Cantata: Songs for the Divided

Cantata: Songs for the Divided was commissioned by the Chicago Children's Choir and premiered with members of the Chicago Youth Symphony in June 2004. It is a twenty-minute work with six movements.

From the program notes:

The musical material I have filtered through the lens of this piece comes from Chechnya, Rwanda, Ireland, Palestine, and Korea. Although these five places are spread across the globe, they are similar in that they have all recently been hotbeds of great discord. Two of them consist of territories under the control of a larger nation (Chechnya, Palestine), two are nations estranged by governmental boundaries as well as religious and ideological differences (Ireland, Korea) and one, Rwanda, was in 1994 the sight of what is widely regarded as the fastest and most deadly occurence of genocide in recorded history (over 800,000 Rwandans were massacred in 100 days). They are all divided lands.

Within our lifetimes, violence and oppression have colored the immediate lives of people all over the world. Belfast, Jenin, Groznyy, Pyongyang; these cities have seen great tragedy in the very recent past. And why?.. here, the facts stop and the opinions begin.

I wrote Songs of the Divided because I want us to start educating ourselves about our world. I want us to continuously work toward a more complex understanding of different cultures. I want this breadth of perspective to be stimulated by the common language of music.

Sama waqqar uses melodies from Chechnya, an isolated and aggressively independent mountain culture with a long and widely undocumented tradition of complex and polyrhythmic vocal music. Elegy for Rwanda incorporates Tutsi melodic patterns as well as the Hutu tradition of the vertical flute duet, as documented in 1954-55 by Denyse Heimaux-L'hoest. Often representing the male and female, the two flutes )made from a stem of the lobelia plant) play imitative melodic patterns but are pitched in different tonalities. The result is a haunting bitonality. Avenging and Bright uses a rousing melody by influential Irish historian, nationalist and songwriter Thomas Moore. The song is a visceral call for vengeance. 'Al-Safi'h was written by Issa Boulos, a Palestinian musician teaching at the University of Chicago. The text, sung in Arabic, is taken from the words of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Boulos' subtle and beautiful recording of this song has recently become well-known in Palestine. Finally, Our Wish incorporates "Woori ae sowon eun tong-il," a children's song by Ahn Byung Won. This simple melody is known throughout South Korea as an anthem for the movement to reunify Korea. The sentiment behind this song - a need for unity - is the underlying message of the cantata.

Yet shouldn't we each examine our own unique perspective before filtering through it voices from distant lands? How can we even begin to grasp the identities of others without first grappling with our own? These questions are the inspiration for Home, the first movement. The text is meant to convey the power and plurality behind that concept. Is home your land? Is it a spirit? Is it a place in your heart, or a concrete structure? Is it your mother? Your favorite food or pro sports team? Indeed, there's a word for "home" in every language, yet it means something different and personal to everyone.

The text of the refrain ("wherever you go...") includes excerpts from four notable American song lyrics. "My grandmother told mama that it's Africa at work" (Digable Planets, Where I'm From) and "the fire's in my eyes and the flames need fannin," (Black Star, K.O.S. (Determination)) are words from the 1990's. "Plowman dig my earth" (Bob Dylan, All Along the Watchtower) and "take these sunken eyes and learn to see" (Beatles, Blackbird) are lyrics from the 1960's. All four are good examples of how Americans have used music as a medium to examine their world and themselves. This work is inspired as much by the achievements of those artists as it is by the world music it explores.