Discover Weekly Archive - Part 1

Cover

Robert Moran
Trinity Requiem

Tray Card

Trinity Requiem
(Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of September 11, 2001)
1.	Introit 	4:33
2.	Kyrie	4:56
3.	Psalm 23	3:42
4.	Offertory	2:58
5.	Sanctus	3:33
6.	Agnus Dei	2:56
7.	Pie Jesu	2:28
8.	In Paradisum	4:44
The Trinity Youth Chorus, Trinity Wall Street
Robert Ridgell, conductor

9.	Tears Into Dust	6:40
Latvian Choral Ensemble
Vladimir Veretsikoff, conductor

Seven Sounds Unseen
10.	1	3:16
11.	2	14:06
12.	3	5:14
Musica Sacra
Richard Westenburg, conductor

13.	Notturno in Weiss	8:12
The Esoterics
Eric Banks, conductor

Total: 67:51




TRINITY REQUIEM (2011)
Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of September 11, 2001

The Trinity Youth Chorus
Trinity Wall Street
conducted by Robert Ridgell

Executive Producer: Linda Hanick
Engineering: Leonard Manchess, Tom Durak (New York)

Melissa Attebury, Associate Director
Wesley Chinn, Assistant
James Blachly, Assistant
Eric Dudley, Assistant

Choir
Kiana Bartholomew
Luthian Brackett*
Chloé Combs
Cecilia Gault
Johanna Go
Jalene Lipowitz
Hannah O’Sullivan
Molly Quinn*
Melanie Russell
Hannah Sklover
Virginia Warnken*
Jelani Wiltshire
Peter Yao
Allison Zhao

*Trinity Choir Member

Instrumentalists
Alexander Hermann, Organ
Jennifer Hoult, Harp
Aminda Asher, Cello
Veronica Parrales, Cello
Sara Wolfe, Cello
Miho Zaitsu, Cello

The Trinity Youth Chorus is the voice of youth in Lower Manhattan, providing a unique musical environment for young singers. A collective of community choirs, the chorus offers music education and performance opportunities for girls and boys, ages 5-18. The program emphasizes the social aspect of singing, brings together collaborative neighborhood partners, and teaches the importance of building bridges within the community.

Notes on TRINITY REQUIEM

When Robert Ridgell asked me to compose the TRINITY REQUIEM for his youth chorus as part of the 10th Anniversary of Sept. 11th, 2001, a commissioned score, my immediate reaction was “No, Robert.... having a youth choir sing a Requiem strikes me as slightly ghoulish and a bit unnerving. Let me think about this”. Directly after this conversation, I began to get ‘flash-backs’ of numerous stories I had heard throughout my life of children who had lost their entire families from plagues, wars, endless catastrophes, vicious governments, etc. I told Rob that I had heard of a specific story of a little girl in Kosovo, maybe no more than 8 years old, whose parents and brother of age 6 had been murdered; she was found daily at the grave of her brother, and had completely lost the ability to speak. “Rob, this is what ‘our’ Requiem is about, these thousands and thousands of kids left with nothing. A friend of mine in England, as a little child, was sent off to Wales during the Nazi bombings of London. He returned to London at the end of the war to find that both his parents had been killed. I was speechless. Luckily we have the ability to attempt some expression of grief through our music. Let’s get going with this project now”.

9/11/2001?   Most of the voices in this Trinity Youth Chorus are of young people born in 2000. The World Trade Center attack would mean nothing to them... But knowing and seeing on television children’s lives destroyed time and again would have a deep impact. We recorded the Trinity Requiem in November 2010; a very intense and moving experience for everyone involved. At the conclusion of In Paradisum, many of us were in tears. One note concerning the Offertory: I based this short movement upon the bass line of the famous Pachelbel Canon, using that organ statement for my own musical canon for the four celli. The first four notes of the Pachelbel ‘bass line’? Where had I heard those before?  They are used as the  “Parsifal” chimes, courtesy of Mr. R. Wagner. And even with our concern for eliminating New York City street sounds during this recording, we couldn’t totally succeed. During the opening of the Offertory, one hears a siren passing the church. We decided that this ‘alarm’ was, although ‘not in the score’, worth keeping as a reminder that the World Trade Center, ten years before, had just been behind Trinity.

