"A single bamboo can easily bend" (2003)
composed by Chen Yi (b 1953)
an arrangement of an ancient Hunan folksong.
translated into English by the composer

Here is the text:

哟喉嘿 。 。 。
yō hō hēi...
Ah! Oh! Hey! (vocalise)
一根那個竹竿容易唷彎喏嗬,
yì gēn nà gè zhú gān róng yì yō wān nuò hē,
A single stalk of bamboo can easily bend,
三缕啊麻纱唷扯脱難,
sān lǚ ā má shā yō chě tuō nán,
but three strands of spun fl ax cannot be pulled apart.
猛虎啊落在唷平陽喏嗬地唷嗬,
měng hŭ ā luò zài yō píng yáng nuò hē dì yō hē,
Even the fiercest tiger can fall down in a level, open fi eld,
蛟龙啊无水嗬困沙灘。
jiāo lóng ā wú shuĭ hē kùn shā tān.
and an imperial dragon can be stranded without water on a sandy beach.
梭那一支郎噹郎噹一支嗬,
suō nà yì zhī láng dāng láng dāng yì zhī hē,
This is why we should sustain and support one another, I say!
不怕力小怕孤單喏,
bú pà lì xiăo pà gū dān nuò,
Do not fear being small against the mighty; be afraid of being alone.
眾人合伙金不换,
zhòng rén hé huŏ jīn bú huàn,
The people united is worth more than gold.
眾人那個合伙金不换。
zhòng rén nà gè hé huŏ jīn bú huàn.
The people united as one is worth more than gold.

This piece was recorded at on 18 May 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.

A single bamboo can easily bend - Chen Yi - The Esoterics

"A horseherd's mountain song" (2003)
composed by Chen Yi (b 1953)
an arrangement of an ancient Yunnan folksong.
translated into English by the composer

Here is the text:

喂哟嘿呀咕哩嘢 。 。 。
wēi yō hēi yā gū lī yě...
Hey oh hey ah, ooh mm hm... (vocalise)
正月放馬喔噜噜的正月正喲,
zhēng yuè fàng mă wō lū lū de zhēng yuè zhēng yō,
Let your horses run free in the first month of the spring,
赶起馬來登路程喲哦登路程。
găn qĭ mă lái dēng lù chéng yō ó dēng lù chéng.
and show them the way to the upward road.
大馬赶在喔噜噜的山頭裡上喲,
dà mă găn zài wō lū lū de shān tóu lĭ shàng yō,
Drive the bigger horses, lead them to the mountain top,
小馬赶來隨後跟喲哦隨後跟。
xiăo mă găn lái suí hòu gēn yō ó suí hòu gēn.
and allow the younger horses to catch up, following behind.
二月放馬喔噜噜的百草發喲,
èr yuè fàng mă wō lū lū de băi căo fā yō,
Let your great horses graze in the second month of the spring,
小馬吃草深山裡跑喲哦深山裡跑。
xiăo mă chī căo shēn shān lĭ păo yō ó shēn shān lĭ păo.
and let the smaller ones wander the mountain to a pasture.
馬無野草喔噜噜的不會胖喲,
mă wú yě căo wō lū lū de bú huì pàng yō,
For the horses will not be nourished without the wild grasses,
草無露水不會發不會發喲哦。
căo wú lù shuĭ bú huì fā bú huì fā yō ó.
and the grasses will not flourish without the morning dew.

This piece was recorded at on 18 May 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.

A horseherd's mountain song - Chen Yi - The Esoterics

"Together" (2012)
composed by Melissa Dunphy (b 1980)
setting verses from the Bible, Acts 2:44-46

Here is the text:

And all they that believed were together
and had all things common.
Their possessions and goods
they sold and divided them to all,
according as every one had need.
And continuing daily
with one accord in the temple,
and breaking bread from house to house,
they took their meat
with gladness and simplicity of heart.

This piece was recorded at on 18 May 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza. The soloist is Robin Rae Valkren.

