Home (Mixed Voices)

Home, music by Jessica Curry with words by Warsan Shire. Arranged for unaccompanied mixed voices SSAATTBB in digital sheet music format.

“When I first read British Somali poet Warsan Shire’s poem Home, it struck me on such a visceral level- it really floored me. It begins “No one leaves home unless/home is the mouth of a shark/you only run for the border/when you see the whole city running as well.” The poem is breathlessly powerful throughout, giving vivid and heart-breaking voice to the desperate and exhausting experience of refugees. The words that pierced my heart, and millions of others too, were, “you have to understand/nobody puts their children in a boat/unless the water is safer than the land.” I don’t think anyone could describe a parent’s love and anguish more powerfully or succinctly. I believe that we all have a responsibility to help those who need our assistance at the darkest points in their life. Writing the music for Home was my small act of resistance, solidarity and a hope that we, as humans can do better and be better. I am so grateful to Warsan for her extraordinary ability to communicate that in the end, all of us just want, and deserve, to be safe and to be home.”

Home is recorded by London Voices, conducted by Ben Parry, and by the London Oriana Choir and Dominic Ellis-Peckham.