I HEARD
YOU SING

Luminescence Chamber Singers
Sound Engineer Bob Scott
Conducted by Roland Peelman
Film by Creswick Collective

JESS GREEN - I HEARD YOU SING
Commissioned and developed by Luminescence Chamber Singers [2022 - 2024].

I am someone who is attuned to seek awe and wonder, and that often comes from experiences of nature and human relationships. Becoming a mother was a profound experience, particularly in the time of birthing my first child and those first few days afterwards, where it seemed I had stepped through a portal to an alternate universe, or rather that a portal had opened and the universe had come through to me. I have written previous works that explore the phenomena of conception, and child developing in utero, but this time I wanted to humbly reflect also on my own mother carrying, and birthing me. I had recently heard a very interesting discussion explaining how the unborn child receives oxygen from its mother, her inhalations effectively serve as the unborn baby’s breath. Oxygen molecules pass through the placenta to the baby, involving complex biochemistry. I became fascinated by this process, and it struck me how clearly breath and breathing is at the core of life. During birthing my daughter there was certainly times were I felt completely alone, save for my breath, and it occurred to me, if ever there was a time when one might imagine being close to the cosmos, it was then. My mother breathed for me, and then breathed me into the world. I then too, “breathed” for my children, and brought them forth, so continuing this connection of breath from generation to generation. [Jess Green, 2022]