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Sponsor

Welcome to Festival 2010. We have searched the world to bring you some of the best the performing arts have to offer. Over the 18 days of this month’s Festival, we present 45 performances by artists and ensembles from 12 countries, and expand our venues to include a new site on Governors Island.

The Lincoln Center Festival opened with the pelling one-man tour-de-force Miroku , and Pichet North American premiere of Musashi , a lavish Klunchun brings his brilliant company from Noh-inspired drama. Yukio Ninagawa directed Bangkok this weekend for Chui Chai . The title, the late Hisashi Inoue’s reworking and revital - meaning “transformation,” is as much a ization of a traditional Japanese tale based on metaphor for Pichet’s own modernization of Thai the life of a real samurai warrior. classical dance as it is a description of the Ramayana, an Indian epic on which it is based. We take an unprecedented look at the complete work of 20th-century musical maverick Edgard Georgian writer, director, and master puppeteer Varèse with a two-night retrospective. A true Rezo Gabriadze returns this week with an pioneer, Varèse longed to “liberate sound” to encore of his elegant and elegiac The Battle of reflect in music the immense technological Stalingrad . Puppet theater for adults, it mixes changes of the last century, and the forces of humor and heartbreak to tell the story of one of the Philharmonic, International Con- the most devastating battles of World War II. temporary Ensemble, S o¯ Percussion, Musica Sacra, and the Oratorio Society reveal his suc - If we had a musical survivors series, it would cess . With the Festival debut of Germany’s undoubtedly include three groups who made Wuppertal Opera and the North American pre - Festival debuts this month: The Blind Boys of miere of Salvatore Sciarrino’s La porta della Alabama, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, legge , we continue to celebrate composers who and Emir Kusturica and The No Smoking break with convention. A master of harmonics Orchestra. The Blind Boys have inspired musi - and structure, Sciarrino challenges all pre-con - cians and music lovers of all tastes for decades, ceived notions of what opera can be. and over three nights we celebrated their con - tribution to the American music scene. Benin’s It is always a pleasure to present innovative Orchestre Poly-Rythmo and Sarajevo’s No work from the world of dance, and wonderful to Smoking Orchestra are hugely successful in wel come back the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane their homelands but have only recently burst Dance Company. Bill has never been one to shy onto the international scene. Both made their away from difficult subjects, and his Fondly Do U.S. debuts at the Festival last week. We Hope… Fervently Do We Pray is an inspiring and emotionally wrenching work. Dancer and Two dynamic directors gave new life to classics choreographer Saburo Teshigawara, who made from literature and film at our newest perfor - his Lincoln Center Festival debut in 2006, mance venue. An industrial warehouse on brought back his laser-like focus for the com - Governors Island was the dramatic backdrop for the North American premieres of Peter Stein’s marathon adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s novel The Demons and Toneelgroep Amsterdam’s Teorema , based on the film by Pier Paolo Pasolini and directed by Ivo van Hove.

I am pleased that you are joining us and hope that you will visit often throughout the month.

Nigel Redden Director Lincoln Center Festival

Edgard Varèse

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Lincol n Cente r Festiva l 2010 Varèse: (R)evolution The Complete Works of Edgard Varèse , Part I

International Contemporary Ensemble July 1 9 ALICE TULLY HALL So¯ Percussion STARR THEATER

Soprano Anu Komsi There will be one intermission Bass-Baritone Alan Held Flute Claire Chase Piano Mika Rännäli Cello Theremin Jonathan Golove Natasha Farny

Musica Sacra Chorus Master Kent Tritle

Conductor Steven Schick

Made possible in part by The Grand Marnier Foundation and the Georges Lurcy Charitable and Educational Trust.

Lincoln Center Festival 2010 is made possible in part with public funds from the Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.

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Program

Poème Électronique (1958)

Un Grand Sommeil Noir (1906) Soprano Anu Komsi Piano Mika Rännäli

Hyperprism (1923)

Offrandes (1921) Soprano Anu Komsi

Intégrales (1925)

Ecuatorial (1934) Bass-Baritone Alan Held Cello Theremins Jonathan Golove , Natasha Farny

INTERMISSION

Dance for Burgess (1949; ed. Chou Wen-chung , 1998)

Étude pour Espace (1947; orch. and arr . for spatialized live performance by Chou Wen-chung , 2009) Soprano Anu Komsi Musica Sacra Chorus Master Kent Tritle

Density 21.5 (1936) Flute Claire Chase

Déserts (1954) 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 4

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International Contemporary So¯ Percussion Ensemble Eric Beach Violins Erik Carlson, Jennifer Curtis Josh Quillen Viola Wendy Richman Adam Sliwinski Jason Treuting Cello Kivie Cahn-Lipman Bass Randall Zigler Musica Sacra Chorus Piano Jacob Greenberg Sopranos Lianne Coble, Margery Daley, Percussion Nathan Davis , Doug Perkins Amy Justman, Kathryn Lewek, Harp Jacqui Kerrod Kathy Theil, Elena Williamson Flutes Claire Chase, Eric Lamb Altos Biraj Barkakaty, Ory Brown, Clarinets Campbell MacDonald , Katie Geissinger (Soloist) , Misa Iwama, Joshua Rubin , Alicia Lee Silvie Jensen, Karen Krueger Oboe Nicholas Masterson Tenors Steven Fox, Drew Martin (Soloist), Douglas Purcell, David Ronis Bassoon Rebekah Heller Basses Frank Barr, Matt Boehler, Horns David Byrd-Marrow , Neil Netherly, Gregory Purnhagen, Adam Krauthamer , Danielle Kuhlmann Christopher Roselli, Arizeder Urreiztieta Trumpets Peter Evans , Gareth Flowers , Christopher Coletti, Brandon Ridenour Choral Contractor Karen Krueger Trombone Mike Lormand, Assistant to Kent Tritle Michael Sheetz Nathan Mayland, David Nelson , Jack Schatz Tuba Dan Peck , Chris Hall Organ Kent Tritle*

