Returning
RETURNING
coming home to song
“Why are there words
I cannot speak to your face
But only to your memory
— Kai Hoffman-Krull (from Michael Gilbertson’s Returning)
Saturday, September 11th @ 7pm
Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
on the 20th anniversary of 9/11
The Crossing
Donald Nally, conductor
with
Ted Babcock, marimba
John Grecia, keyboards
Tommy Mesa, cello
Scott Dettra, organ
PROGRAM
prelude to returning
The Forest (excerpt, recorded, 2020) Donald Nally and Kevin Vondrak
from our first outside performance during the pandemic, October 2020
returning to what we saw, what we did
SHIFT Ayanna Woods
2. Shift (2020)
3. Bound (2021)
Shift was written and filmed for our pre-election series, The Crossing Votes: 2020
returning to where we left off
Travel Guide to Nicaragua (2020) Michael Gordon
After my father was left in Poland (world premiere)
There are two stories (world premiere)
the work was planned for Carnegie Hall, March 2020
returning to how we mourned
Funeral Ikos (1981) John Tavener
reaching way back over our landscape of mourning –
to The Crossing’s 2007 residency in Spoleto, Italy
returning to celebrate those gone before
Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus (2014) James Primosch
Gloria
Jim left us April 26, 2021...we miss him
returning to prayer
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind (1888) C. Hubert H. Parry (REPTON)
arr. H.A. Chambers (1941)
from The Crossing’s birth at St. Mark’s Church, Locust Street,
and its long love affair with the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill
returning to sacrifice
Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus Primosch
Agnus Dei
So be it.
Come, rag of pungent quiverings,
dim star.
returning (I thought of staying quiet)
Returning (2015) Michael Gilbertson
Part I. What knits us
Part II. I thought of staying quiet
...the way dusk light becomes
a part of darkness returning.
postlude: (returning to) living together, from here on
Earth Teach Me Quiet (2013) Ēriks Ešenvalds
from Rising w/ The Crossing – how we talked about a pandemic
*program art “Big Fish” (2021) by Sasan Pix
NOTES + TEXTS
a note from Donald on returning:
It isn’t what we thought. Tonight’s Returning.
It’s less free, the previous chapter not yet concluded.
There is joy, lots of it, and there are scars and the hollowness of isolation.
One does not return from that unchanged.
Yes, we are here. We are.
It isn’t what we thought. Not yet.
It just is.
So, we enter this sanctuary seeking just that: a holy gathering place. Holy, in that this home, this prayer house of music which holds us, is where we have gathered so many times to celebrate the birth of new works; to explore vision, imagination, and myth; to tell our stories; to mourn over the parts of those stories that have been so magnified in the 20 months since we last sat in pews together, waiting for previously unheard music in which we recognize ourselves – here, at home, with our friends, our fellow adventurers, our comrades.
This question we have asked every day, audibly in some of our pandemic works:
“What kind of singing matters?”
Tonight, we knit together a program, a simple one, of what we think matters, picking up where we left off, moving forward with a work that “would have been.” We remember our frustrations and profess our determination. We honor lives we couldn’t celebrate as they came to a close. We look back to our foundation with works that speak to us from the past – the aural history of this community. What we think matters.
The event?
We sit together in this tabernacle.
We have Come back...here to Hear...sounds of Now.
Quiet, listening, remembering.
Grateful for returning.
* * *
SHIFT
words and music by Ayanna Woods (b. 1992)
SHIFT was studio recorded last month, for future release.
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.
3. Bound
commissioned by The Crossing.
Premiered July 27, 2021 at Story Mill, Bozeman, MT.
“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”
– Angela Davis
“Power. Transformation. Miracles. I want it. I need it. I gots to have it. Right Now!”
– a Black Liberation chant, as taught by Dream Defenders
for my grandmother
for my grandmother’s hands
for the work of her hands
for her loving labor
for my grandfather
for my grandfather’s feet
for the pounding of his feet
for his loving labor
for the transformation
their loving labor
brought we inhabit
for a transformation
we are bound
right now
with our hands
with the work of our hands
with our feet
with the pounding of our feet
Right Now!
Travel Guide to Nicaragua
words and music by Michael Gordon (b. 1956)
commissioned by The Crossing, Carnegie Hall, and Penn Live Arts
After my father was left in Poland
After my father was left in Poland
I know little about his life
He had some pictures he kept in a shoe box
But he wouldn’t talk about them
Twelve years later, in March 1939, he was called to the U. S. Embassy for a visa interview.