Tears Into Dust (2004)
Latvian Choral Ensemble
Vladimir Veretsikoff, conductor

Looking backward... I cannot see the ancients of days.  Looking forward.... I cannot see ages yet to come.  Only Heaven and Earth have remained, and will remain forever...I am alone, I grieve. I drop tears into the dust.
– Chen Tzu-ang
Program notes for SEVEN SOUNDS UNSEEN (1992)

Back in 1992, as a commission from the Catalyst Series of BMG, I composed SEVEN SOUNDS UNSEEN for 20 solo voices for Richard Westenburg and his Musica Sacra.  Two short sections surround the extended middle part, which uses text-fragments from many letters of friend John Cage to me over a period of 30 years (he had given me the original manuscript of his book, “M”, and I ‘dipped’ into some of these pages, taking statements that had such a musical ‘ring’ I had to include them).   Each of the three parts asks for a different stage arrangement of the various voices for no other reason than to move sounds around for the actual recording.  After I completed the score and sent it on its way to Westenburg (actually hand-delivered to the producer of the recording, Andre Gauthier), I looked forward to attending the actual recording and hearing this work for the first time “outside of my head” and with hopes that what was ‘internally heard’ would manifest itself in the studio performance.   The entire day, spent in the studio, was amazing from start to finish, the singers producing such magic.

Producer:  Andre Gauthier
Engineer:   Anthony Salvatore

Notturno in Weiss (2006)	

The Esoterics, Eric Banks, director. With guest harpists Alexis Odell and Melissa Walsh 
(Notturno in Weiss also appears on their album Sonettaria, Terpsichore Records. www.TheEsoterics.org)

Anne Dame
Anthony Balducci
Betsy Bæskens
Brad Fanta
Curtis Man
Dan Luethy
Doug Rank
Erin Harlan
Gretchen Hubbert
Jamie Balducci
Jennifer Gosnell
Jeremiah Oliver
Jessica Spears
Jim Peterson
Kathea Yarnell
Keith Horlock
Kevin Fansler
Lorri Froggét
Maria Drury
Mary Wieneke
Merideth Burness
Michæl Seidel
Mitchell Baier
Rick Sipe
Sam Beckert
Sean Glenn
Shawna Avinger
Sheri Doyle
Steve Shelton
Vanessa Ament
Whitney Wishart
Will Thayer-Daugherty

Recording engineer: Rick Lyman
Recording producer: Brian Fairbanks
Recording editor: Al Swanson

Notturno in Weiss [Nocturne in white] (2006)
Poem by Christian Morgenstern
Translated by Eric Banks

Die steinerne Familie,
The family of stone,
Aus Marmelstein gemacht,
Fashioned from marble,
Sie kniet um eine Lilie,
Kneels unto a lily,
In totenstiller Nacht.
In the deathly still of night.

In totenstiller Nacht
[textless]

Der Lilie Weiß ist weicher
The white of the lily is softer,
Als wie das Weiß des Steins,
Than the white of the stone,
Der Lilie Weiß ist weicher,
The white of the lily is softer,
Doch das des Steins ist bleicher
Yet that of the stone is paler
Im Weiß des Mondenscheins.
In the white of the moonlight.

Die Lilie, die Familie,
The lily, the family,
Der Mond in sanfter Pracht,
The moon in gentle splendor,
Sie halten so Vigilie,
They each hold their vigils,
Wetteifernde Vigilie, 
Their emulating vigils,
In totenstiller Nacht.
In the deathly still of night.

BIO

Robert Moran has traveled many musical paths since 1957 when he began his study of 12-tone music in Vienna with Hans Erich Apostel and completed his Masters with Luciano Berio and Darius Milhaud. He has composed for solo instruments and intimate chamber groups; created musical compositions incorporating 100,000 performers, radio and television stations, skyscrapers, and airplanes; and has collaborated with Phillip Glass to compose minimalist opera scores. Moran compositions range from the absurd theatre piece Divertissement Number One (1967), in which performers react to the sight and sound of popcorn popping, to the sinister yet funny Alice in Wonderland (2011) for the Scottish Ballet.

Throughout his career Moran has been careful not to ally himself with any specific school of composition. Musicologist and critic Walter Simmons noted that Moran “has passed through most of the ‘isms’ that have comprised the contemporary music landscape of the past 50 years.” This freed him to explore whatever musical form interested him at the moment, and his numerous musical excursions led to the development of his unique style.

The 2011 Ruhr Triennale, Oberhausen, Germany commissioned Moran's BUDDHA GOES TO BAYREUTH, composed for two choruses and two string orchestras, conducted by Rupert Huber.  In 2012 Ballet West will premiere THE LOTTERY, based upon the short story of Shirley Jackson and choreographed by Val Caniparoli.

