A Time for Life
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A TIME FOR LIFE 1 CAPPELLA ROMANA Alexander Lingas Robert Kyr: A Time for Life Founder and Artistic Director An environmental oratorio soprano LeaAnne DenBeste Stephanie Noble alto Tuesday Rupp Kristen Buhler, alto (A2) Part I: CREATION Part III: REMEMBERING tenor Cahen Taylor i. Prologue. [Instrumental] I. DANCE OF LIFE Mark Powell ii. Proclaiming. iii. Arriving. II. CANTICLE OF LIFE bass iv. Praising. Canticle: First Part Aaron Cain v. Trembling. i. First Soliloquy David Stutz vi. Rejoicing. ii. First Canons iii. Chorale, First Verse Part II: FORGETTING Canticle: Second Part i. Prologue. [Instrumental] iv. Second Soliloquy THIRD ANGLE NEW MUSIC v. Chorale, Second Verse ii. Supplication I: We Ignore Your Word vi. Second Canons Ron Blessinger iii. Witness I: Look and Behold Violin & Artistic Director Canticle: Third Part iv. Supplication II: We Devour Your Forest vii. Third Soliloquy Anna Schaum v. Witness II: Breathe and Remember viii. Chorale, Third Verse Viola ix. Third Canons vi. Supplication III: We Defile Your Oceans Hamilton Cheifetz vii. Witness III: The Survivor Canticle: Final Part Violoncello x. Final Chorale viii. Supplication IV: We Destroy Nature xi. Final Canons ix. Witness IV: Howl, You Shepherds! xii. Epilogue x. Supplication V: We Pollute the Air xi. Witness V: The Joyless Land xii. Supplication VI: The Dying Planet xiii. Witness VI: The Sacred Way 2 camp in 1942); and the Orthodox “Service for the Environment” that was written in 1961 by the monk Gerasimos at the monastery of the Skete of Little Anne on Mt. Athos (Greece). • Part II: Forgetting. The second part explores A TIME FOR LIFE BY ROBERT KYR humanity’s present inability to live in harmony with Program note by the composer nature as “forgetting” and makes a recurrent appeal to the Creator: “… We forget who we are. Help us to remember …” Forgetting is structured in six sections One of the most urgent issues facing the world today and each consists of two parts: a “supplication” (a is the ecological crisis caused by humanity’s inability solo followed by canons) paired with a “witness” to live in harmony with the natural world. My account (an aria, duo or trio). The sources for Part II collaboration with Cappella Romana grew out of our are: the U.N. Environmental Sabbath Program; the mutual concern about this potentially catastrophic Books of Jeremiah and Isaiah; the Chinook Psalter; situation. After many discussions, I decided to create and an Ojibway Prayer, as well as the Orthodox an environmental oratorio in order to address this “Service for the Environment.” crucial topic from a variety of perspectives. • Part III: Remembering. The third part begins with A Time for Life (2007) was created for eight of the the Dance of Life followed by the Canticle of Life. The principal singers of Cappella Romana, Alexander “dance” features a double chorus singing call-and- Lingas (its director), and the ensemble Medieval response (three women juxtaposed with three men), Strings with a later version (2008) for modern whereas the “canticle” is structured in four parts, instruments (Third Angle New Music). The work each of which contains a soliloquy (solo), a section features each of its vocalists as a soloist, a chamber of canons, and a chorale (full, eight-voice choral musician (a member of duo- and trio-formations), texture). The text sources for Part III are a Pawnee/ and a chorister (part of the full eight-voice choral Osage/Omaha Indian Song, a Navaho Chant, the texture). I know the artists of Cappella Romana Book of Ecclesiastes, and the Orthodox “Service for well and so I created the oratorio expressly for the Environment.” them so that they could explore the full range of A Time for Life is a “musical play” that traces a their abilities. In this sense, A Time for Life is a journey from the glory of Creation as it was given to musical play in which each “character” (singer or humanity (Part I) through our destructive behavior instrumentalist) performs a variety of roles. In a live as demonstrated by the current global environmental performance, this play is also enacted through both crisis (Part II: Forgetting). The potential for the music and a simple choral choreography; the destruction is total: the forest (Supplication & movement of the performers through the concert Witness II); the oceans (Supplication III); animal life space is a journey that embodies the meaning of the (Supplication IV); the air we breathe (Supplication text. V); and the entire planet itself as plagued by The composite text forA Time for Life was adapted corruption and abuse (Supplication VI). No one from a wide range of sources that explore the can escape the responsibility for the earth (“My relationship of humanity to nature. The work is people are fools,/Senseless children/Who have no structured in three large-scale parts, as follows: understanding”), especially the leaders (“No more • Part I: Creation. In the first part, the nature of will the fool be called noble,/For he speaks foolishly,/ creation is celebrated through praise for the Creator Planning evil in his heart”). The ruling class of all and through rejoicing in the pure creative force nations is particularly culpable in its folly (“Howl, of existence. The text was adapted from several you shepherds, and wail!/Roll in the dust, leaders of sources: a Sioux Prayer; an Eskimo Song; Psalm 8; the flock!/There is no flight for shepherds,/No escape An Akathist in Praise of God’s Creation (attributed to for leaders of the flock./There is no escape!”). Metropolitan Tryphon, 1934, but possibly written by The final phase of the journey (Part III: Father Gregory Petrov who died in a Soviet prison Remembering) moves towards a hopeful future in 3 which humanity serves as a responsible steward of And thus, my environmental oratorio traces our the earth and thus realigns itself with the creative journey from a state of division and separation to the forces of existence. This journey is a spiritual one way of unity and wholeness. in which we remember our true responsibility —Robert Kyr of stewardship for the earth, and through this awakening finally “act[s] as one to preserve creation” (Part III: Final Chorale). This spiritual awakening leads to true and sustained action, as the final arc of the journey passes through three phases: “… remembering… restoring… rejoicing…” In turn, these phases lead to gratitude for all life: “Beauty before me…behind me…below me…above me…around me…In beauty it is finished…” A Time for Life is dedicated to Alexander Lingas and Cappella Romana. I believe that music and the arts have a crucial role to play in the transformation of the current energy of cynicism and destruction into the life-sustaining attitude and energy of creativity. NO WHITE FLOOD. #1 on AmazonBLACK New ON Releases! SILVER HYMNSONLY OF KASSIANÍ g The earliest music in the world by 2 2 & 4 P a femaleR composer, Kassianí (c.805–865) C 2 - 0 2 Discover the ancient music of ninth-century nun, poet, and hymnographer Y 1 N Kassianí (a.k.a. Kassía). 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Billboard’s 2020 Classical Chart. A O F R O D S N . O 4 A I L T L A R L I O G I H V T A S S R I E S G E N R I V D E R D O . C U E N R A S U I T H H Cappella Romana T O F R O I N ZE O D Alexander Lingas TI PU CA B LI LI P C P DU ERF ND OR L, A MA NTA NCE, , RE BROADCASTING, HIRING White Flood (D109) Cyan Magenta Yellow Black “THE GREEN PATRIARCH,” CAPPELLA are most properly ordered by love and thanksgiving. ROMANA, AND A TIME FOR LIFE Some years ago Robert Kyr, having become aware Before climate change became a pressing item on the of and admiring the environmental initiatives of global agenda, signs of human abuse of the natural Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, approached environment had prompted efforts in religious me with the idea of composing an oratorio for communities throughout the world to recover Cappella Romana that would address some of spiritually grounded notions of human stewardship the same issues. This led to further conversations within creation. For Orthodox Christianity, this between us exploring past and present perspectives process began in earnest during the second half on the relationship between divinity, humanity of the tenure of His All-Holiness Dimitrios I as and the environment.