Sound Engineer Ryan Streber

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About the Composer reluctantly returned to his parents for good and started his school life. Edgard Varèse (1883 –1965) did not want his biography to be written. When John Between the ages of 8 and 20 , Varèse lived Cage asked him for a bio to accompany a with his family in Turin, Italy, where his published interview, including a complete father moved for business. At 11 , he made list of works with dates of publication and his first compositional attempt—an Italian performance, Varèse responded, “I think it opera called Martino Paz based on a short is time to pay more attention to music than story text by Jules Verne. His friends would to promotion of personality, and as for the act out the roles, with Varèse accompany - dates of performance or publication I think ing on the mandolin and another boy on the it is almost a pedantic necrophilia.” Yet violin. Varèse’s father was abusive, and Varèse lived an important life that deserves their family life was filled with tension. The telling. He was mentored as a young man death of his mother when he was 12 years by Ferruccio Busoni, Claude Debussy, old was a traumatic event that plunged him Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Gustav Mahler, into despair. Her dying wish was that he Auguste Rodin, Romain Rolland , and look after his four younger brothers and sis - Richard Strauss. Later in life Varèse was ters. Music was his salvation, and at age 15 championed by Leopold Stokowski, and in he enrolled at the Turin Conservatory his old age he was revered by Charlie where he studied composition, counter - Parker and Frank Zappa. His historical sig - point , and conducting. There he met nificance lies partly in the fact that he liber - Toscanini, the tenor Tamagno , and other ated the percussion section of the orches - famous musicians. Eventually the father tra, putting it on a level playing field with remarried, and three more children joined the other instruments; his Ionisation the family. opened that genre for all later composers. He also dreamed of electronic music In 1904 Varèse left Italy and never looked decades before that genre existed and back. His destination was Paris, where he wrote three of its early masterpieces. And hoped to meet Debussy. He enrolled at the well before Cage, Varèse sought to break Schola Cantorum, and stayed for one aca - down the distinction between art and life . demic year. He then transferred to the Conservatoire but didn’t graduate. He suf - Although born in Paris on December 22, fered from frequent nervous breakdowns, 1883, Varèse considered himself a and didn’t show up for the year-end exami - Burgundian. His parents had a troubled nations. He also began the Prix de Rome marriage, and for the first five years of his competition, but abandoned the effort. His life Varèse was raised by his maternal rela - real education came from the people he tives in Le Villars, a small village in the wine met: the writers Apollinaire and Marinetti, country. The Romanesque cathedral, the and the artists Rodin, Picasso , and vineyards, the river Saône—all of these Modigliani. He performed in private soirées would become the composer’s happy musicales and conducted a people’s chorus. memories of childhood. But he had sad memories of that period too. It was at the After dropping out of the Conservatoire tender age of four that Varèse first experi - and abandoning the Prix de Rome, Varèse enced depression, along with “black had no hope of a career in France. Newly thoughts ” or visions of death. These married to the actress Suzanne Bing, he thoughts terrified him. At age five Varèse departed with her to Berlin in 1907. There 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 6

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he joined the circle of Ferruccio Busoni, the marry in 1922) to the interview, and they pianist, philosopher , and animateur. His stayed in the same hotel, his name was orchestral tone poem Bourgogne (later stricken from the list. The orchestra ’s destroyed) was performed there in 1910, board of trustees was not interested in right after the birth of their daughter having a moral scandal on the heels of a Claude. He met Strauss, Hofmannsthal , political one. and Mahler. He began a promising con - ducting career, with well-received concerts After another unsuccessful attempt to pro - in Berlin and Prague. But he suffered from cure a conducting position, Varèse took continued nervous breakdowns and his matters into his own hands. In 1921, he marriage fell apart. founded the International Composers ’ Guild, devoted exclusively to the music of When World War I broke out Varèse was living composers. Over the course of its conscripted into the French army. In his seven-year existence, the group introduced free time he continued to play a role in New York audiences to such seminal French artistic and music life. He pre - works as Bartók’s String Quartet No. 2, sented Jean Cocteau to Picasso and he Milhaud’s Saudades do Brasil , Ravel’s introduced Debussy to the music of Tzigane , Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Schoenberg. After his discharge in The Book of the Hanging Gardens , December 1915, he came alone to New Stravinsky’s Renard , Les Noces , and Octet , York. Originally he arrived as a conductor, and more. Varèse composed for the group with the intention of promoting French his own chamber works Offrandes , music. His first concert, in April of 1917, Hyperprism , Octandre , and Intégrales. One was a performance of Berlioz’s Requiem in of ICG’s guest conductors was Stokowski, the 8000-seat Hippodrome with 150 musi - who took a great interest in Varèse and per - cians and 300 singers . Backers for the formed his Amériques , Hyperprism , and event included members of the Arcana with the Philadelphia Orchestra— Guggenheim, Pulitzer, Steinway , and where all were greeted with hoots and Vanderbilt families. He met the artists hollers. Later Varèse founded the Pan- Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia , and Man American Association of Composers, intro - Ray, and participated with them in New ducing American music to Europe. York Dada and the birth of artistic mod - ernism in America. In tandem with these activities, Varèse pur - sued his research into electronic music. He Now that the United States was involved in sought out instrument makers and inven - the war, any orchestra conductors who tors in the hopes of pushing music into the were German citizens found themselves future. “The composer must keep pace dismissed from their positions and with science,” he declared. When Léon interned. There was a sudden need for Theremin came to New York in 1927, non-German conductors to head America’s Varèse sought to meet him right away. orchestras, and soon Varèse was on the Eventually they collaborated on the cre - short list for a job with the Cincinnati ation of a customized electronic cello, two Symphony. But when he brought his girl - of which Varèse used in Ecuatorial. This friend Louise Norton (whom he would work was followed after World War II by 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 7