He was asked a lot of questions about his political leanings.
The diplomat’s secretary stood in back and signaled the appropriate responses to my father
And with visa in hand, he was advised to leave the country immediately.
Once reunited with his mother, brother, and sister in Boston, he was promptly drafted and shipped out to the Pacific.
I know little about his life in the army. He had some medals he kept in that shoe box, but he didn’t talk about them.
The shoe box says “Florsheim White Weave Nine C”, a style the company no longer makes.
But you can still see a pair on Ebay.
Although I have to tell you that I can’t remember my father ever wearing white shoes.
There are two stories
There are two stories to the story.
Funeral Ikos
music by John Tavener (1944-2013)
words from the Orthodox service for the burial of priests
Why these bitter words of the dying, O brethren, which they utter as they go hence? I am parted from my brethren. All my friends do I abandon, and go hence. But whither I go, that understand I not, neither what shall become of me yonder; only God, who hath summoned me, knoweth. But make commemoration of me with the song: Alleluia.
But whither now go the souls? How dwell they now together there? This mystery have I desired to learn, but none can impart aright. Do they call to mind their own people, as we do them? Or have they forgotten all those who mourn them and make the song: Alleluia.
We go forth on the path eternal, and as condemned, with downcast faces, present ourselves before the only God eternal. Where then is comeliness? Where then is wealth? Where then is the glory of this world? There shall none of these things aid us, but only to say oft the psalm: Alleluia.
If thou hast shown mercy unto man, O man, that same mercy shall be shown thee there; and if on an orphan thou hast shown compassion, the same shall there deliver thee from want. If in this life the naked thou hast clothed, the same shall give thee shelter there, and sing the psalm: Alleluia.
Youth and the beauty of the body fade at the hour of death, and the tongue then burneth fiercely, and the parched throat is inflamed. The beauty of the eyes is quenched then, the comeliness of the face all altered, the shapeliness of the neck destroyed; and the other parts have become numb, nor often say: Alleluia.
With ecstasy are we inflamed if we but hear that there is light eternal yonder; that there is Paradise, wherein every soul of Righteous Ones rejoiceth. Let us all, also, enter into Christ, that all we may cry aloud thus unto God: Alleluia.
– translation by Isabel Hapgood (1851-1928)
Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus
music by James Primosch (1956-2021)
words by Denise Levertov (1923-1997) and from the Latin Ordinary of the Mass
Commissioned by The Crossing and Donald Nally, and made possible with support from the Knight Foundation. Premiered June 28, 2014 at the Icebox Project Space at CraneArts, Philadelphia PA
Our 2020 album Carthage: music of James Primosch on Navona Records includes Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus; it was nominated for the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.
Praise the wet snow
falling early.
Praise the shadow
my neighbor’s chimney casts on the tile roof
even this gray October day that should, they say,
have been golden.
Praise
the invisible sun burning beyond
the white cold sky, giving us
light and the chimney’s shadow
Praise
god or the gods, the unknown,
that which imagined us, which stays
our hand,
our murderous hand,
and give us
still,
in the shadow of death,
our daily life,
and the dream still
of goodwill, of peace on earth.
Praise
flow and change, night and
the pulse of day.
–“Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus” by Denise Levertov. From Candles in Babylon, copyright ©1982 by Denise Levertov. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
——
Gloria in excelsis Deo. Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
Laudamus te; benedicimus te; adoramus te; glorificamus te. Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.
Domine Deus, Rex coelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens. Domine Fili unigenite Jesu Christe. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris.
Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, O miserere nobis.
Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe. Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris.
Amen.
Glory be to God in the highest. And on earth peace to men of good will. We praise You; we bless You; we adore You; we glorify You. We give You thanks for Your great glory.
Lord God, Heavenly King, God the Father Almighty. O Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son. Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
You that take away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. You that take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. You that sit at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us.
For You only are the Holy One, You alone are the Lord, You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ. Together with the Holy Ghost in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
music by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918), arranged by H. A. Chambers (1880-1967)
words by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways!
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.
In simple trust like theirs who heard
Beside the Syrian sea
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word
Rise up and follow Thee.
Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.
Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm.
Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus
Note: ellipses (.....) indicate where cuts have been made in the texts
(.....)
