Shortly after hearing Jacob Collier’s lush World O World for the first time, I found myself wanting to create my own slow-moving, mixed-choir piece that luxuriated in harmony. When I found Georgia Douglas Johnson’s powerful poem I Want to Die While You Love Me, I knew I had come across poetry that could shine in a steady, declamatory piece of music. Incorporating small touches of Brahms’ op. 29, no. 2 “Schaffe in mir, Gott” for a powerful, polyphonic climax, I Want to Die While You Love Me tells the story of a love so powerful the speaker would rather die than live without it.