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the cataclysmic Déserts , for orchestra and the verge of utterance. Listen to the small tape, and Poème électronique , the sonic noises of the percussion —the moaning of portion of an ambitious sound-and-light the “lion’s roar” or the vocalise of the show. “Varèse is a pioneer in sound in the guiro —and hear the building blocks of same sense as James Joyce and Gertrude human speech. On the other end of the Stein are in linguistics ,” remarked a per - scale, listen as terrifying wind and brass ceptive critic. Duchamp simply called him explosions parse the apocalyptic poetry of “avant-avant-garde. “ He died in New York the birth of the cosmos. But even as Varèse on November 6, 1965. connects us to a primordial past, he also —Olivia Mattis looks to the future. And indeed a central aspect of a palimpsest is not just its indebt - Olivia Mattis, Ph.D, is the author of a forth - edness to the past, but the concurrent obli - coming biography of Edgard Varèse. gation to make a new imprint, to add another stratum to the overlay. In this Note from the Conductor music we also see Varèse the visionary. In 1934 he combined acoustic and electric I started my first visit to New York City, on instruments by including two theremins in what I now believe was one of the happi - his Ecuatorial . (Note that after Léon est days of my adult life, by walking from Theremin and his instruments disappeared my friends’ place on the Upper West Side into the maw of the Soviet Gulag, Varèse down the length of Manhattan to see rescored Ecuatorial for ondes martenot. Edgard Varèse’s Sullivan Street apartment. Tonight we will present the work with its It was a walk through layers of captivating original sounds using two theremin cellos.) and dazzling urban noise: the metal-on- We find Varèse the futurist in the multi- metal sounds of construction, the wailing channel sensory experience of Poème Élec - of sirens, a spectral whine of tires on dis - tronique and Etude pour Espace , and in the tant bridges and, amazingly, moments of raucous proto-punk outbursts of his brief near silence. With each step came the and alluring Dance for Burgess . Varèse was growing realization that I already knew like a rifle loaded with the future, taking aim these sounds from studying, performing, at the banalities of his day with volleys of and falling deeply in love with Varèse’s 1931 taught dissonance in Intégrales and the masterpiece for percussion, Ionisation . geometric extrusions of one of the master - These noises were Varèse’s noises, I pieces of any historical period, Déserts . thought. And this was his city. Now after 35 years of performing the music of Edgard Ultimately though Varèse’s music is all Varèse and 100-plus visits to New York, I about sound —beguiling, earsplitting, incan - am honored to work with the extraordinary tatory, whispered, life-affirming sound. musicians of ICE to examine the legacy of Sound, the material point of connection to one the most protean musical imaginations an immaterial world; at the same time a the world has ever known. composer’s practical acoustical reality and organic matter with dreams of its own. So The music of Varèse is a palimpsest on this trip to New York I will walk, as I inscribed in sound, an over-written parch - always do, and listen, as Varèse did, to the ment on which traces of the old are still vis - living sonic tissue of the city he adopted. ible and mixed with the new. The embed - And I will be dazzled, again, by the sounds ded geologies of his music carry us into the of the city and by this music that was born past, to a pre-lingual state and a music on here. But as the tide of daily noise rises 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 8

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ever higher, the most astonishing thing performed. It also presents an opportunity, about Varèse’s music, as Henry Miller as many of the pieces on tonight’s program noted in his prescient essay “With Edgar still elude classification. It’s up to us, as Varèse in the Gobi Desert,” is that “after 21st-century listeners, to reconcile for our - you listen to it you are silenced.” selves the musical, political, technological , —Steven Schick and philosophical paradoxes that make Varèse’s work so enduringly enigmatic. About the Program There’s no “right answer,” no historical key to understanding this music. Lincoln Center Festival’s Varèse: (R)evolution provides a rare treat: a musical exploration Poème Électronique was Varèse’s final of an entire career in two concerts. Varèse composition, and it represents the apotheo - managed to transform western music with sis of a dream long deferred. In the early an almost unbelievable economy of 1930s he wrote a manifesto entitled “The means, and those lucky enough to make it Liberation of Sound,” explaining his goal of to both tonight and tomorrow’s perfor - freeing music from the “arbitrary” con - mance with the New York Philharmonic will straints of notes, rhythms , and traditional have heard nearly every piece he ever instruments. It was a vision he hoped to wrote. To attempt a similar feat with, say, achieve by creating electronic instruments, Mozart, you’d need two months. and he sought for decades to secure the support of major U .S. and European record - How did he do it? How did this eccentric ing laboratories, most of whom looked at French-American composer-cum-sound him as if he were cross-eyed. Varèse’s sculptor manage to influence everyone dream of discovering “new and more musi - from John Adams to Frank Zappa with a cally efficient devices” became such an couple of albums’ worth of music? obsession that in the late 1930s, upon hear - ing that his third bid for a research position The short answer is that he was a relent - at Bell Laboratories had been declined, he less visionary. Each piece you will hear openly considered suicide. tonight represents a dramatic departure from everything that came before it. While It wasn’t until 1957 that Varèse was given most composers’ styles evolve slowly over the longed-for chance to “liberate sound” the course of dozens of works, Varèse with cutting-edge technology, and even then, composed on a revolutionary warpath. it barely happened. Poème Électronique More than any of his peers, he embodied was commissioned by the Phillips Corpor- the paradoxes of the early 20th-century ation as a sound installation to be played avant-garde: world-famous but perennially while visitors walked through the com - alienated; disdainful of the past but pany’s pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World obsessed with tradition; cynical but hope - Expo. The building, like the piece written lessly optimistic; deeply spiritual but bru - for it, was a game-changer: Designed by Le tally technocratic. Corbusier with the assistance of Iannis Xenakis, it was a dramatic, asymmetrical , More than 40 years after his death, tent-like concrete structure that defied Varèse’s music still presents a powerful engineers’ beliefs about what was physi - challenge those lucky enough to hear it cally possible. 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 9

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Le Corbusier had insisted early on that “I was first introduced to Varèse’s music Varèse be chosen to compose the piece, when I was 15 years old and trying to play but Phillips executives were none too Density on my flute. Today, I still play the thrilled to be working with an aging radical. flute to help me learn his music and prac - They discreetly commissioned a substi - tice when I am too tired to sing out loud. The vocal parts in Nocturnal (which I sing tute. When Le Corbusier found out, he was in Part II tomorrow night with the New furious and told them, “There can be no York Philharmonic) and Offrandes are question of dropping Varèse. If that hap - notated instrumentally, and when I am pens, I withdraw from the affair.” He got singing them I feel more as if I am playing the music than singing. Varèse’s Un his wish, and the Phillips executives, who Grand Sommeil Noir is the only surviving had wanted only to show off the sophisti - work from his early days and reflects a cation of their audio products, ended up whole era. In it, I sense the shadow of with more than they had bargained for. Debussy in the harmonies of the piano, but even though it was composed in 1906, there is still a modern meditative The music bears a resemblance to strains way of using the text—as if it were a of experimental electronica that would silent prayer.” come much later: It’s basically a mashup. —Anu Komsi, soprano Recorded material from earlier pieces (you’ll have déjà vu when you hear Un Grand Sommeil Noir , written in 1906, Ecuatorial ) was frenetically interspersed while Varèse was still a student at the with machine noises and synthesized Schola Cantorum in Paris, is among his ear - sounds to create a schizophrenic sound - liest surviving works. It is an outlier, a rare scape, diffused through an array of cutting- window into an earlier life, as most of edge Phillips speakers and accompanied Varèse’s early works were lost in a fire in by a series of projected images. Berlin in 1918.

