I reported the demise of the world premiere of William Blake’s Inn to the Newnan Arts Commission yesterday. They were completely sympathetic and supportive, but no one suddenly agreed to take on this project.
Still, since Jan Bowyer has been working steadily to bring 25 Scottish kids over here, the question arose, for what? That didn’t seem to bother anyone. They have a year, after all, right? Someone did suggest they could sing “excerpts” from William Blake’s Inn. I suggested they could sing the whole thing, albeit in concert mode. A lot cheaper, indeed, especially if we’re talking a single performance.
Hm, they said. So I cheerfully told them to let me know if they needed copies of the music and departed. I was out of there.
JoAnn Ray did pull me aside and give me a name and an address to send it to over in Alabama, a foundation of her family’s connected with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. That’s another packet I’m mailing today. The others are to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (do they even get unsolicited manuscripts?); the Center for Puppetry Arts; the Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago; and the Sarasota (FL) Arts Council.
Diane has also suggested the Sautee Nacoochee Center up in north Georgia, which I’ll add to my list today.
And I have to get working again. The Outside the Bachs competition is due at the end of the month, and yes, I have to work on Day in the Moonlight at some point. I really really really want to finish that by Christmas.
Any suggestions for a religious text for the Outside the Bachs piece?
The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
How about a specific passage, Sparky?
I was just kidding. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a bore. Try this:
http://www.jcroundtablerome.org/voiceoftheancients.html. Scroll down to the Yuchi creation myth.
Hmm. Let me try this again.
http://www.jcroundtablerome.org/voiceoftheancients.html
If the hyperlink doesn’t work, I trust you can figure out how to navigate there manually.
A bit long for a six minute choral piece, isn’t it?
So edit it!
Actually, I was just thinking of part 1, which outlines the creation myth. Could be done in a call and response or some such. FYC.
Or try this:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/cher/sfoc/sfoc46.htm
Exactly–a Cherokee voodoo chant. Nobody elsewill have set a text like that for Bob Burroughs! Bwahaha!
“Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: do this in remembrance of me.” Otherwise known as “Christian Voodoo.”
I don’t disagree. But one is a communion, and I use the word etymologically, and the other is a charm against sharing, if you will.
Sort of like Christian prayer is a “charm?”
And like Christian public blessings are “charms?”
Is the chip on my shoulder showing?
No, I absolutely agree. I remember one church ski trip that I chaperoned, and the devotional was one of the Psalms that invoked God’s protection “going up the mountain” or some such. The leader asked for interpretations, and since none were forthcoming, I posited that the song was not a supplication but a challenge to God: I’ve been a good little worshipper, so you had better take care of me in return. A line in the snow, if you will. There was a little silence, and then everyone went back to drawing their magic circles around themselves. They couldn’t conceive of prayer as anything but a magical request.
As long as we’re parading pets, let me recommend a website for text ideas:
http://www.esotericarchives.com/esoteric.htm
Or, Stephen Hawking has edited a couple of anthologies within the last few years. One a collection of the most important mathematical texts. The other is, I think, a collection of Physics’ landmark texts. I think a piece utilizing passages from Newton’s treatise on “fluxions,” for instance, could be quite interesting. Or something from “the Starry Messenger…”
Best examples of charms out there: any of Bush’s public statements on just about anything.
Though I’m torn. Sometimes what we label as primitive and magical can be useful. Not in the case of Bush, of course.
Could we focus here? The competition is for choral settings of religious texts, which I presume means “worshipful” in some way. And we can argue the point about the black arts being their own religion, but I think it would be counterproductive to spend my time setting something like that for this particular event. Perhaps later, a song cycle.
Besides, I think I’m going with Matthew 25:40. I have an idea.
Zzzzzzzzzzz
A perfectly fine choice. I was going to tell you I have a little volume called “An Anthology of Christian Mysticism” which might have something interesting. Though it does not have two of the more “heretical” of such folks–no Meister Eckhardt or Marguerite Porete. It does have St. Theresa of Avila, however, and I was nurturing this little daydream of you creating a setting for her “pierced by the Divine” passage and revisionist feminist scholars and critics taking you to task for attempting to represent a “female subjectivity” you couldn’t possibly understand. You would make some interesting responses and become quite the controversial figure. When’s the deadline?
An anthology of Christian mysticism that doesn’t include Meister Eckhart? ?? What the hell?
End of the month. Shoot me the text.
My advice to revisionist feminsts would be to never bet against my understanding the female subjectivity of being pierced by the Divine.
::waiting for the Devine pun::
Last.