Excerpt from album Light Sanctuary.
Grace Leslie (flute)
Maxwell Citron (synthesizer)
Side A recorded in one take in Las Vegas, New Mexico.
Side B is an electronic re-interpretation of Side A.

Grace & Max - Light Sanctuary - Side A - excerpt

Commissioned by the Lorelei Ensemble, Of a rose synge we recasts the text of a fifteenth-century English carol, by the same name, in a contemporary light. Although lines and stanzas remain somewhat intact, the macaronic text (in both Middle English and Latin) is not always presented in its original order. I urge the listener to read the text and translation before, rather than alongside, the performance in hope that the labyrinthine setting will move through the listener more directly and more powerfully.

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TEXT
Of a rose synge we			
Misterium mirabile			

This rose is railed on a rys;		
He hath bought the prince of prys,	
And in this tyme soth hit ys,		
Viri sine semine.			

Of a rose synge we			
Misterium mirabile			

This rose is reed of colour bryght,	
Throw whom oure joye gan alyght,	
Uppon a Cristys masse nyght,		
Claro David germine.			

Of a rose synge we			
Misterium mirabile			

Of this rose was Cryst y-bore,		
To save mankynde that was forlore;	
And us alle from synnes sore,		
Prophetarum carmine.	
	
Of a rose synge we			
Misterium mirabile			

This rose, of flourys she is flour,		
She ne wole fade for no shour,		
To synful men she sent socour,		
Mira plenitudine.			

Of a rose synge we 			
Misterium mirabile			

This rose is so faire of hywe,		
In maide Mary that is so trywe,		
Y-borne was lorde of virtue,		
Salvator sine crimine.			

Of a rose synge we			
Misterium mirabile

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LITERAL TRANSLATION
We sing of a rose
Miraculous mystery

This rose is staked upon a branch;
He bought the best of princes
And in this time it is true;
Without seed of man.

We sing of a rose
Miraculous mystery

This rose is a plant of bright color,
Through whom our joy began,
Upon a Christmas night,
Born of the house of David.

We sing of a rose
Miraculous mystery

Christ was born of this rose,
To save mankind that was forsaken;
And us all from painful sins,
After the prophet’s song.

We sing of a rose
Miraculous mystery

This rose, she is the flower of flowers,
She will not fade from any shower,
To sinful men she sent succor,
In wondrous plenty.

We sing of a rose
Miraculous mystery

This rose is so fair of hue,
In maid Mary who is so pure,
He was born the lord of virtue,
Savior without sin.

We sing of a rose
Miraculous mystery  

Of a rose synge we

Conrad Tao - piano

"there is no sleep so deep" takes its title from Samuel Beckett’s play "Footfalls."  The play consists primarily of an old woman obsessively pacing up and down the stage.  M, the protagonist, stops occasionally to recount a monologue of her slow withdrawal from life, and of her anguished attempts at self-assertion.  As the work progresses, she becomes increasingly more bent and more obscured in darkness, finally disappearing in the end.

The script of "Footfalls" opens with M calling to her mother.  When a voice offstage responds, M inquires if she was asleep.  “Deep asleep.  I heard you in my deep sleep.  There is no sleep so deep I would not hear you there.” I found that exchange very beautiful and it resonated with me long afterwards. 

"there is no sleep so deep" for piano engages with the text, imagery, and stage directions of "Footfalls" on various levels.  The most evident parallels are in the textures:  the driving sixteenth-note passages echo M’s obsessive footsteps, and the resonant repeated-note figures recall her counting to herself as she walks to and fro “one, two, three…” Harmonic and rhythmic ciphers derived from Beckett’s text operate beneath the surface of "there is no sleep so deep," but essentially the motivation behind the music is my grief over the death of my grandmother, Constance Dubose Jones, who passed away at the age of ninety-five last year.  This work is a tombeau for her and a reflection on my own emotional struggles with death and loss. 

"there is no sleep so deep" was written for Conrad Tao's residency at Duke University in March of 2016.

Sound Engineering credit Rick Nelson.

Photo Credit Nate Carpenter

there is no sleep so deep

(Live recording – Mari Kimura: Violin, Jacob David Sudol: Electronics, Editing, Mixing)

The Floating Bridge of Dreams (夢浮橋) is the fourth and final piece of a cycle of works for solo string instruments for live electronics based upon chapters from the Japanese novel Tale of the Genji.  The work takes its title from the last chapter of the novel and, like the last three pieces of the cycle, it is based on the unresolved relationships and cycles of desires and disappointment that form the emotional core to the later Uji chapters.  Following this constantly progressing yet cyclical form, this movement contains multiple transformations of materials from the previous pieces in the cycle as well as suddenly introduces and leaves unresolved multiple new transitional materials.

The work was written for the violinist Mari Kimura and who premiered it at the Miami Beach Urban Studios as part of the ISCM New Music Miami Festival on March 20, 2015.

Jacob David Sudol
August 7, 2015 
Taipei, Taiwan


The Floating Bridge of Dreams (夢浮橋) – violin and electronics (2015)

for soprano and orchestra (2007)

Première : Munich, 9 January 2009, Herkulessal
Soprano : Cornelia Horak 
Conductor : Georg Schmöhe
Orchestra : Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk

Composition Price BMW-Musica Viva (5th)


Of a rose synge we

bwchristian

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