Winter 2023 Concert: A Parable of Choices
Program Notes
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This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council, and by the Aaron Copeland Fund for Music.
Sound
performed by C4 and Infinitus
written by Leslie Frost and Perry Townsend, 2022
conducted by Daniel Andor-Ardó and Daisy Howal-Raymond
“Sound” was the happy result of an experiment posed by Brian Mountford to set villanelle poems in a unique way. Villanelles involve two lines alternately repeating through several stanzas. This can be an interesting frame for double-chorus music – choirs alternate stanzas and sometimes sing the repeated lines together. Extending the idea of pairs, Brian also posed: Why not have pairs of composers write the works?
So we dove into this piece having never tried such a thing before. It was an amazing collaborative experience from start to finish. Billy Ramsell’s poem was rich in imagery about sounds and nature. Working within the set structure, we divvied it up and checked in with each other frequently, feeling free to make suggestions about how the material flowed, no matter who’d written it. Things naturally evolved from there.
We had a blast combining ideas and interpretations. Sometimes one person’s motive would get developed later by the other. Leslie had the idea of ending the piece with an actual *sound* of nature, and Perry suggested we introduce the nature sound earlier so it could *re-appear* at the end. These moments, plus a few others, were aleatoric – meaning several unmetered phrases float together in free rhythm. Which was perfect for the end because nature is in fact aleatoric sounding.
We’re so excited to hear it with double choir. The other result of the villanelles project, heard later on this program, is Brian’s and Ron Rybaczuk’s “My Darling Turns to Poetry at Night.”
– Leslie Frost and Perry Townsend
Sound, by Billy Ramsell
To render the ocean one needs a whole year
with Zoom in freezing fingers on a quarter-mile of coast.
Sound is the one true vocabulary of nature
and not the peacock-palette painters swear
he uses for his best stuff, for his daily disposable frescoes.
To render the ocean one needs a whole year
on the quayside tracking the tide’s increasing stature,
its drones and climaxes, the diminuendo when it shows
sound is the one true vocabulary of nature.
Nature plays bass clarinet in a Barcelona pop-up theatre.
In a polo neck he solos the ocean. He tongues, he blows
to render the ocean. One needs a whole year
or centuries to capture even its least-most feature:
like the boat-cove’s lapping, backwashed contraflows.
Sound is the one true vocabulary of Nature,
who’s lost in his MacBook, applying filter after filter
to this day-long rock-pool’s jazz, its stadium of echoes.
To render its ocean one needs a whole year:
sound is the one true vocabulary of nature.
Time
performed by Infinitus
written by Lucy Cook, 2022
conducted by Naudimar Ricardo
If Sound teaches us that nature takes a whole year to render, Jennifer Lucy Cook’s ingenious lyrics remind us that Time is also fleeting…short…incessant…NOW. With each repetition of the text, key words disappear revealing hidden meanings in the words that remain. Driving home the point, we hear the ticking clock, though slightly faster than the second hand on your watch.
Society tells students that we have plenty of time, but also that we shouldn't waste it. However, some of us are 6, 13, 20 and live in third world countries where food and resources are scarce. Others are 5, 10, 32 and battle terminal illnesses. Many more live in countries with never-ending wars and witness frequent violence. If nothing else, we hope this song inspires you to hold someone a bit more tightly, tell them you love them, and be thankful for every day you get the luxury to live without fear. In this way, we make the most of our world’s most precious and irreplaceable resource: Time.
--Naudimar Ricardo & Julian Bryson
Dawn
performed by Infinitus
written by Steven James Schmidt, 2019
conducted by Sabrina Tompkins
soloists: Meli Caceres, soprano & Dale Patrick, tenor; Julian Bryson, piano
The musical Bravo is set at the height of the Nazi Invasion of Italy during World War II, where a young Italian man hides six Jews and refugees to spare them from extermination. An adolescent Fascist soldier discovers their secret hiding place, and an unlikely bond develops. Dawn provides a moment of decision for the young man as he weighs the power of friendship and humanity against loyalty to his government.
While it is easy for us to judge while looking back on such a moment in history, let us not miss the parallels to our own society both then and now. Uprooted reminds us that the United States also had concentration camps during World War II, and today’s news shows us that politicians continue to scapegoat American minorities for personal gain. The question we face is the same as presented in Dawn. Not everyone has the same opportunity as we do, so when we see the injustice that surrounds us, what will we do to change it?
Uprooted
performed by C4
written by Sarah Rimkus, 2018
conducted by Daniel Andor-Ardó
soloists: Hannah Sobel, Karen Siegel, Julianna Grabowsky, Leslie Frost, TJ Scalfani, Perry Townsend, Evan Johnson
On March 30th 1942, 227 Japanese and Japanese-American people were forced to leave their homes on Bainbridge Island, Washington, taking the ferry into Seattle under armed guard and then the train and bus to Manzanar Relocation Center in the Mojave Desert. This was in response to Executive Order 9066, signed by President Roosevelt, which ordered all people in the western U.S. of Japanese ancestry (both American citizens and non-citizens) be removed from their homes and incarcerated in “relocation centers”, in remote and inhospitable camps under armed guard across the West. The Bainbridge Islanders were the first to be taken away. When they left, they did not know where they would be taken or how long they would be imprisoned there. They were tagged like luggage and could only bring what they could carry.
