I Want to Die While You Love Me: SSA Choral Octavo

Powell's setting honors Georgia Douglas Johnson's poem with restraint and emotional clarity. The harmonic language supports the text without overwhelming it, and the SSA voicing keeps the focus on the lyrical content while remaining singable for mixed-level choirs.

Intimate and introspective, with an undercurrent of vulnerability. Powell's harmonic choices create moments of gentle tension that resolve with quiet acceptance, matching Johnson's meditation on love and mortality.

Advanced middle school and high school choirs with solid fundamentals in blend and intonation. This works equally well for community and collegiate groups seeking repertoire that engages with meaningful poetry.

• Shape the text as you would spoken language; let the natural phrasing of Johnson's words guide your breath marks and phrase endings rather than strictly adhering to bar lines.
• Bring attention to harmonic shifts by adjusting vowel color and blend when Powell introduces new chord movement, especially in moments of emotional intensity.
• Balance the uppermost line so it sings through without hardness; this melody carries significant expressive weight and needs space to breathe.

Pair this with other settings of African American poetry to create a thematic concert program, or place it alongside art song to highlight how contemporary composers approach the intersection of literature and music. It also serves as an accessible introduction to Powell's compositional voice for choirs exploring her larger works.

• Sustaining vocal line through harmonic changes without forcing the sound
• Interpreting poetic text with musical sensitivity
• Balancing independent voice lines in close harmony
• Managing longer phrase structures with intentional breathing