#3167: Modern Oratorios & Sacred Texts

For this New Sounds, hear some modern oratorios and other sacred texts set to music, including Kitty Brazelton's "Ecclesiastes: A Modern Oratorio," Phil Kline's "John the Revelator," and Douglas J. Cuomo's "Arjuna's Dilemma." Composer, professor, singer, improviser, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Kitty Brazelton has written a modern oratorio with texts from the Book of Ecclesiastes, re-translated from the Hebrew and Latin by Brazelton herself.

Her discoveries and deeper readings have uncovered a message that she believes Christians concealed in the 17th century; "live now—your life, whatever it is, is the gift—be grateful for everything, hardship or reward because you can’t understand where they will lead." The component parts of the work -a male vocal quartet, cello, extended drum kit, concert bass drum, hammered dulcimer, bells, “found” soundtracks & drones- are altered, fractured, and recombined to consider time - its beginning, its ending.  This harmonic wash of sound - bowing, plucking, sticking, bell-playing, and thunderous beating, together with the live voices - sometimes processed - rises menacingly, and then recedes.  "There is an almost Sufi-like quality to the droning," suggests Daniel Coombs, along with "a bit of David Hykes, some Dead Can Dance, even a little Peter Gabriel," which create an "other-worldly environment."

PROGRAM #        3167, Modern Oratorios & Sacred Texts     (First aired on 2-2-11)