This piece takes the words of Kay Sakai Nakao and Lilly Kitamoto Kodama, interviewed by myself, to give a voice to their personal experiences. When they were sent to Manzanar, Kay was twenty-two and Lilly was seven. As of Autumn 2018, Kay will have called Bainbridge Island her home for 99 years. One thing that may be agreed upon by all is that this should never have happened and should never happen again, and that if we do not remember the darker parts of our history we are doomed to repeat them. Many Japanese Americans have worked tirelessly in the wake to ensure that no others go through similar experiences.
My hope is that this work does a small part to ensure that this piece of American history is not forgotten, and that telling the story may give some sense of consolation to those who have been deprived of their homes, their culture and their dignity by events such as these. Additionally, I wished to show hope that if we speak up, we may work together to prevent these injustices from continuing to happen.
- Sarah Rimkus
Shikata ga nai... [It cannot be helped.]
They didn’t tell us where we were going,
How long we would be gone.
There was nothing we could do.
You are uprooted,
Suddenly from your home.
You’re up in air
And can’t come down.
We’re on this train,
This train three days and two nights.
At the Mojave, no more train tracks.
We can see the heatwaves shimmering.
There was nothing we could do.
When you’re used to all this greenery,
All this water,
And then you go to a vast, flat dessert,
No green, no water,
Sagebrush and tumbleweeds–
you’re uprooted
in air
and can’t come down.
I am the only one,
I am the only one left who can speak.
I will speak.
Nidoto nai yoni... [Let it not happen again.]
A Parable of Choices
performed by C4
written by Julian David Bryson, 2017
conducted by Robert Buonaspina
soloists: Karen Siegel and Grace Tyson, sopranos; Zoe Marie Hart, alto; Jacob Lyon, tenor; Evan Johnson, bass
In the Spring of 2013, I was blessed to sing Benjamin Britten's War Requiem as a member of the University of Kentucky Chorale. Though l had heard the work before, Dr. Johnson invited his graduate conducting students into a detailed study to prepare for the performance. This was when Wilfred Owen’s poem The Parable of the Old Man and the Young first captured my attention. found myself bothered by his alternate ending and wanting to shout, “But that’s not how the story goes!”
As rehearsals continued, I returned to that text, eventually realizing that it depicts the way the story often plays out in real life. Owen was reflecting on the ironically titled “War to End All Wars,” while Britten chose the text as commentary on that particular war’s sequel. He composed the Requiem in the midst of the Cold War, shortly after the armistice in the Korean War, and at the beginning of hostilities in Vietnam. Obviously, “the Ram of Pride” was still alive and well, despite sacrificing “half the seed” of far too many continents.
Owen’s warning invaded my psyche, and I wanted others to wrestle with its questions. Knowing firsthand the challenges of performing the War Requiem, I decided to write something a choir could sing without two orchestras, three soloists, and a boy choir—preferably something that also presented the original tale as a contrast. The plan crystalized over the summer of 2016, and after some fantastic feedback from my dear friend (and Triad founder) David Harris, the final version took shape on a quiet, peaceful, sun-kissed morning while on holiday in St. Maarten.
The parable presents a relentlessly confrontational choice: humility vs pride; life vs. death; peace vs. war. Though one may see it as a rebuke of national hubris, these concepts resonate most vibrantly for me when held up to the daily decisions of life. In our habits of commerce, travel, communication, and the like, may we move consistently toward humility, life, and peace.
—Julian David Bryson
The Parable of the Old Man and the Young by Wilfred Owen (1893 – 1918)
Genesis 22:8, 13
So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Deus providebit sibi
victimam holocausti fili mi
pergebant ergo pariter
(“God will provide Himself the lamb
for the burnt offering, my son.”
And the two of them went on together. )
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
and builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Levavit Abraham oculos viditque post tergum arietem inter vepres herentem
(Abraham looked up and there
in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns.)
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
Quem adsumens obtulit
holocausti
pro filio
(He went over, took the ram,
and sacrificed it as a burnt offering
instead of his son.)
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.
And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”
¡Ayúdame!
performed by Infinitus
written by Carlos Cordero, 2019
conducted by Meli Caceres
drum: Julian Bryson
What was the last time you were hungry and could not immediately eat? Or thirsty and could not find water for hours? This is heartbreaking: to see my country, my family, suffering. I come from Venezuela, and I went through difficult times. [While composing ¡Ayúdame!], I asked myself all the questions and cried while working on my desk, so comfortable yet feeling so guilty and helpless. What was the last time you were sick and could not find the medicine to feel better or even to keep living?
