Gonçalo Lourenço's Oratorio "From the Ashes", for Orchestra, SATB Chorus, SATB soloists, Evangelist and Projection.

Duration: 40:00
Instrumentation: (2.2.2.2, 0.0.1.1, Timp., 3 perc., harp, piano, organ, SATB choir, SATB soloists, recitant, projection and strings)

Composer - Gonçalo Lourenço
Libretto - Pedro Jorge
Projection - André Alves

Soprano - Martha Eason
Mezzo - Amber McKoy
Tenor - Travis Bloom
Baritone - Edward Graves
Evangelist - Serena Künzler

IU Chorale
IU Conductor's Orchestra
Maestro - Gonçalo Lourenço

Video - Willy Michel

The oratorio From the Ashes, GL 29, was inspired by the Sílabas de Apocalípse (Syllables of the Apocalypse) by the Portuguese poet Pedro Jorge (b. 1936). My musical voice was inspired by the goal of fusing various harmonic languages and idioms of  Western classical music: tonal, atonal, modal, and serial approaches to harmonic organization, and the use of leitmotifs and folk songs.

Influenced by the Book of Revelation, Jorge’s apocalypse uses a similar framework but with different images and events. In the Book of Revelation, John writes seven letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor. In Jorge’s Sílabas de Apocalípse (Syllables of the Apocalypse), the unidentified protagonist (perhaps Jorge himself) writes seven letters to the peoples of the world: the slums of the north, the barrios of the south, and so on. The letters warn that the earth will be destroyed because of the selfishness and incompetence of human leaders. There are no biblical figures or references, and salvation is ultimately achieved through the birth of the sunflower.
In the Book of Revelation, the Lamb with the seven horns and seven eyes appears on earth and calls seven heavenly creatures who will be given seven trumpets to destroy everything that lives. In Jorge’s vision it is a chameleon who is sent to destroy the planet. Each of the seven times the chameleon opens its mouth, it emits evil in the form of a grotesque animal - War, Fear, Disease, Greed, Pollution, Anguish and Oppression - which helps it to complete the task of destruction.
In John’s vision, “the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it [the New Jerusalem]”   are rescued from the destruction and will become part of the New Heaven, New Earth and New Jerusalem. In the Sílabas, the survivors gather near a charred  tree. From that tree a Sunflower (which may or may not be a reference to Christ)  bursts, and mankind is reunited around it. 


Oratorio, "From The Ashes", for Orchestra, Choir, Soloists, Evangelist and Projection, GL 29

Goncalo Lourenco