Scott Senko: Primordial Drink
Scott Senko: Primordial Drink
Composer: Scott Senko
Poet: M. Writght
Voicing: High Voice & Piano
Date: 2018
Duration: 3:40
About: Primordial Drink" is an exploration of the micro's relationship to the macro. M. Wright places tiny, seemingly inconsequential moments alongside incomprehensibly monumental cosmic events, the natural and scientific alongside the deeply personal. The creation of the universe, a forgotten memory, the mixing of an alcoholic beverage, the collision of black holes, a single strand of hair, and the beginning of a relationship are all equally significant and profound.
Composer Notes
Text / Lyrics
Primordial Drink
Simple syrup into glass.
Three dashes bitters.
The first dash for the separation of light.
I sit in the dentistry waiting room. Time Magazine
says that light-years from here, two black
holes just kissed & can no longer be separated.
Such an event would be extremely violent.
The next for the creation of the universe.
Rummaging through my boyhood,
past pockets full of astronaut ice cream,
I blotted out some life-defining memory
that is lost now, hidden in the bottom.
The third, for us.
In 2016 I found one of your hairs woven
into my shirt-sleeve & a universe of
your star-stuff bumped into the fibers
of my life, changing our trajectory.
Add ice bourbon.
Enjoy responsibly.
-M. Wright
used with permission by the author
Performer Notes
Source Notes
“Primordial Drink” was commissioned as part of the 2018 Source SongBook, celebrating the festival’s 5th anniversary. It was premiered on August 5th 2018 at Westminster Hall in Minneapolis, MN by Jacob Christopher, tenor & Mark Bilyeu, piano.
Composer Info
Scott Senko (b. 1992) is a composer and vocalist in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He completed undergraduate studies at Luther College in 2015 where he studied composition with Brooke Joyce and Steve Smith, and voice with Andrew Whitfield.
He served as Composer in Residence with Magnum Chorum during their 2016-2017 season and as a Guest Composer for the inaugural consortium of the Libera Composers Association in 2017. In 2019 he received commissions through the Esoterics POLYPHONOS competition and the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus Competition for Young Composers (for which he won first prize).
As a tenor, Scott has sung with a number of vocal ensembles in the Twin Cities. Currently, he sings with The Singers ~ Minnesota Choral Artists, MPLS (imPulse), and the parish choir at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church where he serves as Tenor Section Leader.
Poet Info
M. Wright is the author of two chapbooks: a boy named jane (Bottlecap Press, 2017) and Dear Dementia (Ghost City Press, 2017) which was featured in the 25th annual Poets House showcase. He is a Community Editor at Saint Paul Almanac and is the 2016 winner of The Atlantis Award in poetry. His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Breakwater Review, The Penn Review, UCity Review, Wildness, Jet Fuel Review, Glass Poetry, Saint Paul Almanac, Split Rock Review, and Temenos Journal. M. was a 2017 finalist for Best of the Net and was nominated for Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets Anthology. He is currently finishing his first poetry collection.
M. resides with his lovely wife, Dylan, in Minnesota where they are both educators. M. is also a blues slide-guitarist who occasionally gigs around the Twin Cities.