150 Psalms Justice Sat 29 Feb 2020, 9Pm, St Peter’S Cathedral
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4 150 Psalms Justice Sat 29 Feb 2020, 9pm, St Peter’s Cathedral The Song Company Antony Pitts, conductor Anthony Hunt, organ Introduction by Professor Danielle Celermajer Clare Maclean (b. 1958) Psalm 11 (world premiere)* Cathy Milliken (b. Brisbane) Psalm 12 (world premiere)* Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) Psalm 37, Os justi Pascal de l’Estocart (ca.1538-1587) Psalm 49, Omnes gentes Thomas Crecquillon Psalm 52, Quid gloriaris in malicia (ca.1505-ca.1557) Gottfried August Homilius Psalm 73, (1714-1785) Dennoch bleib ich stets an dir Nicolas Gombert (ca.1495-ca.1560) Psalm 75, Confitebimur tibi Anonymous Psalm 112, Beatus vir Ned Rorem (b. 1923) Psalm 85, Mercy and truth are met David Lang (b. 1957) Psalm 101, If I sing (Australian premiere) Michel-Richard Delalande Psalm 144, (1657-1726) Benedictus Dominus Deus meus Presenting Partner Supported by Amnesty International *Commissioned works supported by the Commissioning Circle the word with the type of automaticity I suspect that few people here would Professor Danielle Celermajer, speaker we tend to bring to most of our disagree that the situation I just sketched communications. counts as an injustice. Professor Danielle Celermajer is a political theorist at In other words, it would be assimilated into It’s this intuition about the link between The University of Sydney and lead of the Multispecies the standard stock of taken for granted injustice, suffering and exploitation that Justice Collective. After 30 years working in human rights, meanings we carry around with us to makes us recoil at slavery, at the use of she has now turned to bring together human, animal navigate the world. child soldiers, at placing asylum seekers in and environmental justice. Her books include Sins of the We all know what justice means. detention camps for year upon year. Nation and the Ritual of Apology and The Prevention of Nothing new here. Torture: An Ecological Approach, both with Cambridge Something to do with balance, All of those examples are, of course, about University Press. She has a forthcoming book with Maybe with equality, how some humans treat other humans. Penguin/Random House on living and dying in the age of With wrongdoers getting their rightful due. the climate catastrophe. It probably evokes a few stock images – a But if you take this exact account, it applies blindfolded lady, scales, grey wigs. letter for letter to the situation of beings other than humans living and increasingly But what if the call to justice occurred dying in the climate catastrophe. to you as an invitation to reflect upon its I would like to acknowledge the lands and human affair, or an affair between humans meaning with the type of creativity, ardour The billion animals who were killed when waters on which we are meeting tonight - and God. and urgency you would bring to thinking 12 million hectares or 120,000 square the traditional land of the Gharna people. But here, the justice of our lives is explicitly about the meaning of ‘healing’ if someone kilometres of bush was incinerated in the I’d like to express our respect for their connected with the possibility of our you loved was dying? last months fires. spiritual relationship with this country. continuing to live on the earth. I’d like to pay our respect to Elders past, In the spirit of that invitation, and The uncountable trees, the shrubs, present and emerging. In other words, it is not only our fate, but anticipating how music will animate justice the grasses, the fungi, the insects, the the fate of the earth that is at stake when for us together this evening, I want to think microbes. “Justice, justice (tzedek tzedek) shall you justice is at issue. with you for a few minutes about what pursue so that you may flourish and live justice might mean for us. The vibrant ecosystems and lively within the lands that you have been gifted.” The second reason I chose it was because In Australia. relationships that animate all of them. of its curious repetition of the word In 2020. These words don’t in fact come from the justice (“Justice justice”). This musical As we enter the climate catastrophe. The earth that has been gifted to us also. Psalms, which we will be hearing tonight, punctuation lifts the idea of justice out but from another part of the Bible or Torah of its dull resting place in a sentence and It’s actually not so easy to get at what the Now go back to my depiction of what - from the book of Deuteronomy. calls us out of our dull resting place as concept of justice means. makes injustice. passive listeners, inviting us to attend to