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Speaster Reflex 16 - for Backing Sounds and Lyde Instruments by Dan Senn (Accompaniment to Texts Arranged by Alice Mirk)

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Speaster Reflex 16 - for Backing Sounds and Lyde Instruments by Dan Senn (Accompaniment to Texts Arranged by Alice Mirk) EASTER REFLECTIONS 2016 A SERIES OF READINGS AND MUSIC For the Spiritually Rich and the Spiritually Impoverished in Five Parts for Holy Week INTROIT - Start backing sound; from back of sanctuary move to performance area while turning bells. House lights fade to darkness. Part 1 The Coming SEAN: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God- John Principle The Passive irregular and soft strikes. bottom of handle with very low density, 2 PETER:(same hand The that grips handle),time hit then of the gospel is the Time of Finding - John Donne Muting underside of bell with the thumb K’un Lights upppp - Interlude 1 (instruments and backing), 1-2 min RANDOM RAIN DROPS - low 8 density, softly, bells down on table, striking mallet end. SEAN: Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophesy: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David.” - Luke Chapter 1 ELIZABETH: A Song for Simeon –T.S. Eliot Lord, the Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and The winter sun creeps by the snow hills; The stubborn season has made stand. My life is light, waiting for the death wind, Like a feather on the back of my hand. Dust in sunlight and memory in corners Wait for the wind that chills towards the dead land. Grant us thy peace. I have walked many years in this city, Kept faith and fast, provided for the poor, Have given and taken honor and ease. There went never any rejected from my door. Who shall remember my house, where shall live my children’s children When the time of sorrow is come? They will take to the goats path, and the fox’s home, Fleeing from the foreign faces and foreign swords. !1 of !18 Before the time of cords and scourges and lamentation Grant us thy peace. Before the stations of the mountain of desolation, Before the certain hour of maternal sorrow, Now at this birth season of decease, Let the Infant, the still unspeaking and unspoken Word, Grant Israel’s consolation To one who has 80 years and no tomorrow. According to thy word. They shall praise Thee and suffer in every generation With glory and derision, Light upon light, mounting the saints’ stair. Not for me the martyrdom, the ecstasy of thought and prayer, Not for me the ultimate vision. Grant me thy peace. (And a sword shall pierce thy heart, Thine also). I am tired with my own life and the lives of those after me, I am dying in my own death and the deaths of those after me. Difficulty Let thypause; servant pause; pause; repeat. depart, wood allowing it to briefly stutter; 3 mallet in corner where metal meets HavingMuting seen (holding) with thy hand, strike salvation. Chun Interludeppp 2, short RANDOM STUTTER - random, low density, softly, bells down on table, 25 stutter strike lyde(s). PETER: Twas much, that man was made like God before, But that God should be made like man, much more. – John Donne SEAN: Wise men came from the East came to Jerusalem, asking where is the child who has been born King of the Jews? For we observed his star at it’s rising, and have come to pay him homage. Matt. 2 Interlude 3, longer p pp LIGHT PEPPER - holding bell in ppp 86 mp hand, strike entire lyde randomly, mf irratically, medium density, ppp-mf, over entire instrument. pp Mêng !2 of !18 Muting with hand, continuously strike 4 mallet randomly, irratically, ppp-mf, over entire instrument. Immaturity ALICE: JOURNEY OF THE MAGI - T.S. Eliot A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter. And the camels galled, sore footed, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There were times we regretted The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces, And the silken girls bringing sherbet. Then the camel men cursing and grumbling And running away, and wanting their liquor and women, And the night fires going out, and the lack of shelters, And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly And the villages dirty and charging high prices: A hard time we had of it. At the end we preferred to travel all night, Sleeping in snatches, With the voices singing in our ears, saying That this was all folly. Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley, Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation, With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness, And three trees on the low sky. And an old white horse galloped away in a meadow. Then we came to a tavern with vine leaves over the lintel, Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver, And feet kicking the empty wine skins. But there was no information, so we continued And arrived at evening, not a moment too soo Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory. All this was a long time ago, I remember, And I would do it again, but set down This set down This: were we let all that way for Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly, We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death, But had thought they were different; this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death. We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, With an alien people clutching their gods. I should be glad of another death. !3 of !18 38 Interlude 4 pp SIDE STRIKE handheld bell. 38 Shih Sample Rhythm 7 # # pp # " # The Army ! ! ! ! ! ! pp Shih PETER:Sample Only Rhythm God can comprehend God John Donne 7 # # pp # " # The Army ! ! ! ! ! ! LINDA: Excerpts from Prayer before Birth Louis MacNiece I am not yet born; forgive me For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me, my treason engendered by traitors beyond me, my life when they murder by means of my hands, my death when they live me. I am not yet born; O hear me, Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God come near me. I am not yet born; O fill me with strength against those who would freeze my humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton, would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with one face, a thing, and against all those who would dissipate my entirety, would blow me like thistledown hither and thither or hither and thither like water held in the hands would spill me. Let them not make a stone and let them not spill me, Otherwise kill me. Interlude 5, short CUED TOGETHER 8 POP & RING - hit bottom of handle softly; let ring; very sparsely with Cued together. regular cued rhythm. ppp Pi Stutter-strike bottom of handle softly; let 8 bell ring; very sparse but regular rhythm; cued together if more than one; long pauses. !4 of !18 Unity HELEN -The Burning Babe - Robert Southwell 1561-1595 As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow, Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow; And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near, A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear; Who, scorchèd with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed. “Alas”, quoth he, “but newly born in fiery heats I fry, Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I! My faultless breast the furnace is; the fuel, wounding thorns; Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke; the ashes, shame and scorns; The fuel justice layette on, and mercy blows the coals; The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defilèd souls, For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good; So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.” With this he vanished out of sight and swiftly shrank away - And straight I callèd unto mind that it was Christmas Day. Interlude 6, short SLOW TURN-> QUICK TURN-> 100 SLOW TURN-> MUTE with mallet; repeat. ppp f Hsiao Ch’u Quickly crescendo from silence to a SEAN:9 loudPart volume and 2 gradually The decrescendo; Wilderness - In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized mute with mallet at end;repeat. The Lesser by Nourisher John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. - Mark I Interlude 7, longer TOPPLE THREE BELLS STUTTER STRIKE FALLEN BELLS with quick short random rhythms, knock between bells, let them 8 klang together. !5 of !18 mp Stutter-strike side of bell; mute with mallet; long pauses. P’i 12 Stagnation ELIZABETH: When I’m Alone Siegfried Sassoon “When I’m alone” – the words tripped off his tongue As though to be alone were nothing strange.
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