links: c7a5Syexogw

Purchase score URL: https://ko-fi.com/s/02559b479f

Description: The text for this song is adapted from Sonya Huber’s poem “What Pain Wants”, which I found in her book Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System. Having lived with chronic pain myself since the age of eighteen, I related strongly to the idea of pain as a constant companion, a sort of being with a cryptic personality.
For my first few years of illness I viewed pain as an enemy to be defeated, or failing that, an intruder to be resolutely ignored; but ultimately these approaches brought me more stress and despair than the pain itself. I have a greater sense of peace imagining pain as a child who will never learn to behave rationally and sometimes just needs to be indulged. Maybe pain isn’t any happier about our relationship than I am, but we’re stuck together and we have to find a way to get along.
This piece is available in two transpositions: soprano (range C#4-F#5) and mezzo-soprano (A#3-D#5).