Poème Électronique was written to accom - Hyperprism , Offrandes , and Intégrales , pany a particular experience in a particular meanwhile, all written in short succession space at a particular time. It was heard in in the early 1920s, represent Varèse’s Festival 2000 in a darkened Low Library at debut as a radical visionary. These pieces during the Festival’s are best heard less as independent works Electronic Evolution series and now tonight than as an evolving exploration. Each piece you will hear it in a concert hall setting. “liberates sound” in its own way. In Although the original experience cannot be Hyperprism , for example, a siren creates a reproduced, this is an ideal opportunity to shocking background texture divorced experience this music anew, as the open - from pitch, subtly overwhelming the other ing gesture of a program that traces the full instruments, while an unprecedented nine scope of Varèse’s utopian journey. percussionists create complex masses of Whether or not he found the technological sound unlike anything ever before sublime he was looking for is up for attempted. Intégrales, the most ambitious debate, but we’re poised to learn a lot of the three, is the best example of another more about how badly he wanted it. radical innovation—a movement away from narrative music that develops over time, 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 10

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towards a frenetic, non-linear succes sion of in a kind of ongoing invocation. More than unrelated musical states. You might notice just a “music of the future,” this piece makes that the piece seems to begin and end mid- a profound attempt at phantasmagoria. stream. It’s about space, rather than time, and as a result is a work that is simultane - During the 1930s, Varèse made frequent ously dramatic and stagnant, active and trips to New Mexico, and found a poetic motionless. analog for his own feelings of isolation in the region’s vast, open deserts. He also “When we listen to Varèse’s original instrumentation for Ecuatorial with the grew interested in Native American sounds of the two cello theremins, we mythology, drawn to the traditional view of can really understand what Varèse time as circular, and to the spiritual pre - intended. These instruments are brash, mium placed on solitude and silence. In most agile and clear in the higher ranges, and able to produce astonishingly loud and 1936 he began sketching a multimedia dra - at times frightening sounds, sounds that matic work, alternately titled Espace, The call to mind the wildness of the Mayan One-All-Alone , and L’Astronome, based on jungle. We hear the buzzing of strange his own rewriting of a Native American leg - insects, howls of nearby predators, and are suddenly plunged into the midst of a end. The idea of “espace,” or space, dangerous and primitive world, surviving became a driving theme as Varèse strug - by our instinct alongside the singer, with a gled to translate the emotional and spiritual fervent prayer to the gods for the survival world he had found in the American of the tribe.” Southwest into an epic musical project. He —Natasha Farny, cello theremin spent over a decade hard at work on a task These pieces shocked the first audiences he did not yet understand, drafting various that heard them, and they’re still shocking fragments of the new work to no end. today. Ecuatorial , which premiered in “I came to the project of learning to play 1934, escalated this shock-factor through the cello theremin for a performance of the use of two custom-built theremins. Ecuatorial at the University at Buffalo in These ethereal electronic instruments now 2002, the first time the work was heard have an unmistakable air of 1960s sci-fi with the instrument since its 1934 pre - about them, but at the time they were a miere. There were three points of con - tact: David Felder, artistic director of the radical development, an irresistible source Slee Sinfonietta, who had programmed of “liberated sound” for Varèse. This per - the work, Olivia Mattis, a scholar of both formance is particularly noteworthy for its Varèse and Theremin, and Floyd Engels, inclusion of the original cello theremins who had built beautiful replicas of this long-forgotten instrument, the first elec - Varèse specified —performances typically tric instrument to make use of the playing substitute an ondes martenot , a shriller techniques of the bowed string family.” successor to the original. Theremins aside, —Jonathan Golove, cello theremin the most remarkable aspect of Ecuatorial is not so much technological as metaphysical. From the 1934 Ecuatorial debut through Witness the primitivism of its vocal parts. the mid 1940s, Varèse did not premiere a The text is drawn from excerpts of the single work as he grappled with the Popul Vuh, a Mayan sacred text . Listen for “espace” project. But lest we imagine him the nonsensical vocal sounds and dense cloistered in his study drowning in self- choral textures, which seem to simulate absorbed idealism, we should consider ecstatic chanting. The theremins, mean - Dance for Burgess , one of the first pieces while, emerge from dense clusters of notes performed after Varése’s decade-long hia - 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 11

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tus. The piece was written for the actor massive disappointment. Varèse had asked Burgess Meredith, a close friend of Varèse, the piece’s patron for a chamber orchestra, who would later become famous for his a battery of percussion, and organ to portrayal of The Penguin in the Batman accompany his chorus. He was offered television series. Meredith had requested a two pianos and a hodgepodge percussion short dance for a new musical he was cre - setup. With his career at a standstill, he ating, entitled Happy as Larry, with staging wasn’t in a position to say no, and the pro - by Alexander Calder. Varèse acquiesced ject lurched forward. His wife would later with this quirky, strangely captivating short recount that he often woke up in a cold piece for a traditional Broadway house sweat in the weeks after the premiere, band, based loosely on some of the screaming about the “goddamned pianos.” sketches from “espace.” Happy as Larry closed after only one performance, and After years of trepidation, Varèse’s disciple Varèse condemned the piece to the drawer, Chou Wen-chung, who studied with the rarely mentioning it. The version performed composer from 1949 to 1954, orchestrated this evening was edited by Chou Wen- the piece in 200 9 to match the instrumenta - chung, who assembled it from three differ - tion Varèse had originally demanded. Mr. ent, hastily revised manuscripts, and Chou decided to go forward with the project released it for publication in 1998. only after a European festival approached him with an offer to dynamically amplify “One of the members of our group claims to have read a ‘best and worst of’ coffee and project the orchestral parts in surround table book which asserts that Beethoven’s sound. “This was the only way I could real - Fifth Symphony is the best piece of classi - ize Varèse’s intentions,” he recounts. “It cal music ever written, while Varèse’s had to fill the space and change the Ionisation is the worst. Whatever the space.” We’ll hear his orchestration tonight, author’s means for arriv ing at this conclu - sion (and assuming from the composer spatialized throughout the hall. celebrity death-match that he has n’t heard the Große Fuge ), it helps us remember The result approaches the apotheosis that artists like Varèse and John Cage reached in Déserts , a musical exploration were and apparently still are very coura - geous. Although S o¯ Percussion mostly of the multifaceted “space” that had pre - plays new works (and Varèse never wrote occupied Varèse for over a decade. As in a percussion quartet), he looms large as a Ecuatorial, the chorus lends a primeval central visionary, predicting the role of color to the piece, chanting dense clusters noise and electronics in our everyday aes - of notes in a made-up language. But the thetic experience.” —Adam Sliwinski, S o¯ Percussion music also invokes a literal interpretation of the “open spaces” of Varèse’s imagination, Étude pour Espace , meanwhile, predates in a radical departure from his earlier work. Dance for Burgess as the first public com - The piece is full of pregnant silences position to come out of Varèse’s ten-year framed by sparse musical gestures. The compositional hiatus, and throws us back music is loud and dramatic at points, but into the tumultuous intensity of the the texture is static and broadly meditative: “espace” project. The premiere was a a music of the desert. 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 12