--Carlos Cordero
The Dawn's Awake!
performed by Infinitus
written by Mark Lehnowsky, 2015
conducted by Haley Surprenant
Otto Leland Bohanen penned The Dawn’s Awake in 1917, at the height of Jim Crow tyranny and in the midst of World War I. Given his surroundings, such optimism is noteworthy. Composer Mark Lehnowsky places this forward gaze in a modern tonal context interwoven with the spirituals Over My Head, By and By, and Great Day. One of the work’s most intriguing features amplifies the text of Bohanen’s last lines: “Fathers! Torn and numb,—The boon of light we craved, awaited long, Has come, has come!” Beginning with the bass line, we hear 11 of the 12 chromatic pitches: E, F#, A, B, D, G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab. The 12th and final pitch arrives only as the trio sings “great DAY!” completing the circle for the final cadence.
Helios: 1. Pluto (The Border)
performed by Infinitus
written by Timothy Takach, 2019
conducted by Caitlin Jade Morales
There are many times where we stand in between things – periods of time in our lives, a life-changing event, the choice to move in a new direction. At these moments, what we see before us can look like chaos. Like the unknown. I believe that embracing this unknown can be the best thing for us. It allows us to move ahead, to grow, to learn, to become better.
Patricia Monaghan’s poem is abstract, but she pains such a vivid portrayal of motion, breath, stasis, indecision, and decision—all in 21 lines. I interpret this poem as the start to a journey. Chaos and the unknown lie ahead, and they are irresistible. Something is waiting for us, and we have only to take that first step forward.
– Timothy C. Takach
My Darling Turns to Poetry at Night
performed by C4 and Infinitus
written by Brian Mountford and Ron Rybaczuk, 2022
conducted by Robert Buonaspina and Paige Scott
As Perry and Leslie noted, a villanelle is a poem with a particular formal structure where the first and third lines of the poem come back in succeeding stanzas. I have thought for a while that, if we could ever get two adventurous, collaborative new music choruses together for a joint concert, it would be fun to have two composers collaborate on setting a villanelle, with the choruses alternating stanzas, and both choruses joining in on the recurring material. And now that concert has arrived!
Poets seem to love the challenge of writing a villanelle. There’s a separate category for them on the Poetry Foundation website. I went to the site, found some promising options, and wrote to the poets out of the blue. Several of them graciously granted us permission to make musical settings. I was fortunate to collaborate with Ron Rybaczuk of Infinitus on this evocative poem about contemplating a loved one asleep. We figured out the first stanza, and then alternated back and forth setting succeeding stanzas. Several times, one of us took the piece in a direction the other one wasn’t expecting! You’ll probably be able to hear the dialogue between our two compositional voices, hopefully coming to an agreement in the end.
For our setting, we made two separate scores, one for each chorus, containing only the music which that chorus sings (plus some cue measures so they don’t get lost). With any luck, the choruses will also be part of the audience, hearing each others’ music for the first time at the dress rehearsal. Thanks for joining us for this musical adventure.
-- Brian Mountford
My Darling Turns to Poetry at Night, by Anthony Lawrence
My darling turns to poetry at night.
What began as flirtation, an aside
Between abstract expression and first light
Now finds form as a silent, startled flight
Of commas on her face — a breath, a word ...
My darling turns to poetry at night.
When rain inspires the night birds to create
Rhyme and formal verse, stanzas can be made
Between abstract expression and first light.
Her heartbeat is a metaphor, a late
Bloom of red flowers that refuse to fade.
My darling turns to poetry at night.
I watch her turn. I do not sleep. I wait
For symbols, for a sign that fear has died
Between abstract expression and first light.
Her dreams have night vision, and in her sight
Our bodies leave ghostprints on the bed.
My darling turns to poetry at night
Between abstract expression and first light.
Miles to Go
performed by Infinitus
written by James W. Knox, 2021
conducted by Ron Rybaczuk
violin: Paige Scott; cello: Ian Rivera-Rosario; piano: Julian Bryson
James Knox’s cinematic setting of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening invites the listener on a journey. While traveling through the woods, a lone wagon driver pauses to enjoy the sight of snow falling in the woods. He feels torn between the present magic and knowledge of future responsibilities. People are waiting on him, and the remaining journey is long. The text and musical setting explore the tension of both being in the moment and preparing for the future.
