Arias | You, Me, Us

PERUSALSCORE

YOU, ME, US Spencer Arias

for Soprano Saxophone and Piano 2022

PIANO SCORE

PERUSALSCORE

YOU, ME, US Spencer Arias

for Soprano Saxophone and Piano 2022

PIANO SCORE

Program Note:

You, Me, Us consists of two concurring Love Stories about my first exploration into polyamory. The first story is about my long-term partner of 12 years and me. It occurs in the order we hear the piece. I started off as an angry person because the first and last girl I thought I was in love with, back when I was 18, didn’t feel the same way. I had no one until I met you. Six months before I met you, I screamed that I might harm myself because life was that unbearable. And then I met you. You taught me how to fly. We always have looked forward. We traveled the world together, and even through some relationship troubles and growing pains, we always came back together and celebrated the good times between us.

The second is about a man I spent the past two and half years falling in love with, only to get rejected the day before I started composing this piece over a text message. From one perspective, this story begins in movement 3, where you showed me a different way of living. A type of living that involved joy through being unapologetically myself regardless of what anyone thought. You taught me how to fly by living in the moment. You showed me that love has many different forms. And then you broke my heart. From another perspective, this story also starts in movement one. You broke my heart, and I had to learn a few things over the six weeks of composing.

Can I still love you and not get to be with you? Can we still be friends? Then I think back to what you have done for me. I met my primary boyfriend at my lowest moment ever. He lifted me up and showed me how to fly. When I met you, I had no idea how to live life in the moment, and you taught me that. You were my first legitimate heartbreak by someone I truly loved. I will always have this story. If it wasn’t for you, I would not have thought myself capable of loving anyone else but my primary partner. Going through the first movement of the first story is what made the second story possible. You taught me that the past 12 years were not a waste. You taught me that the label is less important than our importance to each other. That You + Me still equals us, regardless if you are not my 2nd boyfriend. This piece was how I got through this experience and is the most honest and raw piece of art I’ve ever created. While the story is two love stories for me, I see the progression of moving on past heartbreak to be relevant to many people. You do not need to be Queer or Polyamorous to experience some of the emotions I worked through during the composition of this piece. Learn from these experiences. Live a life full of love. Love does not need to be romantic. Love can be between friends, family, or even yourself. There is no wrong way to love.

PERUSALSCORE

—Spencer Arias 2022

Commissioned by a Consortium led by Nick May, including: Jonathan Bergeron, Aimee Fincher, Matthew Fox, Dan Graser, Kyle Jones, Don-Paul Kahl, Michael Keeler, Jeffrey Loeffert, Jeffrey Leung, Timothy McAllister, Nicki Roman, Joshua Thomas, & Jared Waters

with additional support from: Jeffrey Allardyce, Liz Ames, Eddie Chung, Arlene and Larry Dunn, Jacen Paige. Nathan Salazar, & Leanna Simpkins-Hamburg

Published by Just a Theory Press, L.L.C. www.justatheorypress.com

First printing, 2022

I. You Broke My Heart

Angry and Scared = 112

a more informed anger

Cathartic = 72

a semi lazy strum

gentler and less sad

molto rit. al �ne

repeat ad nauseum

II. You Taught Me How to Fly

Gentle, songlike, and �oating = 66

PERUSALSCORE

A Solumn Yet Hopeful Lovesong = 48

7/29/22 | Göteborg, Sveriges

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www.justatheorypress.com

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