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Déserts also represents the dramatic cul - “This bold and brashly beautiful four- minute piece instantly transformed the mination of Varèse’s lifelong efforts to “liber - world’s perception of the flute—our oldest ate sound” from the confines of traditional musical instrument—and catapulted it into musical time and conventional musical new sonic, dramatic and poetic terrain. instruments. The shimmering electronic Besieging the pastoral lyricism of the flute’s typical associations, Density 21.5 interludes, many of which were drafted on forces us to re-imagine this instrument as a primitive 1950s-era Ampex tape recorder, an agent of power and raw intensity capa - mark a foray into the world of “new and ble of achieving the sheer volume of a more musically efficient devices” that high, piercing trumpet; the dynamism of a Varèse had dreamed of since the 1920s. surging, swelling sine wave; the propul - sive articulation and incisive violence of a There is no linearity to the piece—no narra - percussion instrument; the visceral, irre - tive thread. Twenty-five minutes of broadly pressible drama of a wailing human voice; undifferentiated musical space make for a and, of course, the nuance and sensuality strangely unique listening experience. of the flute. ” —Claire Chase More than 50 years later, Desèrts remains a paradoxical “music of the future ,” a chal - lenge to even the most jaded listener: While Density 21.5 , Varèse’s only solo romantic and austere, fluid and static, composition, brings a brief dose of raw beautiful and appalling. instrumental virtuosity to offset the heavy- —Whit Bernard handed landscapes of Étude pour Espace, Déserts takes up the spiritual mantle of 20 About the Artists years of work with an overwhelming musi - cal and metaphysical intensity. In many Claire Chase (Flute) founded the respects, this is Varèse’s magnum opus , a International Contemporary Ensemble monumental mingling of decades of (ICE) in 2001 and has served as the ensem - sketches and ideas. With the help of Chou ble’s executive director since its inception. Wen-chung, Varèse painstakingly assem - Over the past decade she has played and bled the composition between 1950 and produced more than 500 concerts of new 1954 from hundreds of fragments, several music with ICE on three continents, and dating back as far as the early 1930s. has been featured on critically acclaimed releases from the Naxos, Tzadik, and Many consider Déserts to be one of the Bridge labels. In 2008 she took first prize in great masterpieces of 20th-century music, the Concert Artists Guild International and you don’t need a musicology degree to Competition, and will give recitals this sea - understand why. Notwithstanding the son at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, fraught philosophical, spiritual, and techno - Avery Fisher Hall, and throughout the U .S. logical aspirations sublimated into the Her debut solo album was released last fall music, the piece is above all else a brilliant on the New Focus Recordings label and evocation of the New Mexico landscapes features world premiere works for solo Varèse loved so dearly. He even pasted a flute by emerging composers. It was postcard of the “Singing Sands of Alamosa” named one of the top ten classical albums on the cover of the folder holding his of 2009 by Time Out Chicago . manuscript, alongside a photograph of the bright blue sky at the center of a hurricane. Natasha Farny (Cello Theremin) has per - formed as soloist with the Boston Symphony 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 13

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Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Centro Histórico. His original compositions Greeley Symphony Orchestra, Abilene have been performed at Washington, D.C.’s Philharmonic, Erie Chamber Orchestra, and Kennedy Center , the Venice Biennale, the Western New York Cham-ber Orchestra. Aix-en-Provence Festival, Lincoln Center While a student at Juilliard, she performed Chamber Music Society II, and the Kitchen, Henri Dutilleux’s concerto Tout un Monde by ensembles including VOXNOVA, the Lointain with the Juilliard Symphony and Ensemble Court Circuit, Amherst Saxo- gave the premiere of Olav Anton phone Quartet, and Maelstrom Percussion Thommessen’s concerto with the New Ensemble. He gave the first performance of Juilliard Ensemble. She has participated in Varèse’s Ecuatorial using Floyd Engel’s numerous music festivals, including the recreated theremin cello at the University at International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Buffalo in 2002, and has since played the Cove (England), Banff Summer Music Fes- work at the Holland Festival and at Paris’ Fes- tival’s master classes, Germany’s Kronberg tival d’Automne with the Asko/Schoenberg Cello Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Ensemble and at London’s Southbank Festival’s master classes, the Leipzig Inter- Centre with the London Sinfonietta. nationales Kammermusikfestival, Yellow Barn Music Festival, Michigan’s Bay View Alan Held (Bass-Baritone) has appeared in Music Festival, and the Bowdoin Summer leading roles in opera houses worldwide, Music Festival. She has also appeared in including the , San recital at Baylor University, Oberlin College, Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Seattle Opera, Washington National Opera, University of Ohio, Hunter College , Covent Garden, La Scala, Vienna State Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Opera, Paris Opera, Munich’s Bavarian University of Oklahoma, Florida State State Opera, Barcelona’s Liceu, and University, and Princeton’s Golandsky Brussels’ La Monnaie. Among his best- Institute. She has appeared in perfor - known roles are Wotan in Wagner’s Ring mances of the complete works of Varèse at cycle, the title role of The Flying Dutchman , Amsterdam’s Holland Festival , Paris ’ Festi- Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde , Leporello in val d’Automne, and London’s Southbank Don Giovanni , the Four Villains in Les Centre. Currently Dr. Farny teaches cello at Contes d’Hoffmann , Jochanaan in Salome , SUNY –Fredonia and at Tennessee’s Orestes in Elektra , and the title role of Sewanee Summer Music Festival. Wozzeck . Concert engagements include appearances with the Chicago Symphony Jonathan Golove (Cello Theremin) is a Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh native of Los Angeles and an associate pro - Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, fessor in the music department at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Symphony University at Buffalo . He has been featured Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin as soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Philharmonic, and Montreal Symphony. He Orchestra and the Slee Sinfonietta and has has also appeared at the Salzburg and made summer festival appearances at the Tanglewood festivals, and at the BBC Sebago-Long Lake and Roycroft Chamber Proms. This past season the Illinois native Music Festivals, as well as numerous festi - returned to the Met Opera in a new pro - vals devoted to new works, including June duction of Les Contes d’Hoffmann , the in Buffalo, North American New Music Munich State Opera as Jochanaan, and to Festival, Cleveland’s Aki Festival of New the Los Angeles Opera as Wotan in Music, and Mexico City’s Festival del Wagner’s Ring cycle . 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 14

