Everything Carries Me to You (2012)

The title for this piece comes from a line in Pablo Neruda’s “If You Forget Me”.  The poem opens with the narrator confessing that the whole world seems to draw him toward his beloved.  The line included in the title comes from that section of the poem, and my first impression was that the opening had not only romantic implications but also religious ones. The remainder of the poem turns in a much different direction, though: the rest of the lines reveal that the narrator will only continue to feel strongly about the object of his affection so long as his love is returned.  The music of this composition is inspired more by my misreading of the opening than the total meaning of Neruda’s poem.