Choral Works of Jake Runestad
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DE 3578 1 DELOS DE 3578 THE HOPE OF LOVING DELOS DE 3578 THE HOPE OF LOVING DELOS DE 3578 THE HOPE OF LOVING DELOS DE 3578 THE HOPE OF LOVING THE HOPE OF LOVING Choral Works of Jake Runestad Waves American Triptych Reflections • The Peace of Wild Things • Come to the Woods Why the Caged Bird Sings • Spirited Light • Let My Love Be Heard • And So I Go On ♦ ♦ JAKE RUNESTAD RUNESTAD JAKE JAKE RUNESTAD RUNESTAD JAKE The Hope Of Loving Yield to Love • Wild Forces • Wondrous Creatures • The Heart’s Veil • My Soul Is a Candle • The Hope of Loving Flower into Kindness ♦ ♦ CONSPIRARE CONSPIRARE CONSPIRARE CONSPIRARE Conspirare Craig Hella Johnson, conductor Total playing time: 79:12 The Hope of Loving Choral Works of Jake Runestad 1. Waves (7:28) The Hope of Loving (16:19) Michael Jones, tenor 9. Yield to Love (2:15) Stefanie Moore, soprano American Triptych (23:49) 10. Wild Forces (2:01) 2. Reflections (7:14) 11. Wondrous Creatures (00:58) 3. The Peace of Wild Things (5:14) Dann Coakwell, tenor 4. Come to the Woods (11:21) 12. The Heart’s Veil (3:28) 13. My Soul Is a Candle (4:46) 5. Why the Caged Bird Sings (9:06) Stefanie Moore, soprano Alissa Ruth Suver, soprano Simon Barrad, baritone 6. Spirited Light (5:02) 14. The Hope of Loving (2:51) Jason Awbrey, bass Dann Coakwell, tenor 15. Flower into Kindness (from Into the Light) (5:19) 7. Let My Love Be Heard (5:07) Kathlene Ritch, soprano 8. And So I Go On (7:00) Mela Sarajane Dailey, soprano Wilson Nichols, tenor Conspirare Craig Hella Johnson, conductor Total Playing Time: 79:12 12 Composer’s Note (as seen on a piano keyboard) as the work progresses through Dunbar’s metaphor of rowing up in Northern Illinois, I was a caged bird wishing to be free. immersed in a family dedicated to Gserving others. My parents made it a One of the greatest joys in my life has come priority to volunteer our time, give of our from my friendship with the phenomenal resources, and show my sister and me that poet Todd Boss. Todd and I met seven years nature is to be valued, and that the world ago when I first moved to Minneapolis, on is made up of a beautiful variety of people the recommendation of a friend. Todd has from myriad backgrounds who should be become one of my dearest friends and most heard and respected. frequent collaborators. His lyrical voice packs a punch with its directness, approachability, When I began to find my truest voice as vivid imagery, and attention to the depths a composer, moving beyond the imitative and complexity of humanity. Todd is a crafts- works of a budding youth, I found that speak- man and delights in the collaborative expe- ing to social issues and authentic human ex- rience — creating a new work with Todd is a periences was what lived closest to my heart. joyful, illuminating, and fulfilling experience. The works included in this album are a repre- sentation of what drives me as an artist: a de- Waves (2015) is the first work on which Todd sire for beauty, for allowing compelling texts and I collaborated. I remember sitting at an to inspire the music, and for telling authentic outdoor café on a warm, summer evening stories in a way that might foster compassion and discussing what I look for in a text for for our shared human experiences. music (clear and succinct language, open vowels for climactic moments, intentional use Why the Caged Bird Sings (2014) was my of consonants for percussive effects, a narra- first collaboration with Craig Hella Johnson, tive form...). The resulting piece uses double who commissioned the work for the Cin- choir to explore a wash of sound, moving cinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble. Paul Laurence back and forth between choirs like waves on Dunbar’s text (from which Maya Angelou the shore, as we move through the heaviness found the title for her famous autobiog- of sadness into a consoling sunrise. raphy), conveys the complexity of life as a post-Civil War black man born to previ- And So I Go On (2015), another collab- ously enslaved parents. Musically, there is oration with Todd, has a very special ori- a tension between black and white pitches gin. When choral director Germán Aguilar 2 passed away unexpectedly in the summer of that belonged to my grandfather and was 2014, it was a huge loss to our world. Ger- given to me after his death. The main mel- mán had a love for life, teaching, and the ody of the work, first stated in the