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Anu Komsi (Soprano), who appeared at Shandelee Music Festival, Mikkeli Music Lincoln Center Festival 2007 in George Festival, Espoo International Piano Festival, Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill , sings regu - Sonkajärvi Soi, Tuusulanjärvi Chamber larly throughout Europe and in the United Music Festival and France’s Les Boréales States. Her repertoire includes more than de Normandie festival . He made his New 40 operatic roles ranging from Nannetta in York debut at Weill Recital Hall in Falstaff to the title role of Lulu , and from December 1999 and his Carnegie Hall Stravinsky’s Nightingale to James Dillon’s debut in 2009. His compositions include Philomela . As soloist with orchestra, she two song cycles, The Ice Mirror and While has sung Mahler’s Symphony No . 4, the Aeolian Harps Keep Playing ; a fantasy Debussy’s “Chansons de Jeunesse,” for violin and piano; and Maktub , Subway Kurtag’s “Kafka Fragments,” and Schoen- Sonnets , and Alchemy . From 2002 –08 he berg’s String Quartet No . 2 with ensembles was artistic director of the Oulu Music including the Berlin Philharmonic, Los Festival near the Arctic Circle in Finland. Angeles Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Steven Schick (Conductor ) was born in Stockholm Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Iowa and raised in a farming family. He is a Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Sym- percussionist, conductor, and author, and phony, and the SWR Stuttgart. She for the past 30 years has championed con - appeared in world premiere performances temporary percussion music as a per - of Morton Feldman’s Neither and Esa- former and teacher by commissioning and Pekka Salonen’s Wing on Wing . Among premiering more than 100 new works for the conductors she has worked with are percussion. Mr. Schick is distinguished pro - Roger Norrington, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leif fessor of music at the University of Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Osmo California, San Diego and a consulting artist Vänskä, and Sakari Oramo. In 2008 her in percussion at the Manhattan School of album of Jonathan Harvey’s White as Music. He was the founding percussionist Jasmine received a Grammy Award for of the Bang on a Can All-Stars of New York best contemporary recording. In 2006 she City from 1992 –2002, and from 2000 to founded a new opera company in her 2004 served as artistic director of the hometown of Kokkola, Finland. Centre International de Percussion de Genève in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr. Schick Mika Rännäli (Pianist) has appeared with is founder and artistic director of the per - the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, cussion group Red Fish Blue Fish and Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Tapiola director of “Roots and Rhizomes,” a sum - Sinfonietta, Sinfonia Lahti, Tampere Philhar- mer course on contemporary percussion monic, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, music hosted at Canada’s Banff Centre for Oulu Symphony Orchestra, Kuopio Sym- the Arts. In 2007 he assumed the post of phony Orchestra, Biel-Bienne Symphony music director and conductor of the La Orchestra, and Flawiler Chamber Orchestra. Jolla Symphony and Chorus, and is the Among the competitions he has won in his principal guest conductor of International native Finland are the first national Leevi Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) . Madetoja Piano Competition (at age 18), fol - lowed by the Helmi-Vesa Competition, and Kent Tritle (Chorus Master) was appointed the Kuhmo International Duo Competition. music director of Musica Sacra in February Festival appearances include the Helsinki 2008 and has recently conducted the cho - Festival, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, rus of Musica Sacra in a number of notable 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 15

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performances in New York City, including ICE has created a pioneering per - Mozart’s “Great” Mass in C minor and former/presenter model that sets a bold Piano Concerto No. 23 at Carnegie Hall; new standard for the future of music in the Domenico Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater with 21st century. ICE performs more than 50 J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 82, “Ich habe concerts a year throughout the U .S. and genug,” and motets Komm, Jesu, komm abroad, has commercially released six and Singet dem Herrn at Alice Tully Hall; a acclaimed albums, and produced eight program of works by Arvo Pärt and Morton large-scale music festivals. A champion of Feldman for a WNYC New Sounds Live music by young composers, ICE has also concert; Bach’s Mass in B minor and given more than 400 world premieres by Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall; and composers under the age of 35. Highlights performances of Bach’s St. John Passion , of the current season include headline per - Orff’s Carmina Burana with a world pre - formances at the Lincoln Center Festival, miere by Alessandro Cadario, and a pro - Mostly Mozart Festival, Miller Theatre, and gram of Schubert, Mahler , and Brahms at Musica Nova Helsinki (Finland) and Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater. In addition Darmstadt (Germany). For more informa - to directing Musica Sacra, Mr. Tritle is tion visit iceorg.org. founder and music director of New York’s Sacred Music in a Sacred Space concert International Contemporary Ensemble series at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, (ICE) Staff music director of the Oratorio Society of Executive Director Claire Chase New York, director of choral activities at the Program Director Joshua Rubin Manhattan School of Music, a member of Managing Director Robert Gonyo the graduate faculty of The , Director of Development Whit Bernard and organist of the New York Philharmonic. Director of Educational Programs From 1996 to 2004 he was music director Jacob Greenberg of the Dessoff Choirs, and appeared with Graphic Designer Aaron Ross the group at Lincoln Center Festival 2004 in John Tavener’s The Veil of the Temple . So¯ Percussion Among the soloists with whom he has col - Since coming together at the Yale School laborated are singers Renée Fleming, of Music in 1999, So¯ Percussion (com - Jessye Norman, Hei-Kyung Hong, Marilyn prised of Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Horne, Susanne Mentzer, Susan Graham, Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting) has been and Sherrill Milnes; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; pianist creating music that is at turns raucous and André Previn; and actor Tony Randall. touching, and barbarous and heartfelt. Realizing that percussion instruments can International Contemporary Ensemble communicate all the extremes of emotion (ICE) and musical possibility, their music has not The International Contemporary Ensemble been easy to define. The Brooklyn -based (ICE) was founded in 2001, and over the quartet’s innovative work with today’s past nine years has established itself as one most exciting composers and creation and of the leading musical ensembles of its time performance of their own original music , as well as one of the most innovative young has quickly helped them forge a unique and arts organizations in the U .S. Winner of the diverse career. 2010 Trailblazer Award from the Ameri- can Music Center and the 2010 ASCAP/ Although the drum is one of the world’s old - CMA Award for Adventurous Programming, est instruments, musicians and composers 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 16