O Oriens / Wie schon leuchtet der Morgenstern
performed by C4
written by Hayes Biggs, 2021
conducted by Perry Townsend
soloists: Grace Tyson, soprano; Cynthia Shaw, alto
O Oriens is one of the so-called “O Antiphons” for each day of the last week of Advent, so named because they all begin with the word “O”. Each of these titles is a name for Christ, reflecting his attributes as mentioned in scripture. Many English speaking Christian worshipers know these from singing the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (Veni Emmanuel), whose individual stanzas paraphrase the antiphons. O Oriens refers to Christ as the Rising Sun or Morning Star. Both the words and tune of the chorale „Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” are attributed to Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608), a German Lutheran pastor who also authored another celebrated chorale, „Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme.” Both of these melodies are perhaps best known in their harmonizations and other adaptations (chorale preludes, movements of cantatas, etc.) by Johann Sebastian Bach. While this hymn is most often associated with Epiphany (the Star of Bethlehem followed by the Magi), it is said that Nicolai wrote it in response to a pestilence that had struck his village in 1597.
The piece begins with a fanfare-like declamation of O Oriens for soprano and alto soli, who shortly are joined by the rest of the chorus. Though this section is quite chromatic in its harmonic language, it is connected, if only tangentially, to the oddball A major tonality in which much of the work lives. After the initial music concludes, the first verse of the chorale tune abruptly barges in after a short pause, clothed in a very full and active contrapuntal texture. Once it has reached a high point, the piece immediately reverts to a continuation of the text and music of the original treble-voiced duo, followed by a brief final challenge by the full choir to “darkness and the shadow of death.”
O Oriens: O Rising Sun, splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness: Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
"Wie schön leuchtet Der Morgenstern“:
How beautifully shines the morning star
full of grace and truth from the Lord,
the sweet root of Jesse!
You son of David from the line of Jacob,
my king and my bridegroom,
have taken posession of my heart,
lovely, friendly,
beautiful and glorious, great and honourable,
rich in gifts,
lofty and exalted in splendour!
Last Spring
performed by C4
written by David Lang, 2015
conducted by Karen Siegel
David Lang says about the piece, "I had the idea to make something out of the text that Grieg had used, in what is probably his most famous choral work – Våren. The word means ‘Spring’ but this elegiac text, by the Norwegian poet Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, is often translated into English as ‘Last Spring,’ since it is a moving description of an old man watching Winter change into Spring, not knowing if he will live to see another. I was working on this piece in Maine, as a guest of the art patron Marion ‘Kippy” Boulton Stroud, when she died suddenly, and it made the text much more immediate for me – more wistful, more emotional, more real."
Lang sets the text in a straightforward way throughout, as if the chorus is simply speaking the thoughts of a dying man. Then he introduces sustained notes in one voice part at a time, gradually layering swaths of color and emotion behind those thoughts. The sustained lines are each in their own meter, and all repeat, creating a fascinating sonic mobile. The combination of all these elements is extremely poignant.
—Karen Siegel
one more time I saw the spring
one more time I saw the cherries blossom
one more time I heard the ice break
one more time I saw the snow melt
more time
one more time I saw the grass becoming green
one more time I saw the flowers start to bloom
one more time I heard the birds begin to sing
one more time I saw the butterflies
I had missed the spring so long
would this be the last spring I would see?
I had had more than my share
more time
one more time I saw the spring, it filled my eyes
one more time I saw the sun, as it grew stronger
one more time I heard the music
it filled my eyes, it filled my eyes
—David Lang
Kyrie
performed by C4
written by Zanaida Robles, 1998
conducted by Karen Siegel
"Kyrie" began as "Weeping Song," a setting of oohs and aahs composed when I was 17 years old and learning to use music as an outlet for coping with debilitating depression and anxiety. I had just been introduced to the music of Samuel Barber, and Barber's setting of "Agnus Dei," based on his Adagio for Strings, was a massive influence on my compositional language at the time. Later, adding the catholic mass text which in English says "Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy" allowed me to connect my personal expression of grief to expressions of grief and pleas for mercy from across the centuries. In a way, adding this text helped me to feel like I wasn't alone and that a presence that transcends time and space might be lovingly hearing all of us as we cry for mercy in times of despair."
- Zanaida Robles
Kyrie Eleison. Christe Eleison. (Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.)
Psalm 142
performed by C4 and Infinitus
written by Robert Buonaspina, 2022
conducted by Emma Daniels
soloist: Alexa Letourneau, alto
Psalm 142 is an original setting of the eponymous text for eight-part (SSAATTBB) choir and a brief alto soloist. Though it was originally conceived in 2018, it was refined in 2022 — and, thanks to C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, sees its World Premiere in 2023. The setting is presented as verses between a consistent refrain. Pleading, motivic cries for help ("Cried to the Lord," "Deliver me," then, once again, "Cried to the Lord") are presented in juxtaposition with their occurrences in the strophes.
Text, paraphrased most closely from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible
1/Refrain: I cried unto the Lord;
With my voice I plead for mercy.
(Paraphrase of 1/Refrain:)
1: I cried to the Lord;
I plead for His mercy.
2: In His sight I pour out my prayer, for my troubles are told before Him.
5: I cried to you, O LORD:
I said, Thou art my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.
6: Attend unto my cry;
For I am brought very low:
Deliver me from my enemies,
For they are stronger than I.
