We Grow Accustomed to the Dark

World Premier of “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” Performed by Estelí Gomez

“We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” is a poem by Emily Dickinson about resilience during times of uncertainty. The theme of struggling and eventually adjusting to difficult situations resonated with me and I tried to mirror these themes in the harmonic and intervallic qualities of the different sections of the piece. The harmonies and the intervals at the beginning of the piece are more open and consonant but as the darkness becomes increasingly overwhelming, the piece becomes octatonic, and the intervals become closer and the harmonies become more dense and muddy. The harmonies in the last section of the piece are much lighter and voiced more openly, representing the human capacity for adapting and moving forward.