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in Europe and America have only recently turian, and Ned Rorem. The 2010 –11 con - begun to explore its full potential, aided by cert season features a performance of explosions of influence and experimenta - Baroque gems by Carissimi, Charpentier tion from around the world. In the 20th cen - and J.S. Bach (October 23, 2010, Alice tury, musical innovators like Edgard Varèse, Tully Hall), a concert of new works by John Cage, Steve Reich, and Iannis Xenakis established and emerging composers (May brought these instruments out from behind 13, 2011, Alice Tully Hall), Handel’s Israel in the traditional orchestra and gave them Egypt (February 23, 2011, Carnegie Hall) new voice. and its annual performances of Handel’s Messiah (December 21 and 22, 2010, For the past several years, So¯ has been join - Carnegie Hall). Musica Sacra has recorded ing the electronic duo Matmos for shows on the RCA, BMG , and Deutsche Gram- around the country and in Europe, exploring mophon labels, including the first all-digital the sonic and theatrical possibilities of beer recording of Messiah released in 1982 by cans, hair clippers, ceramic bowls, and dry RCA/BMG and reissued on “High ice. Their new album together is now out Performance,” BMG’s audiophile label. on Cantaloupe Records. For more informa - tion visit sopercussion.com. Musica Sacra Staff Music Director Kent Tritle So¯ Percussion Staff Managing Director Ronnie Oliver, Jr . Management Rob Robbins, Administrative Director Erin Acheson Alliance Artist Management Founder Richard Westenburg Production Manager Emily Krell Board of Directors Musica Sacra President Mary B. Davidson Founded in 1964 by conductor Richard Vice President Maurice Mandel Westenburg, Musica Sacra is dedicated to Treasurer Gerald W. Richman presenting the highest caliber perfor - Secretary David Ruiter mances of great choral masterworks, as Caroline Bacon well as educating audiences in the differ - James Griffin ent eras and styles of classical music and Robert D. Jezowski deepening the appreciation of the choral James A. Kelly arts. In addition to its acknowledged affin - Robert D. Krinsky ity for Baroque music, Musica Sacra per - Scott Lethbridge forms in all genres, from the earliest of Fr. Walter F. Modrys, S.J. Gregorian chant to commissioned works Linda Stillwell and premieres by such leading contempo - Michael Stone, M.D. rary composers as Benjamin Britten, Dave Kent Tritle Brubeck, Alessandro Cadario, Robert Convery, David Diamond, Aram Khatcha- 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 17

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Lincoln Center Festival Acknowledgements Since its inaugural season in 1996, Lincoln Anu Komsi Booking and Tour Center Festival has received worldwide Management Angelika Csillag, attention for presenting some of the broad - Künstleragentur Dr. Raab & Dr. Böhm est and most original performing arts pro - Alan Held Management Caroline grams in Lincoln Center’s history. In four - Woodfield , Opus 3 Artists teen seasons, the Festival has presented Mika Rännäli Management Jane Cho more than 1,100 performances of opera, Lighting and Rigging Equipment music, dance, theater, and interdisciplinary PRG Lighting forms by internationally acclaimed artists Sound Equipment from more than 50 countries. To date, the Audio Production Services Festival has commissioned 30 new works Percussion Instruments Provided by and offered some 120 world, U.S., and Ayers Percussion New York premieres. It places particular emphasis on showcasing contemporary The works of Edgard Varèse are performed artistic viewpoints and multidisciplinary by arrangement with Hendon Music, Inc., a works that push the boundaries of tradi - Boosey & Hawkes company, Sole Agent in tional performance the U.S, Canada, and Mexico for Casa Ricordi/Universal Music Publishing Ricordi Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. S.R.L., publisher and copyright owner. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presen - ter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community rela - tions, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. As a presenter of more than 400 events annually, LCPA’s series include American Songbook, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Emmy Award -winning Live From Lincoln Center . As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and its 11 other resident organizations. In addition, LCPA is leading a series of major capital projects on behalf of the resident organizations across the campus. 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 18

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Texts and Translations

Un grand sommeil noir A Long Black Sleep Text: Paul Verlaine (1844 –96)

Un grand sommeil noir A long black sleep Tombe sur ma vie: Descends upon my life: Dormez, tout espoir , Sleep, all hope, Dormez, toute envie! Sleep, all desire!

Je ne sais plus rien, I no longer know anything, Je perds la mémoire I am losing my memory Du mal et du bien… Of the bad and the good … Oh ! la triste histoire ! Oh, the sad story!

Je suis un berceau I am a cradle Qu’une main balance That is rocked by a hand Au creux d’un caveau : In the depth of a vault. Silence, silence ! Silence, silence!

Offrandes Chanson de là-haut Song from on High Text: Vincente Huidoboro (1893 –1948)

La Seine dort sous l’ombre de ses ponts. The Seine is asleep in the shadow of its bridges Je vois tourner la Terre I watch Earth spinning, Et je sonne mon clairon And I sound my trumpet Vers toutes les mers. Toward all the seas.

Sur le chemin de ton parfum On the pathway of her perfume Toutes les abeilles et les paroles s’en vont. All the bees and all the words depart, Reine de l’Aube des Pôles, Queen of the Polar Dawns, Rose des Vents que fane l’Automne! Rose of the Winds that Autumn withers!

Dans ma tête un oiseau chante toute In my head a bird sings all year long. l’année. 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 19

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La croix du sud The Southern Cross Text: José Juan Tablada (1871 –1945)

Les femmes aux gestes de madrépore Women with gestures of madrepores Ont des poils et des lèvres rouges Have lips and hair as red as orchids. d’orchidée. Les singes du pôle sont albinos, The monkeys at the pole are albinos, Ambre et neige , et sautent Amber and snow, and frisk Vêtus d’aurore boréale. Dressed in the aurora borealis. Dans le ciel il y a une affiche In the sky there is a sign, D’Oléo margarine. Oleo margarine. Voici ’arbre de la quinine Here is the quinine tree Et la Vierge des Douleurs. And the Virgin of the Sorrows. Le Zodiaque tourne dans la nuit de fièvre The Zodiac revolves in the night of yellow jaune. fever. La pluie enferme tout le tropique dans The rain holds the tropics in a crystal une cage de cristal. cage. C’est l’heure d’enjamber le crépuscule It is the hour to stride over the dusk Comme un Zèbre vers l’Île de Jadis Like a Zebra toward the Island of Yesterday Où se réveillent les femmes assassinées. Where the murdered women wake.

Ecuatorial Text: Taken from the sacred book of the Maya Quiché, the Popol Vuh , translated into Spanish in 1707 by Father Francisco Ximénes.

