"Everything
is..."
for Double Choirs of 24 female voices and 12 brass
instruments
(a fragment from the middle of the piece
(page 9))
Music in Space
One of the primary features of Everything is..., like its companion
piece
Lament (also for double choirs and based on a poem
by Rilke), is the arrangement
of the ensemble. The 24 voices are grouped together in two complementary
choirs,
each with six sopranos and six altos. The piece may be performed with or
without a
kind of background group of 12 brass instruments (6 tp; 4 hn; 2 alto tb)
The supporting
brass choirs—which in turn may also be performed independently of the
voices—play
almost entirely sotto voce, which here should be taken literally as
meaning 'playing
under the voices', which creates a unique kind of composite sound or
texture.
One should imagine both of the pieces being sung in a large, resonant space:
In principle, there is nothing new in this spatial approach. Some of the
compositions
within the Western classical music literature which come first to mind are,
for example,
the vocal works of Hildegard von Bingen and, more especially, the
choral music of
J.S. Bach. Consider, for example, the magnificent opening of the Bach's
Motet for
double choir, Komm, Jesu, Komm (Come,
Jesus, Come: c. 1727).
The Poem
(recording)
Everything is... is based on a beautiful translation from the Russian
of a
poem by Anna Akhmatova. The music follows
very closely the rhythm of the
poem, using for this a new kind of composite meter composed of different
groupings
of 2's and 3's:
Everything is plundered, betrayed, sold,
Death's great black wing scrapes the air,
Misery gnaws to the bone.
Why then do we not despair?
By day, from the surrounding woods,
cherries blow summer into town;
at night the deep transparent skies
glitter with new galaxies.
And the miraculous comes so close
to the ruined, dirty houses—
something not known to anyone at all,
but wild in our breast for centuries.
(1921)
(tr. by Stanley Kunitz with Max Hayward)
| Listen to a recording of Cliff Crego reading
three
translations
of poems by Anna Akhmatova |
| back to
Picture/Poems:
Central Display | see also the vocal score of
Lament for Double
Choir |
| go to the Cliff Crego's New Music website,
The Circle in the Square:
Central Display |
| go to
Circle/Square:
Download to download
ETFs that you can display and listen to on your own computer |
| Other websites by Cliff Crego:
picture-poems.com 
Picture/Poems;
Also: The Poetry
of Rainer Maria Rilke |
Look for new additions every week.
Created and maintained in Northwest Ohio, USA.
(XII.31.2000)
Questions regarding performance
materials to
score-info@cs-music.com;
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