7: Bring my soul out of prison,
That I may praise thy name:
The righteous shall compass me:
For thou shalt deal bountifully with me.
performed by C4 and Infinitus
written by Leslie Frost and Perry Townsend, 2022
conducted by Daniel Andor-Ardó and Daisy Howal-Raymond
“Sound” was the happy result of an experiment posed by Brian Mountford to set villanelle poems in a unique way. Villanelles involve two lines alternately repeating through several stanzas. This can be an interesting frame for double-chorus music – choirs alternate stanzas and sometimes sing the repeated lines together. Extending the idea of pairs, Brian also posed: Why not have pairs of composers write the works?
So we dove into this piece having never tried such a thing before. It was an amazing collaborative experience from start to finish. Billy Ramsell’s poem was rich in imagery about sounds and nature. Working within the set structure, we divvied it up and checked in with each other frequently, feeling free to make suggestions about how the material flowed, no matter who’d written it. Things naturally evolved from there.
We had a blast combining ideas and interpretations. Sometimes one person’s motive would get developed later by the other. Leslie had the idea of ending the piece with an actual *sound* of nature, and Perry suggested we introduce the nature sound earlier so it could *re-appear* at the end. These moments, plus a few others, were aleatoric – meaning several unmetered phrases float together in free rhythm. Which was perfect for the end because nature is in fact aleatoric sounding.
We’re so excited to hear it with double choir. The other result of the villanelles project, heard later on this program, is Brian’s and Ron Rybaczuk’s “My Darling Turns to Poetry at Night.”
– Leslie Frost and Perry Townsend
Sound, by Billy Ramsell
To render the ocean one needs a whole year
with Zoom in freezing fingers on a quarter-mile of coast.
Sound is the one true vocabulary of nature
and not the peacock-palette painters swear
he uses for his best stuff, for his daily disposable frescoes.
To render the ocean one needs a whole year
on the quayside tracking the tide’s increasing stature,
its drones and climaxes, the diminuendo when it shows
sound is the one true vocabulary of nature.
Nature plays bass clarinet in a Barcelona pop-up theatre.
In a polo neck he solos the ocean. He tongues, he blows
to render the ocean. One needs a whole year
or centuries to capture even its least-most feature:
like the boat-cove’s lapping, backwashed contraflows.
Sound is the one true vocabulary of Nature,
who’s lost in his MacBook, applying filter after filter
to this day-long rock-pool’s jazz, its stadium of echoes.
To render its ocean one needs a whole year:
sound is the one true vocabulary of nature.
Time
performed by Infinitus
written by Lucy Cook, 2022
conducted by Naudimar Ricardo
If Sound teaches us that nature takes a whole year to render, Jennifer Lucy Cook’s ingenious lyrics remind us that Time is also fleeting…short…incessant…NOW. With each repetition of the text, key words disappear revealing hidden meanings in the words that remain. Driving home the point, we hear the ticking clock, though slightly faster than the second hand on your watch.
Society tells students that we have plenty of time, but also that we shouldn't waste it. However, some of us are 6, 13, 20 and live in third world countries where food and resources are scarce. Others are 5, 10, 32 and battle terminal illnesses. Many more live in countries with never-ending wars and witness frequent violence. If nothing else, we hope this song inspires you to hold someone a bit more tightly, tell them you love them, and be thankful for every day you get the luxury to live without fear. In this way, we make the most of our world’s most precious and irreplaceable resource: Time.
--Naudimar Ricardo & Julian Bryson
Dawn
performed by Infinitus
written by Steven James Schmidt, 2019
conducted by Sabrina Tompkins
soloists: Meli Caceres, soprano & Dale Patrick, tenor; Julian Bryson, piano
The musical Bravo is set at the height of the Nazi Invasion of Italy during World War II, where a young Italian man hides six Jews and refugees to spare them from extermination. An adolescent Fascist soldier discovers their secret hiding place, and an unlikely bond develops. Dawn provides a moment of decision for the young man as he weighs the power of friendship and humanity against loyalty to his government.
While it is easy for us to judge while looking back on such a moment in history, let us not miss the parallels to our own society both then and now. Uprooted reminds us that the United States also had concentration camps during World War II, and today’s news shows us that politicians continue to scapegoat American minorities for personal gain. The question we face is the same as presented in Dawn. Not everyone has the same opportunity as we do, so when we see the injustice that surrounds us, what will we do to change it?
Uprooted
performed by C4
written by Sarah Rimkus, 2018
conducted by Daniel Andor-Ardó
soloists: Hannah Sobel, Karen Siegel, Julianna Grabowsky, Leslie Frost, TJ Scalfani, Perry Townsend, Evan Johnson
On March 30th 1942, 227 Japanese and Japanese-American people were forced to leave their homes on Bainbridge Island, Washington, taking the ferry into Seattle under armed guard and then the train and bus to Manzanar Relocation Center in the Mojave Desert. This was in response to Executive Order 9066, signed by President Roosevelt, which ordered all people in the western U.S. of Japanese ancestry (both American citizens and non-citizens) be removed from their homes and incarcerated in “relocation centers”, in remote and inhospitable camps under armed guard across the West. The Bainbridge Islanders were the first to be taken away. When they left, they did not know where they would be taken or how long they would be imprisoned there. They were tagged like luggage and could only bring what they could carry.
