Choir Secular Double
Choir and Violoncello
SKU: PE.EP73479
Composed by Francis Pott.
Choral Works (inc.
Oratorios). Edition
Peters. Living Composer.
Vocal Score. 164 pages.
Edition Peters
#98-EP73479. Published by
Edition Peters
(PE.EP73479).
ISBN
9790577019888. 297 x
210mm inches.
English.
At
First Light was
commissioned by Eric
Bruskin, a resident of
Philadelphia, USA, in
memory of his mother.
Eric had a longstanding
enthusiasm for my work,
and I was touched to be
the person he approached
for a task which is both
a privilege and a
daunting responsibility.
In a sense, no music can
ever measure up to the
weight of love or the
hope of consolation
vested in it under such
circumstances - but in
memory I carry the deaths
of both my own parents,
and I was able to draw
upon that. Eric's
fondness for my Cello
Sonata (itself written in
memoriam) led him to ask
that I include a solo
'cello part in the new
work - but his attachment
also to my polyphonic
sacred choral writing
meant that he wanted a
centrepiece which would
be both a showcase of
that approach and the
celebration of a life
well lived. Therefore,
the seven movements of At
First Light arrange
themselves as a series of
slow meditations
surrounding an exuberant
9-minute motet in which
the lamenting cello falls
temporarily
silent.
Eric's
Jewish faith meant that
approaching an agnostic
humanist brought up
within the Anglican
tradition was hardly free
of problems! Gradually,
though, I was able to win
his approval for a
collated mosaic of texts.
This embraces some
liturgical Latin
(necessary for the motet)
as the shared preserve of
broad western culture in
general, but balances it
with a secular approach
to loss, celebration,
remembrance and the many
shades of our mourning
those whom we see no
longer. Eric was adamant
that he did not want the
title Requiem; but what
has emerged is still a
form of semi-secular
Requiem in all but name,
taking its title instead
from a phrase in the poem
by Thomas Blackburn set
as the third movement.
This seemed to suggest
succinctly how the loss
of one very close to us
is an awakening into an
unfamiliar world where
everything is changed.
Following the exuberant
central movement, the
texts by the
Lebanese-born Kahlil
Gibran and the US,
Kentuckian poet Wendell
Berry first address the
departed loved one
directly, then place us
within an imaginary
funeral cortege, where
the perennial and
universal in human
experience become
personal without
subscribing explicitly to
any particular faith (or
lack of it). The final
text of all is a
translation of a Hebraic
prayer, requested and
provided by Eric Bruskin,
which serves to mirror
its Latin counterpart
heard at the
outset.
Throughout
, the lamenting cello
represents a commentary
on the experience
articulated in the text.
It evokes and, in a
sense, tries to embrace
and sanctify the
individual existential
journeys of the bereft,
as they in turn seek to
make their own sense of
what the short-lived
Second World War poet
Alun Lewis called 'the
unbearable beauty of the
dead' (movement
5).
In a modern
world hostage to ever
greater menace,
displacement, bloodshed
and anguish, I hope
fervently that this music
not only brings a measure
of solace to the person
who commissioned it, but
also makes its own small
contribution to bailing
out the sinking ship of
humanity.
Wake Me Up! - Full Score
