hope: an oratorio
for SATT soloists, SATB choir, and full orchestra
Duration ca. 65' (2011)
2d1pic.2.2d1bcl.2d1cbn/4.4.2(+2btbn).0/timp.2perc/hp.pf(=cel)/str/SATB choir/SATT soloists/opt. org./opt. children’s choir
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Commissioned by the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.
Premiered by the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia conducted by Roberto Minczuk, Pennsylvania Girls Choir, Mendelssohn Club, soloists Jessica Rivera, Jason Collins, David Linx and Leah Dexter, Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, April 24, 2011.
TExt From Soprano Aria, “Millet”
“Reaching Toward the Millet Fields” soprano and children’s choir:
It was so beautiful one night
We all began expecting to hear
God speak
In the waves reaching towards
The millet fields,
From the mouths of the moons
Crooning in the light’s intimate codes,
From the glances of plants and children
Playing with effulgent love.
Existence was so beautiful one night
We all began to expect
Our Beloved would
Speak
At the height of our wing’s senses
That were stunned
Trying to comprehend the divine
the tiny
Filters,
That were stunned in glimpsing reality
Of the thousand miraculous components
Of each moment
And step.
But we can’t,
We can’t hear God whistling inside,
So we weep.
We all weep in some way
Until we
Do.
-Hafiz
Lyrics based on a Hafiz poem in The Gift, Poems by Hafiz, copyright 1999 Daniel Ladinsky and used with his permission.