This piece takes the words of Kay Sakai Nakao and Lilly Kitamoto Kodama, interviewed by myself, to give a voice to their personal experiences. When they were sent to Manzanar, Kay was twenty-two and Lilly was seven. As of Autumn 2018, Kay will have called Bainbridge Island her home for 99 years. One thing that may be agreed upon by all is that this should never have happened and should never happen again, and that if we do not remember the darker parts of our history we are doomed to repeat them. Many Japanese Americans have worked tirelessly in the wake to ensure that no others go through similar experiences.
My hope is that this work does a small part to ensure that this piece of American history is not forgotten, and that telling the story may give some sense of consolation to those who have been deprived of their homes, their culture and their dignity by events such as these. Additionally, I wished to show hope that if we speak up, we may work together to prevent these injustices from continuing to happen.
- Sarah Rimkus
Shikata ga nai... [It cannot be helped.]
They didn’t tell us where we were going,
How long we would be gone.
There was nothing we could do.
You are uprooted,
Suddenly from your home.
You’re up in air
And can’t come down.
We’re on this train,
This train three days and two nights.
At the Mojave, no more train tracks.
We can see the heatwaves shimmering.
There was nothing we could do.
When you’re used to all this greenery,
All this water,
And then you go to a vast, flat dessert,
No green, no water,
Sagebrush and tumbleweeds–
you’re uprooted
in air
and can’t come down.
I am the only one,
I am the only one left who can speak.
I will speak.
Nidoto nai yoni... [Let it not happen again.]
A Parable of Choices
performed by C4
written by Julian David Bryson, 2017
conducted by Robert Buonaspina
soloists: Karen Siegel and Grace Tyson, sopranos; Zoe Marie Hart, alto; Jacob Lyon, tenor; Evan Johnson, bass
In the Spring of 2013, I was blessed to sing Benjamin Britten's War Requiem as a member of the University of Kentucky Chorale. Though l had heard the work before, Dr. Johnson invited his graduate conducting students into a detailed study to prepare for the performance. This was when Wilfred Owen’s poem The Parable of the Old Man and the Young first captured my attention. found myself bothered by his alternate ending and wanting to shout, “But that’s not how the story goes!”
As rehearsals continued, I returned to that text, eventually realizing that it depicts the way the story often plays out in real life. Owen was reflecting on the ironically titled “War to End All Wars,” while Britten chose the text as commentary on that particular war’s sequel. He composed the Requiem in the midst of the Cold War, shortly after the armistice in the Korean War, and at the beginning of hostilities in Vietnam. Obviously, “the Ram of Pride” was still alive and well, despite sacrificing “half the seed” of far too many continents.
Owen’s warning invaded my psyche, and I wanted others to wrestle with its questions. Knowing firsthand the challenges of performing the War Requiem, I decided to write something a choir could sing without two orchestras, three soloists, and a boy choir—preferably something that also presented the original tale as a contrast. The plan crystalized over the summer of 2016, and after some fantastic feedback from my dear friend (and Triad founder) David Harris, the final version took shape on a quiet, peaceful, sun-kissed morning while on holiday in St. Maarten.
The parable presents a relentlessly confrontational choice: humility vs pride; life vs. death; peace vs. war. Though one may see it as a rebuke of national hubris, these concepts resonate most vibrantly for me when held up to the daily decisions of life. In our habits of commerce, travel, communication, and the like, may we move consistently toward humility, life, and peace.
—Julian David Bryson
The Parable of the Old Man and the Young by Wilfred Owen (1893 – 1918)
Genesis 22:8, 13
So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Deus providebit sibi
victimam holocausti fili mi
pergebant ergo pariter
(“God will provide Himself the lamb
for the burnt offering, my son.”
And the two of them went on together. )
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
and builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Levavit Abraham oculos viditque post tergum arietem inter vepres herentem
(Abraham looked up and there
in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns.)
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
Quem adsumens obtulit
holocausti
pro filio
(He went over, took the ram,
and sacrificed it as a burnt offering
instead of his son.)
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.
And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”
¡Ayúdame!
performed by Infinitus
written by Carlos Cordero, 2019
conducted by Meli Caceres
drum: Julian Bryson
What was the last time you were hungry and could not immediately eat? Or thirsty and could not find water for hours? This is heartbreaking: to see my country, my family, suffering. I come from Venezuela, and I went through difficult times. [While composing ¡Ayúdame!], I asked myself all the questions and cried while working on my desk, so comfortable yet feeling so guilty and helpless. What was the last time you were sick and could not find the medicine to feel better or even to keep living?
