Melissa Dunphy

Arranged for the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus.

Trent Reznor's "Hurt" from the 1994 Nine Inch Nails album The Downward Spiral, arranged by Melissa Dunphy for double SATB choir.

"["Hurt" is] a really amazing arrangement for double choir [...] they almost treat the song as a dialog, an internal dialog. [Dunphy] is a brilliant writer, particularly for the voice [...] it's an incredibly powerful song." [Philip Barnes, on St. Louis on the Air]

Note from the Composer

Trent Reznor's music has changed many people's lives, but how many can say that Nine Inch Nails is responsible for their marriage, citizenship, and career? Decades ago, a shared love of the band drew me across the world's largest ocean to marry the American webmaster of the NIN Hotline. In my mid-twenties, before I made the decision to go back to college to study music composition, I cut my teeth transcribing the music of Nine Inch Nails and uploading the sheet music to a page on that website (Know the Score). Having seen Trent Reznor live in concert at least two dozen times, I can honestly say that his influence on my work has been so profound that I ought to put a bust of his head on my piano next to those of Bach, Mozart, and Wagner. I leapt at the opportunity to arrange "Hurt" from the 1994 Nine Inch Nails album The Downward Spiral for the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, an ensemble I have collaborated with frequently since 2015. Creating an homage to music that has had such an enormous impact on my life has been deeply meaningful and emotional; I could not be more excited to honor this song in my own way.

Text

Hurt
By Trent Reznor

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

What have I become
My sweetest friend?
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end

And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of shit
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

What have I become
My sweetest friend?
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end

And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

Artwork by Matt Dunphy.

Performances

• 10 Nov, 2024: Saint Louis Chamber Chorus at The Sun Theater, St. Louis, MO