Together - Melissa Dunphy - The Esoterics

"Make peace" (2016)
composed by David Lang (b 1957)
setting words by the composer,
after the mourner's Kaddish

Here is the text:

if you can make peace
make peace
in the heavens
in us
in all the world
make peace

This piece was recorded at on 18 May 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.

Make peace - David Lang - The Esoterics

The song about the child (דליה לע רישה 2015)
composed by Sivan Eldar (b 1985)
setting a Hebrew poem by Salman Masalha,
translated into English by Vivian Eden

Here is the text:

זֶה הַשִּׁיר עַל הַיֶּלֶד
Zeh hashir al hayeled
This is the song about the child
שֶׁנִּרְדָּף, עוֹד לִפְנֵי שֶׁנּוֹלַד
shennirdaf, od lifnei shennolad
who was oppressed before he was born
זֶה הַשִּׁיר עַל הַיֶּלֶד
zeh hashir al hayeled
this is the song about the child
שֶׁנִּשְׁלַף מִן הָרֶחֶם, וְנִשְׁדַּד
shennishlaf min harechem, venishdad
who was pressed from the womb and robbed
זֶה הַשִּׁיר עַל הַיֶלֶד
zeh hashir al hayeled
this is the song about the child
שֶׁאָסַף אֶת הָעֶצֶב, וְנָדַד
she'asaf et ha'etzev, venadad
who gleaned the sadness, and roamed
...who was seized to the dark that came down
...who by the sword was slashed, was slain
...who was burned, who perished
...who passed right by us, in fright
...who quavered beside us, betrayed
...who was embraced to our breast, who survived
זֶה הַשִּׁיר עַל הַיֶּלֶד
zeh hashir al hayeled
this is the song about the child
שֶׁאוֹתָנוּ – הוּא מַצִּיל מֵעַצְמֵנוּ
she'otanu – hu matzil me'atzmenu
who saves us – from ourselves
פֶּן נֹאבַד
pen novad.
lest we die.

This piece was recorded at on 18 May 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza. The countertenor soloist is Stephen Elliott.

The song about the child - Sivan Eldar - The Esoterics

"November prayer," movement III
from "Messages to myself" (2007)
composed by Christopher Theofanidis (b 1967)
setting a poem by Amy Beth Kirsten

Here is the text:

Let love come in whatever way it will.
In music, in friendship, in love for myself,
for others, for my family.
To all who are my family.
Strangers. Friends on the street.
To the homeless, the broken,
let love come in whatever way it will.
Let love come.
To the thankful who know how to love,
to the calm, to the awake,
to the joyful, let love come.
And when it does
(that gigantic, magnifi cent mirror)
it will tell us at all times we are one,
how beautiful we are.

This piece was recorded at on 18 May 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.

November prayer - Christopher Theofanidis - The Esoterics

"Even after all this time"
from "Two songs of Hafez" (2018)
composed by Reena Esmail (b 1983)
setting two poems by Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn
Muhammad Hāfez-e Shīrāzī (Hafez),
translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Here is the text:

Even after all this time,
the sun never says to the earth: “you owe me.”
Look what happens with a love like that.
It lights the whole sky.

The piece was recorded on 25 February 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza. The clarinet soloist is Dallas Neustel.

Even after all this time - Reena Esmail - The Esoterics

"Paradise" (2017)
composed by Evan Flory-Barnes (b 1979)
setting a poem by James Baldwin

Here is the text:

Let this be my summertime
Of azure sky and rolling sea,
And smiling clouds, and wind-kissed laughter,
And just myself entranced with thee,
And children playing in the glory
Of a carefree, youthful day,
And sunshine shining from the heavens
And tears and sighing fl ed away.
Let this be my happiness
'Midst the earth's swift-flowing woe.
Let this be my only solace--
Just to know you love me so.
Just to know that we'll go winging
Far above this earthy clime
Hand in hand through laughing meadows.
Let this be my summertime.

The piece was recorded on 25 February 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.

Paradise - Evan Flory-Barnes - The Esoterics

"I flow... I am" (2016)
composed by Mari Ésabel Valverde (b 1987)
setting a new English translation
by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
of Rainier Maria Rilke’s XXIX Sonnet to Orpheus

Here is the text:

Quiet friend who has come so far,
Feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
And you the bell. As you ring,
What batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.

