Contemporary Classics February 13, 2018 Spiritual Journey

As always our opening theme music is from the work Nocturneby Kirsten Volness. 

Tonight weembark on a journey of spirituality. This show was inspired by a communication within an online Buddhist organization sharing a link to aperformance of John Tavener’s “Wake Up … And Die” for solo cello andorchestral cello section which we will be listening to later in this program asmusic which evokes spirituality. But I wanted to reflect on a journey of spirituality that music takes meon and hence this show.

We begin our journey of spirituality with Henryk Górecki’s SymphonyNo. 3,  Op. 36  Symphony of Sorrowful Songs for sopranoand orchestra.  This work was composedbetween October and December 1976 and premièred on 4 April 1977.

Górecki’s Symphony No 3 is in 3 movements 1. Lento -Sostenuto tranquillo ma cantabile, 2. Lento e largo – Tranquilissimo,  3. Cantabile semplice

In the work a solo soprano sings Polish texts in each of thethree movements. The first is a 15th-century Polish lament of Mary, mother ofJesus, the second a message written on the wall of a Gestapo cell during WorldWar II, and the third a Silesian folk song of a mother searching for her sonkilled by the Germans in the Silesian uprisings. The first and third movementsare written from the perspective of a parent who has lost a child, and thesecond movement from that of a child separated from a parent. Góreckimaintained that the work is an evocation of the ties between mother and child. Iam putting this work in spiritual terms, but in full disclosure this isapproach which Górecki specifically dismissed as not at the core of thework.  I guess we will be indisagreement over this.

Teresa Erb, soprano andBaden-Baden Symphony Orchestra conducted by Werner Stiefel fromthe album Gorecki Symphony No. 3 – Adams Harmonielehre

John Tavener Wake Up … And Die composed in 1996 is theinspiration for tonight’s program.

This work is for solo cello and orchestral cellosection.  John Tavener wrote that whilehe was considering the relationship between spiritual awakening and normal lifethat if you wake up spiritually, then you will die to all that is notspiritual. ‘Wake up…and Die’ is a musical representation of a metaphysicalparadox: spiritual awakening and rebirth as death to the worldly; physicaldeath as an awakening to a higher spiritual realm.

After the meditative opening with the solo cello, the orchestralcellos join in the meditation, providing a platform, as it were, while the solocello line takes on a much more reflective character. The solo cello alwaysrepresents the individual mind obtain the spiritual.  Then, of a sudden, just before the end, the solo chantbegins again, only to be cut off by a distant sentimental memory, the memory of”the blues”, reminding us of ordinary human emotion. The very endsuggests a waking up into a kind of peace. Here John Tavener’s Wake Up…andDie (for Solo Cello And Orchestral Cello Section) is performed by Yo-Yo Ma& Members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra cello section   David Zinman conducting   from the album  TheProtecting Veil & Wake Up…and Die

On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams wascommissioned by the NY Philharmonic and an anonymous prominent NYC familyshortly after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and was premiered by NewYork Philharmonic on September 19, 2002 at Avery Fisher Hall of Lincoln Center.In an interview, the composer John Adams explained: “I want to avoid wordslike ‘requiem’ or ‘memorial’ when describing this piece because they too easilysuggest conventions that this piece doesn’t share. If pressed, I’d probablycall the piece a ‘memory space.’ It’s a place where you can go and be alonewith your thoughts and emotions. The link to a particular historical event – inthis case to 9/11 – is there if you want to contemplate it. But I hope that thepiece will summon human experience that goes beyond this particular event.Transmigration means ‘the movement from one place to another’ or ‘thetransition from one state of being to another.’ But in this case I meant it toimply the movement of the soul from one state to another. And I don’t just meanthe transition from living to dead, but also the change that takes place withinthe souls of those that stay behind, of those who suffer pain and loss and thenthemselves come away from that experience.” On the Transmigration of Soulswas awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music.  Here is a performance of On the Transmigration of Souls bythe Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus conducted by  Robert Spano  from the album Transmigration          

We are closing this evening’s Journey of Spirtuality with SamuelBarber’s  Agnus Dei – Agnus Dei isa choral composition in one movement by and is an arrangement of his Adagio forStrings that dates from 1938, which of course was his orchestration of thesecond movement of his String Quartet Op 11 from 1936. In 1967, he set theLatin words of the liturgical Agnus Dei, a part of the Mass, for mixed choruswith optional organ or piano accompaniment.  Here we have it sung acapella by Atlanta Symphony Chorusconducted by Robert Spano from the album Transmigration.