Commissioned by the Flower Mound High School Jaguar Chorale in Flower Mound, TX. Directed by Mark Rohwer and Lindsay Swartwood.
Duration: Approximately 4'20"
Incendiary draws its inspiration from one of literature's most infamous love affairs: the relationship between Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot in Aruthrian legend. The composition sets to music the evocative poem "Camelot I," using the legendary romance as a springboard to explore themes of forbidden passion, destructive desire, and the lingering aftermath of a love that threatened to burn down a kingdom.
Performance History
2020 Flower Mound High School Jaguar Choir2022 Verdigris Ensemble
“Camelot I” by Linda Thorsen Bond
The memory of you
Is stacked like cordwood
Dry as tinder
Threatening
To burst
Into flame
At a spark
The thought of you
Is incendiary
Together we laid
Waste
The green forest
Consumed, in one breathless gulp,
The timberland
A careless match
Yes
A careless match
Beneath the char
Under brittle spines
Of blackened pine
An ember hisses
The memory is
Cordwood
Dry as timber
The very thought of you
Is incendiary