At Which Point
AT WHICH POINT
music by Ayanna Woods, Wang Lu, and David Lang
The Month of Moderns 2021
presented by The Crossing & Annenberg Center
“At which point, coming to, I knew I’d pay the whole flag-pull fare.
At which point the driver turned and said it doesn’t need to be
your fault for it to break you.
At which point without any lurching commencement,
he began to play a vulture-bone flute.
At which point I grew old and it was like ripping open the beehive with my hands again.
— Beckoned from Forrest Gander's "Be With"
MONTH OF MODERNS 3: At Which Point
Friday, June 18 + Saturday, June 19, 2021 at 6:30pm
Awbury Arboretum
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Crossing
Donald Nally, conductor
with Echoes Amplification Kits*
PROGRAM
SHIFT – Ayanna Woods
world premiere
Refrain (2021)
Shift (2020)
At Which Point (2021) – Wang Lu
world premiere
Prologue
Beckoned
The Sounding
the sense of senses (2021) – David Lang
US premiere
* Ex-Covid Haptotropic Optimistic Electrophonic Sound
Learn more at www.crossingchoir.org/echoes
program art by Steven Bradshaw and Joka
NOTES + TEXTS
SHIFT
words and music by Ayanna Woods (b. 1992)
1. Refrain
commissioned by The Crossing
"For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." "
–Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963
"They earnestly believe that it is too soon to do away with plantation justice."
–Bella Bahhs, 2021
wait
wait and see
see, wait
wait for—
(four, five, six, seven)
wait more
more weight
wait for the video
(thirteen)
wait for the video to be released
(sixteen... eighteen)
wait to be released
soon
(twenty, twenty-one)
wait for release
soon
soon
(you too, soon)
too soon, wait—
wait and see
see, wait
just wait
wait a while and see
wait while you see
wait. see. wait. see.
just a while
a just while
just
2. Shift
commissioned by Thomas Kasdorf for The Crossing Votes: 2020 – a pre-election film project by The Crossing, Four/Ten Media, and Digital Mission Audio Services.
premiered November 2, 2020 at www.crossingchoir.org/2020
Why do we build monuments in stone?
Stone is brittle. When it cracks, it cuts to your churning core, America.
Tectonic plates collide; you shift in your seat.
I want a monument we imagine and reimagine and reimagine—
A monument we grasp and heave and pull in a long arc
bursting through the cracks in the story you tell, America.
At Which Point
music by Wang Lu (b. 1982)
words by Forrest Gander (b. 1956)
commissioned by The Crossing
Prologue (wordless)
Beckoned
At which point my grief-sounds ricocheted outside of language.
Something like a drifting swarm of bees.
At which point in the tetric silence that followed
I was swarmed by those bees and lost consciousness.
At which point there was no way out for me either.
At which point I carried on in a semi-coma, dreaming I was awake,
avoiding friends and puking, plucking stingers from my face and arms.
At which point her voice was pinned to a backdrop of vaporous color.
At which point the crane's bustles flared.
At which point, coming to, I knew I'd pay the whole flag-pull fare.
At which point the driver turned and said it doesn't need to be
your fault for it to break you.
At which point without any lurching commencement,
he began to play a vulture-bone flute.
At which point I grew old and it was like ripping open the beehive with my hands again.
At which point I conceived a realm more real than life.
At which point there was at least some possibility.
Some possibility, in which I didn't believe, of being with her once more.
–Beckoned from "Be With" by Forrest Gander (2018)
The Sounding
What closes and then
luminous? What opens
and then dark? And into
what do you stumble
but this violet
extinction? With
froth on your lips.
8:16 a.m. The morning's
sleepy face
rolls its million
eyes. Migrating flocks
of your likesame species
incandesce
into transparency.
A birdwatcher lifts
her binoculars. The con-
tinuous with or without
your words
situates you here
(here (here)) even while
you knuckle your eyes
in disbelief. Those
voices you love (human
and not), can you
hear their echoes
hissing away like
fiery scale
from an ingot hammered
on some
blacksmith's anvil?
And behind those
voices, what is that
blowing
the valves of your ears open
as black rain,
not in torrents, but
ceaselessly comes
unchecked out of everywhere
with nothing
to slacken it.