What terror lies concealed
in strangest words, O lamb
of God that taketh away
the Sins of the World:
(.....)
God then,
encompassing all this, is
defenceless? Omnipotence
has been tossed away, reduced
to a wisp of damp wool
(.....)
we
must protect this perversely weak
animal, whose muzzle’s nudgings
suppose there is milk to be found in us?
Must hold to our icy hearts
a shivering God?
So be it.
Come, rag of pungent
quiverings,
dim star.
Let’s try
if something human still
can shield you,
spark
of remote light.
——
Agnus Dei,
qui tollis peccata mundi,
miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei,
qui tollis peccata mundi,
dona nobis pacem.
Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world,
grant us peace.
–“Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus” by Denise Levertov. From Candles in Babylon, copyright ©1982 by Denise Levertov. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
Returning
music by Michael Gilbertson (b.1987)
words by Kai Hoffman-Krull (b.1985)
Returning was recorded last month, for future release.
Part I.
What knits us
to the soul of another
the way dusk light becomes
a part of dankness returning
What connects us to a life
more than our own
What makes us choose
Night pours into sky
like the first rains
in a riverbed
colors of stone
made true by water
(David)
Your voice speaks now
as it spoke before
though what I hear more
the space between words
your breath preparing for sound
(Jonathan)
I think of what I forget
the slipping image of your hand
the rivers in your fingers formed
by the waters of use
currents carrying me towards you
Night pours into sky
like the first rains
in a riverbed
colors of stone
made true by water
If I speak to you now
could you hear
for the air around me
is like your nearness
You were always the wilderness
taste of the unknown berry
colors etched in my lips
foliage lush without water
What makes us choose
How many kinds of light
live in a night sky
Is light ever separate
from the time
it travels through
What connects to a life
more than our own
Part II.
I thought of staying quiet
the night of the full moon
Air that night
like the colors of stone
made true by water
Before I spoke that night
I knew my father
would curse
If I had not asked you to speak
a lie
Why are there words
I cannot speak to your face
but only to your memory
would you still be alive
I thought of staying quiet
the night of the full moon
or a part of the silence
we come to know
For a moment
my silence
became my reign
Are you dead
because of my life
For a moment
my quiet
spoke king
Would you have ruled
better than I
For a moment
I let you die
What knits us
to the soul of another
the way dusk light becomes
a part of darkness returning
Tonight I look at the sky
and cannot find
the space between light and dark
Tonight I look at the sky
the space between light and dark
how the edge of one
becomes the edges of the other
Earth Teach Me Quiet
music by Ēriks Ešenvalds (b.1977)
words from a Ute (North America) prayer
Earth Teach Me Quiet appears on our 2020 album Rising w/ The Crossing (live) on New Focus Recordings, and was noted as one of The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2020 by The New York Times.
Earth teach me quiet – as the grasses are still with light.
Earth teach me suffering – as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility – as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth teach me caring – as mothers nurture their young.
Earth teach me courage – as the tree that stands alone.
Earth teach me limitation – as the ant that crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom – as the eagle that soars in the sky.
Earth teach me acceptance – as the leaves that die each fall.
Earth teach me renewal – as the seed that rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself – as the melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness – as dry fields weep with rain.
TEAM
The Crossing
Katy Avery
Nathaniel Barnett
Karen Blanchard
Steven Bradshaw
Colin Dill
Micah Dingler
Ryan Fleming
Joanna Gates
Dimitri German
Dominic German
Steven Hyder
Michael Jones
Lauren Kelly
Anika Kildegaard
Heidi Kurtz
Maren Montalbano
Rebecca Myers
James Reese
Daniel Schwartz
Rebecca Siler
Tiana Sorenson
Daniel Spratlan
Elisa Sutherland
Shari Wilson
Ted Babcock, marimba
Scott Dettra, organ
Tommy Mesa, cello
Donald Nally, conductor
Kevin Vondrak, assistant conductor
John Grecia, keyboards
Paul Vazquez, sound design
Kate Nelson, stage manager
Antonio Ruiz-Nokes, summer associate
Ben Perri, production assistant
Henry Koch, sound assistant
Ryan Fleming and Mark Livshits, guest rehearsal accompanists
Jonathan Bradley, executive director
Shannon McMahon, operations manager
Katie Feeney, grant manager
Elizabeth Dugan, bookkeeper
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