Oh Constructores, oh Formadores ! O Builders, O Molders! Vosotros veis. Vosotros escucháis, You see. You hear. No nos abandonáis. Do not abandon us, Espíritu del Cielo, Espíritu de la Tierra, Spirit of the Sky, Spirit of the Earth, Dadnos nuestra descendencia, Give us our descendants, Nuestra posteridad, mientras hay días, Our posterity as long as there are days, as mientras long as hay albas. there are dawns. Que numerosos sean los verdes caminos, May green roads be many, Las verdes sendas que vosotros nos dais. The green paths you give us. Que tranquilas , muy tranquilas estén las Peaceful, very peaceful may the tribes be. tribus. Que perfectas, muy perfectas sean las Perfect, very perfect may the tribes be. tribus Que perfecta sea la vida, la existencia que Perfect, very perfect may life be, the exis - nos dais. tence you give us. 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 20

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Oh, Maestros Gigantes, O Master Giant, Huella del Relámpago, Path of Lightning, Esplendor del Relámpago, Splendor of Lightning, Gavilán! Falcon! Maestros Magos, Dominadores Master-magi, Powers of the sky, poderosos del cielo, Procreadores, Engendradores, Procreators, Begetters! Antiguo Secreto, Antigua Ocultadora, Ancient Mystery, Ancient Sorceress, Abuela del Día, Abuela del Alba! Ancestress of the Day, Ancestress of the Dawn! Que la germinación se haga, Let there be germination, Que el Alba se haga. Let there be Dawn.

Salve belleza del Día, Hail beauties of the Day, Dadores del Amarillo, del Verde! Givers of Yellow, of Green! Dadores de Hijas, de Hijos. Givers of Daughters, of Sons! Dad la vida, la existencia, a mis hijos, a mi Give life, existence to my children, to my prole, descendants. Que no haga ni su desgracia ni su Let not your power, let not your sorcery infortunio be their evil vuestra potencia, vuestra hechicería. and their misfortune.

Que buena sea la vida de vuestros May it be happy, the life of your upholders, sostenes, de vuestros sostenes, your providers before your mouths, de vuestros nutridotes, before your faces, ante vuestras bocas, antes vuestros rostros, Espíritus del Cielo, Espíritus de la Tierra. Spirit of the Sky, Spirit of the Earth. Dad la Vida, Dad la Vida ! Give Life, Give Life! Dad la Vida, oh Fuerza Envuelta en el cielo, Give Life, O All-Enveloping Force, in the sky, En la tierra, en los cuatro ángulos, On the earth, at the four corners, En las cuatro extremidades, At the four extremities, En tanto exista el alba, As long as the dawn exists, En tanto exista la tribu. As long as the tribe exists! 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 21

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Étude pour Espace The choral text of Étude pour Espace is made up of verses from three different poets together with “syllables of intensity” invented by Varèse.

From The Journal of Albion Moonlight by Kenneth Patchen: Christ bless the minstrels of defeat There is a shout that spins the sun around There is someone wounded who calls to be saved There is a tongue which mourns in the scarred mouth There is an eye which cannot be shut But there is that white and radiant legend in the snow!

An ear which withers the expectant world A star whose light fences a merciful world.

From Temblor de Cielo (Skyquake) by Vincent Huidebro: Oyes clavar el ataud nocturno Oyes clavar el ataud del mar Oyes clavar el ataud del cielo

Hear the nailing of the nocturnal coffin Hear the nailing of the coffin of the sea Hear the nailing of the coffin of the sky

From St. John of the Cross : Oscura noche de fuego amoroso

Dark night of the amorous fire

Lyrics for Étude pour Espace Whoo Ca-moo-dee-bo-na Ca-moo-dee, Ca-bo-na you Sooss la ba-daoo Ca-moo-dee Ree ma Sooss la ba-daoo Ca-moo-dee Ree ma Ca-moo-dee Ree ma

Christ Christ bless the minstrels of defeat

bless oh Christ Whoo-oo Kee tay tchoong daba nor oo La-ma La-ma

There’s a shout Christ noo wara noo ha-no hoo vo noo a shout

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A shout a shout which spins there is a shout there is a shout there is a shout

a shout a shout there is a shout a shout there is which spins the sun around a shout which spins

which spins which spins the sun around spins spins spins There is someone someone spins the sun around

some one some one someone there is some one someone there is some one

some one some one some one some one some one some one there is some one there is some one

there is there is some one wounded who calls some one some one some one some one some one some one

some one there is some one wounded who calls some one wounded who calls some one wounded some one wounded

some one some one some one some one some one wounded who calls some one some one wounded who calls some one some one wounded who calls

calls to be saved You-ee a calls to be saved calls to be saved

You – ee ho a, there is a tongue a tongue There is a tongue a tongue a tongue which mourns 07-19 Varese 1:Gp 3.qxt 7/8/10 2:37 PM Page 23

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There is a tongue a tongue a tongue a tongue a tongue which mourns mourns mourns mourns a tongue which mourns mourns mourns You hou, there is a tongue a tongue You -ee hou a tongue a tongue a tongue

mourns a tongue a tongue there is a tongue a tongue in the scarred mouth in the scarred mouth a tongue a tongue a tongue

a tongue there is a tongue there is a tongue

in the scarred mouth that scarred mouth a tongue there is a tongue a tongue which mourns

an eye an eye there is an eye an eye which cannot be shut an eye hou an eye there is an eye an eye which cannot be shut

but there is that white that radiant legend but there is that white that radiant legend

that white and radiant legend in the snow in the snow

an ear which withers withers an ear an ear an ear

which withers the expectant word

a star a star whose light fences a merciful world a star a star whose a star whose light fences a merciful world a star

a o a ö ma-ro i e a a ma ma-ro a ü e ma a ö a ma ro e a a m ama-ro a ü f o ma

who n- n- la-ma zwa gar rou za garra za garrou n-zwa

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Lincol n Cente r Festiva l 2010

o hâ va nô a o o va da prasi tiè ma da

a tou-mee an na ga-rou-ma gro ma oo â grom-ma na ga-rou-ma

La-mâ la mâ Za ga râ La ma ma-rou ga-na ma zi vé bema rou

Za-ya-go-rou Za-ya-go Zaga-rou Zagrod Za-ya-go-rou Za-ya-go Zaga-rou Zagrod

Ra né Le Corbu Doonee Ma-ro O yes cla-var el ataud noc O yes cla-var el ataud noctur no Ra né Le Corbu Doonee Ma

O yes cla var el ataud del mar o yes

o yes clavar o yes clavar o yes clavar o yes clavar

o yes clavar el ataud o yes o yes o yes clavar clavar clavar ataud o yes clavar el ataud del cielo

el ataud del cielo del cielo clavar el ataud el ataud del cielo o o yes clavar el ataud del cielo clavar el ataud del cielo

del cielo del ciel del cielo del cielo del cielo el ataud del cielo del cielo del cielo

o a wha oh! oh! oo oo oo oo no no che os cura de fue go