--Carlos Cordero
The Dawn's Awake!
performed by Infinitus
written by Mark Lehnowsky, 2015
conducted by Haley Surprenant
Otto Leland Bohanen penned The Dawn’s Awake in 1917, at the height of Jim Crow tyranny and in the midst of World War I. Given his surroundings, such optimism is noteworthy. Composer Mark Lehnowsky places this forward gaze in a modern tonal context interwoven with the spirituals Over My Head, By and By, and Great Day. One of the work’s most intriguing features amplifies the text of Bohanen’s last lines: “Fathers! Torn and numb,—The boon of light we craved, awaited long, Has come, has come!” Beginning with the bass line, we hear 11 of the 12 chromatic pitches: E, F#, A, B, D, G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab. The 12th and final pitch arrives only as the trio sings “great DAY!” completing the circle for the final cadence.
Helios: 1. Pluto (The Border)
performed by Infinitus
written by Timothy Takach, 2019
conducted by Caitlin Jade Morales
There are many times where we stand in between things – periods of time in our lives, a life-changing event, the choice to move in a new direction. At these moments, what we see before us can look like chaos. Like the unknown. I believe that embracing this unknown can be the best thing for us. It allows us to move ahead, to grow, to learn, to become better.
Patricia Monaghan’s poem is abstract, but she pains such a vivid portrayal of motion, breath, stasis, indecision, and decision—all in 21 lines. I interpret this poem as the start to a journey. Chaos and the unknown lie ahead, and they are irresistible. Something is waiting for us, and we have only to take that first step forward.
– Timothy C. Takach
My Darling Turns to Poetry at Night
performed by C4 and Infinitus
written by Brian Mountford and Ron Rybaczuk, 2022
conducted by Robert Buonaspina and Paige Scott
As Perry and Leslie noted, a villanelle is a poem with a particular formal structure where the first and third lines of the poem come back in succeeding stanzas. I have thought for a while that, if we could ever get two adventurous, collaborative new music choruses together for a joint concert, it would be fun to have two composers collaborate on setting a villanelle, with the choruses alternating stanzas, and both choruses joining in on the recurring material. And now that concert has arrived!
Poets seem to love the challenge of writing a villanelle. There’s a separate category for them on the Poetry Foundation website. I went to the site, found some promising options, and wrote to the poets out of the blue. Several of them graciously granted us permission to make musical settings. I was fortunate to collaborate with Ron Rybaczuk of Infinitus on this evocative poem about contemplating a loved one asleep. We figured out the first stanza, and then alternated back and forth setting succeeding stanzas. Several times, one of us took the piece in a direction the other one wasn’t expecting! You’ll probably be able to hear the dialogue between our two compositional voices, hopefully coming to an agreement in the end.
For our setting, we made two separate scores, one for each chorus, containing only the music which that chorus sings (plus some cue measures so they don’t get lost). With any luck, the choruses will also be part of the audience, hearing each others’ music for the first time at the dress rehearsal. Thanks for joining us for this musical adventure.
-- Brian Mountford
My Darling Turns to Poetry at Night, by Anthony Lawrence
My darling turns to poetry at night.
What began as flirtation, an aside
Between abstract expression and first light
Now finds form as a silent, startled flight
Of commas on her face — a breath, a word ...
My darling turns to poetry at night.
When rain inspires the night birds to create
Rhyme and formal verse, stanzas can be made
Between abstract expression and first light.
Her heartbeat is a metaphor, a late
Bloom of red flowers that refuse to fade.
My darling turns to poetry at night.
I watch her turn. I do not sleep. I wait
For symbols, for a sign that fear has died
Between abstract expression and first light.
Her dreams have night vision, and in her sight
Our bodies leave ghostprints on the bed.
My darling turns to poetry at night
Between abstract expression and first light.
Miles to Go
performed by Infinitus
written by James W. Knox, 2021
conducted by Ron Rybaczuk
violin: Paige Scott; cello: Ian Rivera-Rosario; piano: Julian Bryson
James Knox’s cinematic setting of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening invites the listener on a journey. While traveling through the woods, a lone wagon driver pauses to enjoy the sight of snow falling in the woods. He feels torn between the present magic and knowledge of future responsibilities. People are waiting on him, and the remaining journey is long. The text and musical setting explore the tension of both being in the moment and preparing for the future.
O Oriens / Wie schon leuchtet der Morgenstern
performed by C4
written by Hayes Biggs, 2021
conducted by Perry Townsend
soloists: Grace Tyson, soprano; Cynthia Shaw, alto
O Oriens is one of the so-called “O Antiphons” for each day of the last week of Advent, so named because they all begin with the word “O”. Each of these titles is a name for Christ, reflecting his attributes as mentioned in scripture. Many English speaking Christian worshipers know these from singing the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (Veni Emmanuel), whose individual stanzas paraphrase the antiphons. O Oriens refers to Christ as the Rising Sun or Morning Star. Both the words and tune of the chorale „Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” are attributed to Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608), a German Lutheran pastor who also authored another celebrated chorale, „Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme.” Both of these melodies are perhaps best known in their harmonizations and other adaptations (chorale preludes, movements of cantatas, etc.) by Johann Sebastian Bach. While this hymn is most often associated with Epiphany (the Star of Bethlehem followed by the Magi), it is said that Nicolai wrote it in response to a pestilence that had struck his village in 1597.
