Choral SATB Choir and Piano

SKU: PR.312419020

From Terra Nostra. Composed by Stacy Garrop. Sws. Performance Score. 12 pages. Duration 3:15. Theodore Presser Company #312-41902. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.312419020).

ISBN 9781491131862. UPC: 680160680474. 6.875 x 10.5 inches. English.

Commissioned by the San Francisco Choral Society and the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, Terra Nostra is a 70-minute oratorio on the relationship between our planet and humankind, how this relationship has shifted over time, and how we can re-establish a harmonious balance. Part I: Creation of the World explores various creation myths from different cultures, culminating in a joyous celebration of the beauty of our planet. Part II: The Rise of Humanity examines human achievements, particularly since the dawn of our Industrial Age, and how these achievements have impacted the planet. Part III: Searching for Balance questions how to create more awareness for our planet’s plight, re-establish a deeper connection to it, and find a balance for living within our planet’s resources. In addition to the complete oratorio, stand-alone movements for mixed chorus, and for solo voice with piano, are also available separately.
Terra Nostra focuses on the relationship between our planet and mankind, how this relationship has shifted over time, and how we can re-establish a harmonious balance. The oratorio is divided into three parts:Part I: Creation of the World celebrates the birth and beauty of our planet. The oratorio begins with creation myths from India, North America, and Egypt that are integrated into the opening lines of Genesis from the Old Testament. The music surges forth from these creation stories into “God’s World” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, which describes the world in exuberant and vivid detail. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “On thine own child” praises Mother Earth for her role bringing forth all life, while Walt Whitman sings a love song to the planet in “Smile O voluptuous cool-breathed earth!” Part I ends with “A Blade of Grass” in which Whitman muses how our planet has been spinning in the heavens for a very long time.Part II: The Rise of Humanity examines the achievements of mankind, particularly since the dawn of the Industrial Age. Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “Locksley Hall” sets an auspicious tone that mankind is on the verge of great discoveries. This is followed in short order by Charles Mackay’s “Railways 1846,” William Ernest Henley’s “A Song of Speed,” and John Gillespie Magee, Jr.’s “High Flight,” each of which celebrates a new milestone in technological achievement. In “Binsey Poplars,” Gerard Manley Hopkins takes note of the effect that these advances are having on the planet, with trees being brought down and landscapes forever changed. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “A Dirge” concludes Part II with a warning that the planet is beginning to sound a grave alarm.Part III: Searching for Balance questions how we can create more awareness for our planet’s plight, re-establish a deeper connection to it, and find a balance for living within our planet’s resources. Three texts continue the earth’s plea that ended the previous section: Lord Byron’s “Darkness” speaks of a natural disaster (a volcano) that has blotted out the sun from humanity and the panic that ensues; contemporary poet Esther Iverem’s “Earth Screaming” gives voice to the modern issues of our changing climate; and William Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us” warns us that we are almost out of time to change our course. Contemporary/agrarian poet Wendell Berry’s “The Want of Peace” speaks to us at the climax of the oratorio, reminding us that we can find harmony with the planet if we choose to live more simply, and to recall that we ourselves came from the earth. Two Walt Whitman texts (“A Child said, What is the grass?” and “There was a child went forth every day”) echo Berry’s thoughts, reminding us that we are of the earth, as is everything that we see on our planet. The oratorio concludes with a reprise of Whitman’s “A Blade of Grass” from Part I, this time interspersed with an additional Whitman text that sublimely states, “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love…”My hope in writing this oratorio is to invite audience members to consider how we interact with our planet, and what we can each personally do to keep the planet going for future generations. We are the only stewards Earth has; what can we each do to leave her in better shape than we found her?

Mixed choir

SKU: FG.55011-857-7

Composed by Žibuoklė Martinaitytė. Classical, contemporary. Book. Fennica Gehrman #55011-857-7. Published by Fennica Gehrman (FG.55011-857-7).

Žibuoklė Martinaitytė tells about the background of Aletheia (2022) for mixed choir (SSSSAAAATTTTBBBB): Aletheia is variously translated from Greek as unconcealedness, revealing or unclosedness. It is uncovering of the Truth - the one we are afraid to face, the truth that can only be expressed directly through the pre-verbal communication. How do you find words for the horrors of the war, for all unimaginable global atrocities? How do you even allow yourself to feel it out? Solely through art, through music that offer a safe space and a formalized framework for processing these accumulated complex emotions and sharing them with others in a moment. This piece has no verbal text and it is based on various combinations of vowels and consonants, thus connecting us on a deeper level through the immediate emotional experience.

The war in Ukraine in spring of 2022 had an impact on all of us and shattered my deeply rooted Lithuanian identity. When the freedom is threatened and innocent people are dying, it is hard to make sense out of the reality. Yet there is poetry even in the worst nightmares. I was imagining that the only instrument people have even in situations of destruction, in the midst of the war, is their VOICE. It brought back memories of my youth when Singing revolution was taking place in the Baltic countries. Human voice was the only weapon that people used to express their determination for freedom and independence. Voice is our first and the very last instrument we have in our lifetime. Thinking in these terms brings almost a sacred dimension to the voice as an expression of the life itself - from the very first baby's scream until the last breath and whisper.

Duration c. 15'

The works of New York -based Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė (b. 1973) have been lauded as breathtaking and profoundly moving. Her stimulating music bristles with energy and tension and revolves often around the subject of beauty, which she calls both a guiding principle and an aesthetic measure for sonic quality.