Dale Trumbore, “In the Middle”

Music and Time in Dale Trumbore’s “In the Middle”

by Shayanne De Boer | April 4, 2021

“In the Middle” by Dale Trumbore was composed for the text of Barbara Crooker's poem by the same name which describes how time escapes us as we fail to connect with the world around us.

In the Middle

of a life that’s as complicated as everyone else’s, struggling for balance, juggling time. The mantle clock that was my grandfather’s has stopped at 9:20; we haven’t had time to get it repaired. The brass pendulum is still, the chimes don’t ring. One day you look out the window, green summer, the next, and the leaves have already fallen, and a grey sky lowers the horizon. Our children almost grown, our parents gone, it happened so fast. Each day, we must learn again how to love, between morning’s quick coffee and evening’s slow return. Steam from a pot of soup rises, mixing with the yeasty smell of baking bread. Our bodies twine, and the big black dog pushes his great head between; his tail is a metronome, 3/4 time. We’ll never get there, Time is always ahead of us, running down the beach, urging us on faster, faster, but sometimes we take off our watches, sometimes we lie in the hammock, caught between the mesh of rope and the net of stars, suspended, tangled up in love, running out of time.

Barbara Crooker details in her poem how in the rush of life we continually miss important moments. Time will eventually catch up with all of us. It is our job to forget about time every once in a while, to “take off our watches” and “lie in the hammock”, and to allow time to slow or stop for just a moment.

Seeing as the entire poem is about time and its workings, Dale Trumbore chose to really play with the listeners sense of time in her setting of the poem as well as reflect the very vivid imagery in the poem.

When listening to this piece it is nearly impossible to discern what the time signature is or even if there is a regular pulse. This is due to the constantly changing time signature and the unreliable fluidity of the piano part. To begin, sopranos and altos sing one and a half measures in 4/4 time and then immediately switch to a 5/4 bar that contains two ties, making it difficult to discern. The return to 4/4 is accompanied by a triplet which again causes the listener to struggle to find a pulse. Any listener trying to find a pulse within the piece will soon give up as it is futile. Time is absolutely fluid in the piece.

Following only the piano part, which is “ebbing and flowing as our perception of time does” allows the listener or reader to observe Trumbore’s wonderful understanding of how to manipulate time in music. Along with the changes in time signature found throughout, the piano part also features many triplets against the voices’ duplets and quintuplets in the voices’ moments of rest. Often, when the voices are silent, the pianist is encouraged to play freely and at their own liberty. These interludes also often feature the aforementioned quintuplets. These quintuplets combined with the freeness of tempo can cause the listener to lose all sense of time.

As the poem is about time, Trumbore chose to give the word, which is repeated seven times in the poetry, its own motive. The motive consists of a shorter note moving into a longer note on the single syllable word, which is then repeated. The piano part features triplets for the first iteration and then a quintuplet that lands on a chord at the same time as the voices. This slow-quick-slow movement in the piano that quickly disappears plays with the listeners sense of time yet again. The motive also helps the listener’s ear to find something recognizable, thus allowing the word “time” to be highlighted.

Besides the effects on time, Trumbore also chose to reflect the vivid imagery found in the poem in her setting of it. She does this through time changes, intertwining and separation of voice parts, and choices in melodic direction. Starting right away in the previously mentioned mm. 3, the word “complicated” is set to a complicated tied-note rhythm within a complicated meter of 5/4. In mm. 15, immediately after the word “stopped” there is a quarter rest with a fermata. The music essentially stops for a moment. Similarly, in mm. 40, on the word “gone” all voices except the soprano drop out, leaving it alone. The soprano alone reflects the feeling one gets with the line “our parents gone.” There are also very simple melodic patterns in the piano that can be seen as imitating the lyrics. For example, in mm. 36 the words “leaves fallen” are accompanied by a descending piano line and in mm. 87 the words “net of stars” have an ascending piano line. One of the most obvious examples of Trumbore setting the imagery in the poem is located at the end of the piece. The repeated word “running” continually gets faster and faster until the end of the piece. There is a very special moment in mm. 24 that includes an easily missed melody which is again associated with time. On the words “chimes don’t ring” the soprano line sings the beginning of the melody of the Westminster clock chimes. This tiny motive can be heard hidden in other places in the piece as well and is one of the few well-known melodic patterns that most people associate with time.

Considering all the nuances of time within this piece it is very difficult for a director to conduct a choir in the performance of this piece. Each rhythm must be meticulously learned and then engrained into muscle memory. Without this muscle memory the piece has no flow and cannot be performed. This memory also allows performers to look up more which is very important in this piece. The conductor has to direct the choir through ten tempo changes not including accelerandos and ritardandos. This would be impossible without the attention of the choir.

“In the Middle” by Dale Trumbore is a wonderful choral work that easily plays with the listeners’ and performers’ sense of time. As the poetry itself is about time, this choice works beautifully to draw one’s attention to the fluidity and fickleness of time. The imitative choices made in the setting add to the colour that is already found in the poem and make is message even more profound. “Time is always ahead of us, running down the beach, urging us on faster.”