All The Threads Are Interwoven for SATB choir (2023)

In this composition, I set Lady Bird Johnson’s own words recorded in her diary on January 27, 1965: “Getting on the subject of beautification is like picking up a tangled skein of wool. All the threads are interwoven -- recreation and pollution and mental health, and the crime rate, and rapid transit, and highway beautification, and the war on poverty, and parks -- national, state and local. It is hard to hitch the conversation into one straight line, because everything leads to something else.” I juxtaposed her words with Latin and English names for many of the native Texas bluestem grass varieties. I chose bluestem grasses because of their importance for native ecosystems and their extensive root systems, which to me illustrated the central message of Lady Bird’s journal entry--that of interconnectedness. Approx. duration: 6.5 min.

Getting on the subject of beautification is like picking up a tangled skein of wool. All the threads are interwoven -- recreation and pollution and mental health, and the crime rate, and rapid transit, and highway beautification, and the war on poverty, and parks -- national, state and local. It is hard to hitch the conversation into one straight line, because everything leads to something else.

(Source: Lady Bird Johnson’s diary, January 27, 1965)

Andropogon gerardii

Andropogon virginicus

Andropogon glomeratus

Andropogon ternarius

Silver bluestem,

Longspike silver,

Little bluestem,

Turkey foot,

Broomsedge bluestem,

Whiskey grass,

Slender bluestem,

Splitbeard bluestem,

Popotillo,

Bushy bluestem,

Feather bluestem,

Springfield bluestem,

Wetland bluestem,

Pinehill bluestem,

Texas,

Crimson,

Honey,

Sand,

Pinehill,

Slender,

Wetland,

Broomsedge,

Springfield,

Blue

(Source: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center plant database)