–The Sounding from "Be With" by Forrest Gander (2018)
the sense of senses
music by David Lang (b. 1957)
words by David Lang (after Song of Songs)
co-commissioned by The Crossing, Philadelphia; the Company of Music, Vienna; and the Fisher Center at Bard College
a note from the composer
What makes the ‘Song of Songs’ stand out from other Biblical texts is, of course, its intense sensuality. One way the text makes us the feel the spark between the lovers – which is, after all, a metaphor for the spark between believers and God – is the heightened use of language that places us in the middle of the action. It tells the story by constantly triggering our senses. The lovers see the vines and vineyards, they smell the frankincense and myrrh, they taste the honey and the wine. Our connection to the story is deepened because the details are described to us in ways that we, ourselves, can imagine seeing, and smelling, and tasting.
I wanted to catalog all the senses in the text, so I filtered out everything except that which is seen, heard, smelled, felt and tasted, and I kept these in the order in which the story mentions them. I removed characteristics or parts of the body that would gender who is speaking, and then I rearranged the order of the senses, so that all of the seen things would be together, all the heard things, all the felt things, etc. I then ordered the senses from far to near – from sight to sound to smell to feeling to taste – so that we might feel the power of the senses grow and intensify, as they come closer to us.
I can see a door
I can see a wall
I can see a wall
I can see companions
I can see in you
I can see Jerusalem
I can see Lebanon
I can see my dove
I can see that
I can see the bed
I can see the coals
I can see the company
I can see the crown
I can see the doves
I can see the field
I can see the flowers
I can see the fountain
I can see the foxes
I can see the fruit
I can see the fruits
I can see the garden
I can see the garden
I can see the garden
I can see the gold
I can see the green
I can see the hair
I can see the horses
I can see the jealousy
I can see the jewels
I can see the joints
I can see the lions
I can see the marble
I can see the morning
I can see the mountains
I can see the pillars
I can see the pillars
I can see the roe
I can see the rose
I can see the studs
I can see the sun
I can see the swords
I can see the tents
I can see the thousand
I can see the top
I can see the vine
I can see the vineyard
I can see the vineyard
I can see the vineyard
I can see the vineyards
I can see the waters
I can see threescore
I can see Tirzah
I can see virgins
I can see you
I can hear her
I can hear the birds
I can hear you
I can smell the apples
I can smell the bed
I can smell the beds
I can smell the calamus
I can smell the camphire
I can smell the camphire
I can smell the frankincense
I can smell the garments
I can smell the lilies
I can smell the mandrakes
I can smell the myrrh
I can smell the myrrh
I can smell the myrrh
I can smell the myrrh
I can smell the myrrh
I can smell the ointments
I can smell the spices
I can smell the spices
I can smell the spikenard
I can smell the spikenard
I can smell the tender grape
I can smell the wheat
I can smell your good ointments
I can feel the banner
I can feel the day
I can feel the day
I can feel the desire
I can feel the dew
I can feel the fear
I can feel the north wind
I can feel the seal
I can feel the seal
I can feel the shade
I can feel the shadows
I can feel the shadows
I can feel the south wind
I can feel you
I can taste the apples
I can taste the best wine
I can taste the fruit
I can taste the honey
I can taste the honeycomb
I can taste the honeycomb
I can taste the liquor
I can taste the pleasant fruits
I can taste the pleasant fruits
I can taste the pomegranates
I can taste the spiced wine
I can taste the wine
I can taste the wine
I can taste the wine
I can taste you
I can taste you
I can taste your kiss
I can taste your kiss
I can taste your lips
I can taste your lip
I can taste your mouth
I can taste your mouth
I can taste your wine
–David Lang (after Song of Songs)
TEAM
The Crossing
Katy Avery
Nate Barnett
Jessica Beebe
Kelly Ann Bixby
Karen Blanchard
Steven Bradshaw
Colin Dill
Micah Dingler
Ryan Fleming
Joanna Gates
Dimitri German
Steven Hyder
Mike Jones
Anika Kildegaard
Heidi Kurtz
Maren Montalbano
Rebecca Myers
James Reese
Dan Schwartz
Becky Siler
Tiana Sorenson
Dan Spratlan
Elisa Sutherland
Jackson Williams
Donald Nally, conductor
Kevin Vondrak, assistant conductor
Paul Vazquez, sound design
John Grecia, musical assistance
Jonathan Bradley, executive director
Shannon McMahon, operations manager
Kate Nelson, stage manager
Jack Feivou, line producer
Josh Lisner, summer associate
for Annenberg Center
Christopher A. Gruits, executive & artistic director
Alexander Freeman, director of marketing & ticketing
Rebecca Goering, senior associate director of marketing & communications
Madeline Bell, marketing manager
Carrie Reynolds, business development manager
Adam W. Riggar, director of production
Santino Lo, artistic project manager
for Four/Ten Media
Evan Chapman + Kevin Eikenberg
#ComeHearNow