Light in the Gutter (2025)

for TTBB choir and piano

Light in the Gutter
CA$3.00

Text: Shannon Webb-Campbell (b. 1983)
Duration: 4 minutes
Difficulty: 2/4

Commissioned by Halifax Gay Men's Chorus (Bryan Crocker, artistic director) for their performance at the 2026 Unison Festival in Vancouver. To be premiered in May 2026.

Light in the Gutter was commissioned by Halifax Gay Men’s Chorus for their performance at Unison Festival 2026 in Vancouver. This piece adapts poetry by the Halifax-based poet Shannon Webb-Campbell, which she developed as part of Stewart Legere’s multidisciplinary project The Unfamiliar Everything, exploring themes of queer loneliness, spirituality, and kinship. I was immediately drawn to Shannon’s unique imagery, which inspired a certain campy flair in the music with dramatic gestures and robust piano flourishes. The piano’s repeating ostinato figures form the backbone of each musical section, culminating in an ecstatic declaration of strength and resilience.

Click here to see the complete score.

Live recording currently unavailable. MIDI available on request.

Full Text

we are not garbage
wearing the body armour of glitter

we share stories
need bodies
to know belonging

we sing songs
to carry on
we don’t kneel
to make an altar
we believe in realms
of one another

there is light in this gutter
here, we are the stars
make room for something larger

we are facts and figures
order in the universe
chaotic rags of divinity
creators of our kind

from macrocosms
a body and mind
roots and constellations
linked to parts unknown

earth, air, fire, water
we are bone breath

“Not Knowing the Book of Myths” from Lunar Tides © 2022 by Shannon Webb-Campbell.
Used with permission of Book*hug Press.