Choral TTBB choir, piano
SKU: PR.312419270
From Terra Nostra.
Composed by Stacy Garrop.
Performance Score. 8
pages. Duration 2
minutes. Theodore Presser
Company #312-41927.
Published by Theodore
Presser Company
(PR.312419270).
ISBN
9781491137918. UPC:
680160692606. English.
Charles
Mackay.
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?
