Past A’Glow

Commissioned by Nick Newman and Northern Colorado University Singers and Chamber Choir. Conducted and directed by Nick Newman for their Fall 2021 concert. The music is an arrangement of a song I wrote, and I’ve included the original treatment of the song below.

Past A’Glow by Derek Sup

Haze collecting thick outside
Grab my phone and check the AQI
Guess I won’t be seeing my friends today

Caught the dread, I sleep in late
Every morning new disaster waits
On the news, I just can’t look away

Are we set fast?
Heading straight and gaining speed
Barrelling towards something we would never want
And could not need
With everything up in flames in our tracks
A past a’glow with embers
And a future still with ash

So hot I lost my appetite
Lay in a pool of my own sweat every night
Remainder of the days all ash and grey

Feels to me the end of time
The days and nights an ever blurring line
Orange glow the day to day pervades

Are we set fast?
Heading straight and gaining speed
Barrelling towards something we would never want
And could not need
With everything up in flames in our tracks
A past a’glow with embers
And a future still with ash