What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
In this uncontainable night,
Be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
The meaning discovered there.
And if the world has ceased to hear you,

Say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.

The piece was recorded on 25 February 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.

I flow... I am - Mari Esabel Valverde - The Esoterics

"Apelsinen har mognat" ("The apple is ripe," 2001)
composed by Tebogo Monnakgotla (b 1972)
setting a Swedish poem by Göran Malmqvist,
after the original Chinese of Bei Dao.

Here is the text:

Apelsinen har mognat.
The orange is ripe.

Den solmättade apelsinen har mognat.
The sun-drenched orange is ripe.

Låt mig vandra in i ditt hjärta
Let me walk into your heart

Med min tunga börda av kärlek.
With my heavy burden of love.

Apelsinen har mognat.
The orange is ripe.

En flyktig sky strömmar ur skalet.
A volatile cloud flows out of the peel.

Låt mig vandra in i ditt hjärta.
Let me walk into your heart.

Sorgen förvandlas till glädjetårar.
My sorrow turns into tears of joy.

Apelsinen har mognat.
The orange is ripe.

Nät av bittra fi brer höljer varje klyfta.
Webs of bitter pith cover every segment.

Låt mig vandra in i ditt hjärta
Let me walk into your heart

Att finna min splittrade dröm.
To find my shattered dream.

Apelsinen har mognat.
The orange is ripe.

Den solmättade apelsinen har mognat.
The sun-drenched orange is ripe.

The piece was recorded on 25 February 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.  The soloists are Rebecca Burke-Aguero, Rachael Luna, and Liz O'Donoghue.

Apelsinen har mognat - Tebogo Monnakgotla - The Esoterics

"The rewaking" (2005)
composed by Augusta Read Thomas (b 1964)
setting a poem by William Carlos Williams

Here is the text:

Sooner or later
we must come to the end
of striving

to re-establish
the image the image of
the rose

but not yet
you say extending the
time indefinitely

by your love
until a whole
spring

rekindle
the violet to the very
lady's-slipper

and so by
your love the very sun
itself is revived

The piece was recorded on 25 February 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.

The rewaking - Augusta Read Thomas - The Esoterics

"Consent" (2014)
composed by Ted Hearne (b 1982)
setting texts from five sources:
love letters by the composer (2002),
love letters by the composer's father (1962),
the Catholic Rite of marriage,
the traditional Jewish Ketubah (wedding contract), 
and text messages by high-school students
Trent Mays and Lucas Herrington
used as evidence in the Steubenville Rape Trial (2013)

Here is the text:

I want you - I want to
I want you - I want to
I want you - I want to

I do.

I was thinking penetrating thoughts about you.
It will be good, we can do it, and we need it.

It can be taken from me;
even from the shirt on my back.

I was thinking penetrating thoughts about you.
It will be good, we can do it, and we need it.
I miss you too, in a heart-aching kind of way.

All of it shall be mortgageable,
and bound as security.
It can be taken from me;
even from the shirt on my back.

I do.

I just took care of your daughter.

Declare your consent.
The missing you hurts.
You’ll be in it soon.
What a way to feel.
Who gives this woman?

I want you - I want to

All of it shall be mortgageable;
and bound as security.
I just took care of your daughter;
she said you could take a picture.

I want you - I want to

I just took care of your daughter,
and made sure she was safe;
she was so in love with me that night.

I ask you to state your intentions.

All of it shall be mortgageable;
and bound as security.
It can be taken from me;
even from the shirt on my back.
During my lifetime, and after this lifetime,
this day and forever.

I just took care of your daughter,
and made sure she was safe;
she said you could take a picture.
She looks dead. LMAO.

I do.

I was thinking penetrating thoughts about you.
It will be good, we can do it, and we need it.
I miss you too, in a heart-aching kind of way.
I’m really looking forward to adding to it.

How have you been holding out on me
with that picture for so long?
She said you could take a picture.
Oh I am looking at all my pictures of you.

You don’t even want to know
what I’m imagining you doing right now;
she was so in love with me that night.

