Chant for a Long Day is inspired by two monophonic chants for women, the Mersiyét from Pakistan, and the “waulking songs” from the island of Barra in the Hebrides. The text is a depiction of perserverance and longevity, a life force out of the distant and unknowable past, balanced for a moment in the present, and then heading for a distand and unknowable future. The words evoke images of physical and spiritual survival common to many cultures, as well as the images of femininity and ...