for unaccompanied choir
5 movements

commission:
Volti (San Francisco); Robert Geary, director

premiere:
May 2010, San Francisco

additional performances:
C4, New York, Chris Baum, director; November 2010
Volti, San Francisco/Berkeley, Robert Geary, director; March 2010

recording: Volti: Upcoming Release, Innova Records (2011)

text: David Simon (from an interview with Bill Moyers); Ted Hearne;
traditional Xhosa (translated by Mollie Stone and Patiswa Nombona)

program notes:
Privilege is a collection of five short pieces for Volti. I wrote the texts for the first and third movements, both little snapshots: Motive/mission illustrates a flash of self-questioning that interrupts the thought-stream of an ambitious and conscientious member of modern society, while Burning TV Song is a song to the phenomenon of isolation and loneliness within a densely populated and interconnected culture.

The second and fourth movements are set to texts taken from an interview of David Simon (creator of The Wire) by journalist Bill Moyers, which aired in April 2009 on PBS. Casino sets Simon's response to Moyers' question: "why do you think that we tolerate such gaps between rich and poor?" They get it addresses the idea that there is a large segment of our population - Simon guesses ten to fifteen percent - whose existence is unnecessary to the American economy, especially those who "are undereducated, that have been ill served by the inner city school system, that have been unprepared for the technocracy of the modern economy." Until there is a place for them in the American ideal, Simon posits, drug trafficking and other illegal activity will provide a more viable financial option.

The final movement, We Cannot Leave, is set to the translation of a black South African Anti-Apartheid song, the original words of which are in Xhosa (the native language of Nelson Mandela).

text:
1. motive/mission

motive/mission

you were always fair
you were almost always kind
weren't you?

you always reached out your hand
you almost always refused to lie
didn't you?

you wouldn't close your shining eyes
would you?

(Ted Hearne)

2. casino
it's almost like a casino
you're looking at the guy winning,
you're looking at the guy who pulled the lever
and all the bells go off
and all the coins are coming
out of a one-armed bandit
and you're thinking
that could be me.
i'll play by those rules.

(David Simon)

3. burning tv song
flashing window
empty street
burning tv song

flashing window
empty street
burning tv song

flashing window
empty street
burning tv song
stay

(Ted Hearne)

4. they get it

we pretend to need them
we pretend to educate the kids

but we don't

and they're not foolish
they get it

(David Simon)

5. we cannot leave

we cannot leave
this land of our ancestors
on this earth

we are being killed by the monster
on this earth

shuku shuku
oh, mother, it's leaving me behind!
i want to get on the train
to get on the train in the morning
i want
oh, mother, it's leaving me behind!

(traditional Xhosa, translated by Patiswa Nombona and Mollie Stone)