Declare your consent before God.

I just took care of your daughter
when she was drunk.

This original amount,
I accept upon myself
and my heirs after me;
It can be paid from the best part
of my property and possessions
that I own under all the heavens.

...even from the shirt on my back.
...she said you could take a picture.
I refuse to get excited.

Will you accept children lovingly from God?
Declare your consent
before God and the church.

I felt knowing what was right.
She looks dead. LMAO.

I just took care of your daughter.
But I also know we are equal to almost any…
She said you could take a picture.

Who gives this woman?

The piece was recorded on 25 February 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.

Consent - Ted Hearne - The Esoterics

"Celestial bird" (2013)
composed by Roxanna Panufnik (b 1968)
setting a poem by Jennifer Powers

Here is the text:

O sweet and luminous Bird,
Having once heard your call, lovely and shy
I shall be hungry for the finished word.
Across the windy sky

Of all voiced longing and all music heard,
I spread my net for your bewildering wings,
But wings are wiser than the swiftest hands.
Where a bird sings

I held my heart, in fear that it would break.
I called you through the grief of whip-poor-wills,
I watched you on the avenues that make
A radiant city on the western hills.

Yet since I knew you not, I sought in vain.
I called you beauty for its fleet white sound.
But now in my illuminated heart
I can release the hound

Of love upon whose bruising leash I strain.
Oh, he will grasp you where you skim the sod,
Nor wound your breast, for love is soft as death,
Swifter than beauty is, and strong as God.

The piece was recorded on 25 February 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.

Celestial bird - Roxana Panufnik - The Esoterics

"I carry your heart with me" (2003)
composed by Abbie Betinis (b 1980)
setting a poem by e. e. cummings

Here is the text:

i carry your heart with me
(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear;
and whatever is done by only me
is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate
(for you are my fate, my sweet)
i want no world
(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are
whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root
and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky
of a tree called life;
which grows higher
than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder
that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart
(i carry it in my heart)

The piece was recorded on 25 February 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.

I carry your heart - Abbie Betinis - The Esoterics

"Manifesto" (2015)
composed by David Lang (1957)
setting a text by the composer

Here is the text:

I want to be with someone
who won’t get tired of me
who wants to be with me for who I am
who will never leave me

I want to be with someone
who is actually afraid to lose me
who values open communication
who really knows me

I want to be with someone
who cares about me,
supports me, encourages me
who makes my heart jump
when I hear their key in the door
who wants to be with me

who is exactly
what I’ve said I always wanted
who accepts me for who I am

who I find so interesting
and exciting and understands my thinking
who’s going to be healthy for the long haul
who is smarter than that,
with more depth and more soul
who feels the same way
who won’t clip my wings

who laughs at my jokes
who won’t leave
who likes to have fun
who will want to be with me

who is very comfortable
who respects all the other aspects of me
who gets me
who can see a future with me
who is comfortable
who wants to work

I want to be with someone
who matches me
who teaches me
who wants to be

The piece was recorded on 25 February 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.  The solo trio is Allison Fortenberry, Chris Lewis, and Dave Doody.

Manifesto - David Lang - The Esoterics

"Invitation to love" (2016)
composed by Jennifer Higdon (b 1962)
setting a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Here is the text:

Come when the nights are bright with stars
Or come when the moon is mellow;
Come when the sun his golden bars
Drops on the hay-field yellow.

Come in the twilight soft and gray,
Come in the night or come in the day,
Come, O love, whene’er you may,
And you are welcome, welcome.

You are sweet, O Love, dear Love,
You are soft as the nesting dove.
Come to my heart and bring it to rest
As the bird flies home to its welcome nest.

Come when my heart is full of grief
Or when my heart is merry;
Come with the falling of the leaf
Or with the redd’ning cherry.

Come when the year’s first blossom blows,
Come when the summer gleams and glows,
Come with the winter’s drifting snows,
And you are welcome, welcome.

This... invitation to love...

The piece was recorded on 25 February 2019 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle by Markdavin Obenza.

The Esoterics' Live Concert Archive

Popular tracks