The ghosts of American soldiers
wander the streets of Balad by night,
unsure of their way home, exhausted,
the desert wind blowing trash
down the narrow alleys as a voice
sounds from the minaret, a soulful call
reminding them how alone they are,
how lost. And the Iraqi dead,
they watch in silence from rooftops
as date palms line the shore in silhouette,
leaning toward Mecca when the dawn wind blows.

-'Ashbah' by Brian Turner, used with permission.

Ashbah (2008)

bell choir and organ (5.5 minutes)

Premiered Pittsburgh, PA 2008 Beulah Presbyterian bells

Second performance Boulder, CO, 2014 Kajsa Teitelbaum, organ

This piece for handbells and organ is a lament particularly referring to the decades-long crisis in the Middle East, and an unresolved elegy for an old classmate who was a veteran in Afghanistan. I wanted to express a statement which could be an offering of heart and mind, small but personal. The work contains melodies and lullabies of longing and sorrow, rather than the traditionally joyful music we know for handbells. The poem Ashbah by Brian Turner (left) was the starting point for these sounds.