Also by Robert Moran on innova:
Open Veins (627)
Mantra (714)
Cabinet of Curiosities (792)


Bob Moran: Trinity Requiem  In Paradisum

Music for piano and string quartet.

Strings: leos-strings.com brookspearemusic.com


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Solstice

Music for piano and string orchestra.

Strings: Budapest Art Orchestra https://budapestartorchestra.com

Artwork: Aline Héau https://cyanotyp.es

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Journeys

From the album 'HOMMAGES', available on double LP at Bandcamp, and streaming everywhere.

Holly Roadfeldt - Piano

Hommage a Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) – The music of Hildegard has always amazed and inspired me.  Well, EVERYTHING about Hildegard has amazed and inspired me—the things that she composed, wrote, built, and accomplished—especially in an age when women were completely oppressed.  She is quite simply one of the greatest geniuses this world has ever produced, and it’s criminal that she’s not as well known as other male geniuses from her time (or later).  When I was thinking about this Hommage, I wasn’t sure how to approach it.  Then, one day (July 11th, 2018), I was doing some completely unrelated work, and out of nowhere, the entire piece came to me all at once, as in a vision.  Yeah, I know how that sounds, especially given Hildegard’s history, but that’s what happened.  The piece was written in one afternoon.

Hommage a Hildegard von Bingen (Official Album Version)

Holly Roadfeldt - Piano

Hommage a Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) – I have been fascinated by Nadia Boulanger for a long time now. How did this person inspire and produce so many of the 20th century's greatest composers? After reading about her life, I think at least part of that dedication to composers was born out of her relationship to her younger sister Lili, and the circumstances surrounding her early death. From what I understand, Nadia was a great lover of the rigors of counterpoint, but also had the rare ability of helping composers find their own voices during a time of strict dogma in the composition landscape. This piece is inspired by Lili Boulanger's "Theme and Variations", and also by Nadia's love of counterpoint, and by her voice in my head telling me, "Just be yourself."

Buy the album!

Hommage a Nadia Boulanger (Official Album Version)

Holly Roadfeldt - Piano

Hommage a Gary Gygax (1938-2008) - Given all of the artistic and scientific people I've covered so far, why write an Hommage to Gary Gygax, the creator of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons? When I set out to write this series, I wanted to pay respects to people who inspired me to create. Gary was the first. I was introduced to D&D in the 3rd grade, and I became fascinated with it immediately. I used to sit in class drawing dungeon maps on graph paper instead of listening to my lessons. This was my first real creative outlet, and where I first encountered the mechanics of telling a story. For instance, if I drew a long hallway on the graph paper, and then drew in a secret door halfway down on the left wall, this in itself posed many questions - questions that I had to answer. Why is there a secret door here? What is it hiding? Is it an object of significance relating to the rest of the story? Is it a dangerous monster, sealed away forever? How does that relate to what the adventurers are going through? My 3rd-grade mind was sent wandering with almost endless possibilities. Through Gary's creation, I learned to craft a narrative - a skill that became invaluable in writing music. How could I not write an Hommage to Gary?

Hommage A Gary Gygax (Official Album Version)

Musical Banquet

Dowland: Lady Rich, Her Galliard

Sisask : Starry Sky Cycle

Starry Sky Cycle Op.52 - Pleiades : 17. II Maja

Bach's Lullaby Cello Suite, Collection

Bach: Cello Suite No.2 in D minor BWV 1008 - IV. Sarabande

'Times go by Turns' is the highly anticipated follow-up to New York Polyphony’s 2012 release 'endBeginning'. The program features Masses by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, as well as an enigmatic three-voice Mass setting by medieval English composer John Plummer. Three new works written for New York Polyphony by composers Gabriel Jackson, Andrew Smith, and the late Sir Richard Rodney Bennett complete the sequence.

Thomas Tallis - Mass for Four Voices - Sanctus (excerpt)

Praised for a “rich, natural sound that’s larger and more complex than the sum of its parts,” (National Public Radio) NEW YORK POLYPHONY is regarded as one of the finest vocal chamber ensembles in the world. The four men “sing with intelligence, subtlety and consummate artistry,” (Richmond Times-Dispatch) applying a distinctly modern touch to repertoire that ranges from austere medieval melodies to cutting-edge contemporary compositions. Their dedication to innovative programming, as well as a focus on rare and rediscovered works, has not only earned New York Polyphony critical acclaim and a devoted following, but also helped to move early music into the classical mainstream.

Thomas Tallis - Mass for Four Voices - Sanctus (excerpt)

New York Polyphony

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