The layers of Earthʼs crust hold millions of years of stories, preserved by nature and revealed by the sacred arts of geology and paleontology. As climate change forces us to contemplate the looming extinction of our species, I am doubly devastated by the amount of detritus we will leave behind to be digested by the slow cycles of the planet. The sci-fi lover in me imagines paleontologists of the next sapient species to roam the Earth, far in the future, piecing together the story of our downfall from fossilized garbage and soil chemistry.

Both the text and music in this piece are deeply rooted in my Pagan background. In many modern Pagan traditions, the drumbeat symbolizes both the human heartbeat and the element of earth, linking our anatomy to the soil which engenders it, and which will receive it when we are gone. The middle section of this piece features a vocalise with vowel harmonics meant to evoke the improvisatory “alchemical” singing style found in some Pagan circles and to illustrate the passage of time unimaginable. Finally, the text treats as sacred not just the Earth, but also the Sun, Rot as psychopomp, and the bond between ancestors and descendants.

Recording credit: Nora Farley and Hayla Alawi, voices; Jake Ellzey, frame drum; Emily Graham, piano; recording by Nelson Walker

This piece is designed to be singable by three soloists but may also be performed by a full choir.

Handbells, hand-held chimes, or anything with a similar timbre may be substituted for singing bowls and performed by members of the choir. Piano is acceptable if no appropriate percussion is available. For ease of reading, the singing bowl notes are never tied across bar lines, but all notes should be allowed to ring for their natural duration without dampening.

This piece includes vowel harmonics, indicated by a horizontal zig-zag line over the duration of the note. On these notes, the singer is to hold the notated pitch, close to a rhotic (American “R”) sound and move the lips and tongue around to create a spectrum of overtones. It is used as an effect, so there is no need to aim for specific harmonic partials.