Calling to the Wild Woman in each of us to emerge, to come forth, to take action. Call and response layer song with drums, singing and all voices welcome.

I Am Ready

December 5, 2008: What does it mean when we speak in different ways to different people? Is it a sign of duplicity or the mark of a complex sensibility? Novelist and critic Zadie Smith takes a look at register and tone, from the academy to the streets, through black and white, with examples.

The Robert B. Silvers Lecture is an annual series created by Max Palevsky. The series features writers and thinkers whose fields correspond to the broad range of Mr. Silvers’s interests in literature, the arts, politics, economics, history, and the sciences.

Zadie Smith: Speaking in Tongues (2008)

Theme song for the fictional "Jack Harrod Show," the focus of the action of the play _What Passes for Comedy_ by G.D. Kimble produced by The Chain Theatre, NYC, October 28 - November 19, 2022, directed by Rick Hamilton. Performed by the Dickinson College Faculty Jazz Quintet.  Jeff Wohlbach, trumpet.  Greg Strohman, piano and trombone.  David Zygmunt, drums.  Jim Miller, bass.  Tom Strohman, saxes.  Recorded by Patrick Oh,

What Passes for Comedy

Conductor Delyana Lazarova made her ROCO debut in a concert inspired by fantasy and fortune, she lead the full chamber orchestra in two ROCO-commissioned world premieres, including William Bolcom‘s "Dedication", orchestrated by Edmund Ciorek, and Judah Adashi‘s "the sun begins to fade", as part of ROCO’s FIFteen Project. Also featured is  "Finding Rothko" by Adam Schoenberg, ROCO’s Season 18 Composer-in-Residence, inspired and accompanied by the visionary abstract paintings of Mark Rothko, along with Caroline Shaw’s elegant "Entr’acte for strings". Completing the evening is Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 100, also nicknamed the “Military Symphony,” for its vivid second movement musically depicting battle.

Judah Adashi , The Sun Begins To Fade

Concerto for four guitars (classical, 12-string, electric and resonator), string ensemble, and electronics.  Guitars performed by John Schroeder; violins, violas and cellos by Jeff Issokson; contrabass by Nina DeCesare.

Concerto For Guitars String Ensemble And Electronics

Inspired by an excerpt from the poem "Red Sea" by Aurora Levins Morales written in 2002 and included in the article written by Arielle Angel “We Cannot Cross Until We Carry Each other” in Jewish Currents post October 7, 2023.

Written by Molly Bajgot & Sol Weiss on our way to DC, October 2023
Sung by Leigh Witzling, Nina Gordon Kirsch, Lily Israel, Molly Bajgot and Sol Weiss


Lyrics:

We won’t rest till we’re all free
You are not my enemy
In our pain, in our grief
Border walls won’t protect me

We will cross the sea
With all of us or none

We will cross the sea
We will cross the sea
With all of us or none
With all of us or none

Cross the Sea (by Molly Bajgot & Sol Weiss)

Little Song is a nigun (wordless melody) that is a soft, simple call and response / echo song that has often served as a way to sing out messages or add in words. This version was born when Ilana Lerman was driving to Washington DC to lead a songleader training at an IfNotNow action along with me and a powerful team of many songleaders, where she put the movement's messaging and demands to this tune. Since then, more of us have added words, the song growing every time. This melody is a powerful vehicle for sharing a message and grounding in our hearts. With these words, we hope the song can both be a gentle support to all of us in times of devastation and a strong loud voice in calling out for an end to the war.

With our prayers for healing this broken world and bridging the distance between us that can feel so cavernous, for grieving the terror of violence and oppression and a world that makes us believe they are necessary, for finding our way through together — we call for a ceasefire now: protect lives on all sides, end the siege on Gaza. 

How to use the song:

This melody can accelerate and pick up energy or slow down and get soft, is easy to learn, and is a call and response song, making it impactful for sharing a message. The last note of each line is drawn out to overlap with the response. When using in groups or at actions, the main words have been "Ceasefire Now," "Not in our name" and "No more genocide." You are welcome to use the words that feel right for the moment and add your own. Other possibilities include: Never again is now / Safety for all now / Let Gaza live / etc. 


Lyrics:

Ceasefire Now
to the tune of "Little Song" by Sol Weiss with added words from Ilana Lerman, Sol Weiss and many voices in the Ceasefire movement. 

Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)

Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)

Bring them home now (bring them home now)
Bring them home now (bring them home now)
Bring them home now (bring them home now)
Bring them home now (bring them home now)

Put the weapons down (put the weapons down)
Put the weapons down (put the weapons down)
Put the weapons down (put the weapons down)
Put the weapons down (put the weapons down)

Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)

Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)

*V’ ahavta (v'ahavta)
L’arecha (l'arecha)
K’mocha (k'mocha)
K’mocha (k'mocha)

Cease fire now (cease fire now)
Cease fire now (cease fire now)
Cease fire now (cease fire now)
Cease fire now (cease fire now)

*וְאָֽהַבְתָּ֥ לְרֵעֲךָ֖ כָּמ֑וֹךָ
Hebrew translation "and you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself" (Vayikra 19:18)

Sung by: Matt Goldfield, Molly Bajgot, Ilana Lerman, Helen Bennett & Sol Weiss
November 2023

Ceasefire Now (tune of Little Song by Sol Weiss, adapted by Ilana Lerman Oct 16, 2023)

I first encountered the poetry of Ciara Shuttleworth in The New Yorker, in November 2010. Her poem “Sestina” made an immediate impression on me, with its simplicity and depth of feeling. Ciara reimagines the traditional form f­or which her poem is named, compressing it – and the entire life cycle of a relationship – into six words, variously rotated. “Sestina” is at once intimate and epic; I tried to reflect that sensibility in this spare musical setting for voice and orchestra.

I am immensely grateful to the American Composers Orchestra (especially Artistic Director Derek Bermel and Music Director & Conductor George Manahan) for making Sestina part of the 2015 SONiC Festival, and to my friend Caroline Shaw for singing it. Caroline and the ACO premiered Sestina in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall on October 23, 2015.

“The grand finale in Carnegie Hall with ACO, titled “Orchestra Underground: 21st Firsts,” also revealed another highly original composer, Judah Adashi. His “Sestina” for voice (sung affectingly by Caroline Shaw) and orchestra (conducted by George Manahan) intoned a six-word poem by Ciara Shuttleworth. The score’s expertly crafted minimal elements, including Shaw’s unforced, limpid singing, matched the sparseness of the poetry. By means of a repeated modal scale, chordal patterns in the strings and delicate flourishes from the wind instruments, Adashi conveyed a sublimely drawn fragility." -Alexandra Ivanoff, Today's Zaman, October 2015

Sestina (2011)

This is a dramatic reading of the website bio of Khatia Buniatishvili, written by Olivier Bellamy: http://www.khatiabuniatishvili.com/about/

Background music is the Theme from Jurassic Park by John Williams, as heard in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOmJLk1lu08

A Dramatic Reading of Khatia Buniatishvili's Website Bio

Hblue

Soprano Michele Kennedy sings Wayfaring Stranger (arranged by Steven Kohn)  at the Unitarian Universalist Church of San Francisco, July 2020.

Wayfaring Stranger

composer, organizer, teacher | faculty @ Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, founder and artistic director @ Evolution Contemporary Music Series & RiseBmore

Sestina (2011)

Judah Adashi

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