All of them live within conditions that In Deuteronomy, Moses - now 120 years what it might mean for us, here and now to But when we ask ourselves about injustice, endanger their lives. old, and about to die just before he would actually pursue justice. things tend to get a lot sharper. None of them are given a say in decisions get to enter the promised land - recounts about those conditions. his life, and sets down how those who will Justice justice demands that justice Imagine if you will, the following scenario. And they have no way out. get to enter the land - ought to live. become a matter of immediacy. That Some of us have established a set of justice becomes a matter of authentic conditions that will – without doubt - I’m well aware that I’m out on a limb here. “Justice, justice (tzedek tzedek) shall you concern. endanger the lives of others. To call the fate of animals and trees and pursue so that you may flourish and live forests an injustice, is - I realise - a stretch within the lands that you have been gifted.” That justice gets pulled out from the pile We have given them no say in the for most of us. of dead concepts and reanimated as a decisions about how to control or change Historically, in Western cultures at least, I opened this evening with those words for living possibility that might make for the the conditions. justice has been the unique preserve of two reasons. possibility of living. humans. And now that they are in them, they have First, most of the passages about justice If I were to say to you, ‘Everyone, pursue no way out. When it comes to animals or trees or in these texts assume that it is an entirely justice!’, my guess is that you would hear ecosystems, we may acknowledge that we can do them harm. we might appreciate, economically, We might even acknowledge that we bear aesthetically, or sentimentally. Programme note by Oek de Jong certain ethical responsibilities not to inflict unnecessary suffering on them. But as subjects with their own forms of life. Especially if recognise that they share Their own relationships. Their own ways of A god as supreme judge is a symbol which member of Ensemble Modern Germany) qualities we value in ourselves, like flourishing. plays an important role in many religions. but is now a widely commissioned intelligence or sentience. As such this god is also the guardian of composer of orchestral and chamber Subjects who have been recruited, surely ethical living, the highest morality, and thus music across Europe and Asia. Psalm 12 is But for the most part – that is for most against their will, into omnicide – the of peace among the people. Swüste: ‘An her first work for a capella choir. living beings, we don’t even acknowledge killing of everything - that we humans are important question in the Psalms is: how Like Cathy, LA born David Lang was there those minimal ethical demands. committing. can it be that evil people prosper whilst at the start of a legendary contemporary Why? – because we see them as resources good people are weighed down with all music group, New York’s Bang on a Can. for our use, not as subjects of their own Subjects, in other words, against whom we kinds of misery? Many psalms give the His powerful, direct and often deceptively lives. are committing the gravest of injustices. answer: it’s all about happiness in the long simple works have attracted numerous term. And what is certain is that you will be prizes, including a Pulitzer in 2008 for The Certainly not subjects with claims of Now a few of you may have had a quick happy if you act justly.’ Little Match Girl Passion. justice. But remember, justice justice you read of some of the psalms before you Also a Pulitzer winner is distinguished shall pursue. came tonight or just now waiting for us to This is splendidly sung about in Psalm American composer Ned Rorem. Amongst start. 73, set here by J S Bach’s pupil Gottfried his vast and all-encompassing oeuvre, What would happen if we suspended Homilius: in the first section, a somewhat the much-loved Mercy and truth are met the inherited understandings of justice? And you may well be thinking – the justice jealous glance is directed towards shines like a jewel. Understandings that were, let’s not forget, she is describing bears no resemblance to someone who lives aimlessly, but in the built in and for other worlds. the justice set out in the Psalms. second section the poet finds peace and Set against masters of the Renaissance happiness. and Baroque such as Crecquillon, Like the understanding of justice That’s perhaps true, But only in the most Each of the three newly commissioned Gombert, De l’Estocart, and De Lalande, developed during the religious wars, literal sense.