Program Notes
For a long time I have been very attracted to the timbral
and expressive possibilities of the human voice combined with
percussion instruments. I was therefore enthusiastic when percussionist
James Preiss approached me with the idea of commissioning a work
for Tonal Center, a chamber ensemble comprised of soprano, clarinet
and marimba, plus a larger percussion ensemble. I immediately
knew that some of Wendell Berry's poems would be perfect for
this project. His work, lyrical, subtle, and very moving, has
always struck me as being intensely spiritual, especially in
its emphasis on our connection to the natural world. I envisioned
the work as a kind of concerto grosso in the Italian Baroque
tradition, with each of the four poems, assigned to the trio
of soprano clarinet and marimba, preceded by a prelude performed
by the percussion ensemble. Each prelude sets the musical and
emotional mood for the following piece, and the atmosphere reflects
the words of the poem. The four movements for the trio can also
be performed separately, without the percussion ensemble, as
a smaller, more intimate chamber work. I have also used several
unorthodox sounds and extended techniques, such as water and
sounds of nature (bird calls and cricket call and whirling tubes).
The compositional techniques employed involve indeterminate notation
and guided improvisation, and a mixture of tonal and atonal elements.
"Archers of Solitude" is dedicated to James Preiss.
TEXTS:
I: TO KNOW THE DARK
To go in the dark with a light
is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
II: POEM
Willing to die,
you give up
your will, keep still
until, moved
by what moves
all else, you move.
III: FALLING ASLEEP
Raindrops on the tin roof.
What do they say?
We have all
Been here before.
IV: THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS
When despair for the world
grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my childrens lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
To Know the Dark,
Poem, Falling Asleep and The Peace
of Wild Things from COLLECTED POEMS: 1957-1982 by Wendell
Berry, Copyright 1985 by Wendell Berry. Used by arrangement with
North Point Press, a division of Farrar, Strauss and Giroux,
LLC. All rights reserved.
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