The piece begins with a fanfare-like declamation of O Oriens for soprano and alto soli, who shortly are joined by the rest of the chorus. Though this section is quite chromatic in its harmonic language, it is connected, if only tangentially, to the oddball A major tonality in which much of the work lives. After the initial music concludes, the first verse of the chorale tune abruptly barges in after a short pause, clothed in a very full and active contrapuntal texture. Once it has reached a high point, the piece immediately reverts to a continuation of the text and music of the original treble-voiced duo, followed by a brief final challenge by the full choir to “darkness and the shadow of death.”
O Oriens: O Rising Sun, splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness: Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
"Wie schön leuchtet Der Morgenstern“:
How beautifully shines the morning star
full of grace and truth from the Lord,
the sweet root of Jesse!
You son of David from the line of Jacob,
my king and my bridegroom,
have taken posession of my heart,
lovely, friendly,
beautiful and glorious, great and honourable,
rich in gifts,
lofty and exalted in splendour!
Last Spring
performed by C4
written by David Lang, 2015
conducted by Karen Siegel
David Lang says about the piece, "I had the idea to make something out of the text that Grieg had used, in what is probably his most famous choral work – Våren. The word means ‘Spring’ but this elegiac text, by the Norwegian poet Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, is often translated into English as ‘Last Spring,’ since it is a moving description of an old man watching Winter change into Spring, not knowing if he will live to see another. I was working on this piece in Maine, as a guest of the art patron Marion ‘Kippy” Boulton Stroud, when she died suddenly, and it made the text much more immediate for me – more wistful, more emotional, more real."
Lang sets the text in a straightforward way throughout, as if the chorus is simply speaking the thoughts of a dying man. Then he introduces sustained notes in one voice part at a time, gradually layering swaths of color and emotion behind those thoughts. The sustained lines are each in their own meter, and all repeat, creating a fascinating sonic mobile. The combination of all these elements is extremely poignant.
—Karen Siegel
one more time I saw the spring
one more time I saw the cherries blossom
one more time I heard the ice break
one more time I saw the snow melt
more time
one more time I saw the grass becoming green
one more time I saw the flowers start to bloom
one more time I heard the birds begin to sing
one more time I saw the butterflies
I had missed the spring so long
would this be the last spring I would see?
I had had more than my share
more time
one more time I saw the spring, it filled my eyes
one more time I saw the sun, as it grew stronger
one more time I heard the music
it filled my eyes, it filled my eyes
—David Lang
Kyrie
performed by C4
written by Zanaida Robles, 1998
conducted by Karen Siegel
"Kyrie" began as "Weeping Song," a setting of oohs and aahs composed when I was 17 years old and learning to use music as an outlet for coping with debilitating depression and anxiety. I had just been introduced to the music of Samuel Barber, and Barber's setting of "Agnus Dei," based on his Adagio for Strings, was a massive influence on my compositional language at the time. Later, adding the catholic mass text which in English says "Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy" allowed me to connect my personal expression of grief to expressions of grief and pleas for mercy from across the centuries. In a way, adding this text helped me to feel like I wasn't alone and that a presence that transcends time and space might be lovingly hearing all of us as we cry for mercy in times of despair."
- Zanaida Robles
Kyrie Eleison. Christe Eleison. (Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.)
Psalm 142
performed by C4 and Infinitus
written by Robert Buonaspina, 2022
conducted by Emma Daniels
soloist: Alexa Letourneau, alto
Psalm 142 is an original setting of the eponymous text for eight-part (SSAATTBB) choir and a brief alto soloist. Though it was originally conceived in 2018, it was refined in 2022 — and, thanks to C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, sees its World Premiere in 2023. The setting is presented as verses between a consistent refrain. Pleading, motivic cries for help ("Cried to the Lord," "Deliver me," then, once again, "Cried to the Lord") are presented in juxtaposition with their occurrences in the strophes.
Text, paraphrased most closely from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible
1/Refrain: I cried unto the Lord;
With my voice I plead for mercy.
(Paraphrase of 1/Refrain:)
1: I cried to the Lord;
I plead for His mercy.
2: In His sight I pour out my prayer, for my troubles are told before Him.
5: I cried to you, O LORD:
I said, Thou art my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.
6: Attend unto my cry;
For I am brought very low:
Deliver me from my enemies,
For they are stronger than I.
7: Bring my soul out of prison,
That I may praise thy name:
The righteous shall compass me:
For thou shalt deal bountifully with me.
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