About this piece: I completed my masters in 2025 and got to connect with many string educators. Because of this, I was inspired to write for strings. on summer is inspired by scenes of summer vacation. mist on the lake is slow and meditative while fireflies has a lot of energy. I love Ravel’s string quartets and Caroline Shaw’s string writing as well! It was fun to challenge myself and just create music without having to think about honor lyrics or poetry.
I am a singer and don’t have any string experience so if you see something wonky, let me know!
We are indeed children of Light. What an endless mart goes on in the Light. In the Light is our sleeping and waking, the play of our life and death. Beneath one great canopy, in the ray of one great sun, slowly, very slowly, burn the unnumbered lamps of life. In the midst of this unending Light I lose myself; amidst this intolerable radiance I wander like one blind. We are indeed children of Light. Why then do we fear when we see the Light? Come, let us look all around and see, here no man hath cause for any fear. In this boundless ocean of Light, if a tiny lamp goes out, let it go; who can say that it will not burn again?
Commissioned by the William Ferris Chorale as part of their Emerging Voices Project, The Good was written in collaboration with students from Lake View High School in Chicago, IL. Over the course of the school year, students and I discussed different themes and settled on writing about enjoying your youth. Many of the students took note of their friend groups changing or their families getting older. These are things we cannot change but students encouraged each other to enjoy the present moment before it is gone. The verses were created from our Snapshot in Time Activity where students described a memory from their childhood using the five senses. The chorus and bridge are the students broader sentiments about enjoying the moment and acknowledging the passage of time.
text:
Verse 1 I watch the cars rush by Head out the window it’s late at night Fighting the urge to fall asleep This was my secret to keep
My dad he holds me, so tight I never wanted to say goodbye He puts me down in bed A kiss he lays on my forehead
Chorus Enjoy the good When life gets hard Moving fast, it’s the past, holding on, make it last Trying Make sense of time
Enjoy the good When life gets hard Take a breath, take a glance, at the light, it’s in sight Enjoy the good
Verse 2 I feel the breeze, it runs through me I smell the food across the street We walk together you sigh I know it’s late, we’ll miss this time
I have a feeling it’s more than just The cotton candy that fills my gut But it’s the way you decide To spend your time by my side.
Chorus
Bridge I know that it’s okay For these things to change But I’m still holding on to the past
I feeling like we’re drifting These things all seem different But what we had was always meant last
cristian larios | composer 