tenors, people around him — especially his fiancé, slowly ascends onto the wings of angels as Jon Talberg. After Germán’s death, Jon was the plea is lifted into the sky. cleaning out Germán’s wallet and found that the only business card inside was mine. I had I am a hoarder of poetry, and one of my given it to Germán when we met in January favorite collections is Love Poems From of 2014. Jon soon contacted me and asked if God — mystical poems by Daniel Ladinsky I would write a piece of music in memory of inspired by famous writers from around Germán, and I was honored to do so. Scored the world. This book is a composer’s dream for double choir, this piece is a conversa- with colorful, powerful, and succinct writ- tion between two lovers as one struggles ings that talk of living fully, deep spirituality, through the intense experience of loss. self-contemplation and love. When starting my work on this new composition, I opened A recurring theme in my work is the im- Ladinsky’s book to find a treasure trove of portance and beauty of the natural world. I quaint parables and sage advice for us all. am passionate about being outside amidst The Hope of Loving (2015) for chorus, so- trees, mountains, lakes, skies, and about hik- loists, and string quartet, uses a selection ing, camping, and basking in the glory of our of writings inspired by spiritual mystics world. American Triptych (2013, 2015) is a throughout history to explore the idea of collection of three works with texts that span love and its manifestation in our lives. the USA from east to west featuring authors Henry David Thoreau (Massachusetts), Wen- My hope is that this music might introduce dell Berry (Kentucky), and John Muir (Cali- you to meaningful texts, connect you with fornia). Each movement expresses an aspect an element of your own human experience, of our human connection with the natural and foster your compassion for the story world, and journeys through a rushing river, of another. I am thrilled to be collaborating a peaceful lakefront, and a windstorm in the with Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare, Western Sierra Nevada mountains. and to be sharing in this concert and re- cording experience together. The Alfred Noyes poem that inspired Let My Love Be Heard (2015) is a grief-filled — Jake Runestad plea that I found in a collection of poetry 3 Waves (Track 1) There is the calmness of the lake when there is not a breath of wind; O my soul, where do you go sometimes? so it is with us. Why have I come brooding for you Sometimes we are clarified and calmed here where the ocean writes its tidelines as we never were before. on the endless sand? We become like a still lake of purest crystal Waves come, waves go. and without an effort Waves know nothing but tossing and our depths are revealed to ourselves. crossing and crashing and thrashing. All the world goes by us My sadness is enormous as the sea. and is reflected in our deeps. Birds are made of bones of air but I Such clarity! am water, drawn by my nature to drown. Obtained by such pure means! Light — O, magnanimous light! Find me! By simple living, Blind me with sight! Sweep free by honesty of purpose. and steep me in the serenity that saves — To be calm, to be serene! sunlight washing over me in waves — ! — Henry David Thoreau — Todd Boss II. The Peace of Wild Things American Triptych (Tracks 2-4) When despair for the world grows in me I. Reflections and I wake in the night at the least sound We live but a fraction of our life. in fear of what my life and my children’s We do not fill all our pores with our blood; lives may be, we do not inspire and expire fully and I go and lie down where the wood drake entirely enough, rests in his beauty on the water, and the so that the wave of each inspiration great heron feeds. shall break on our farthest shores, I come into the peace of wild things rolling ’til it meets the sand which bounds us, who do not tax their lives with forethought and the sound of the surf comes of grief. I come into the presence of still water. back [to us]. And I feel above me the day-blind stars Why do we not let on the flood, waiting with their light. For a time raise the gates, I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. and set all our wheels in motion? — Wendell Berry 4 III. Come to the Woods And the river flows like a stream of glass; When the first bird sings and the first Another glorious day, the air as delicious bud opens, to the lungs as nectar to the tongue.