ASCENSION CANTATA (2012)
Soprano Solo
Bass/Baritone Solo
SATB Choir
Oboe
2 Violins
Viola
Continuo
Duration 25 minutes
After J.S. Bach
LIBRETTO
poem/libretto by Robin Muir-Miller,
with text adapted by RMM from Isaiah 40
(Muir-Miller's original poem shown in plain text, Isaiah in italics)
PART 1
Opening Chorale [tune: Deus Misereatur, 1521]
1. To whom then will you liken God?
To what likeness will you compare him?
2. Have you not known, have you not heard?
From the start to the ends of the earth?
Polyphonic Chorus
He chooses a tree that will not rot.
He chooses a tree that will not be moved.
Recit, soprano
Once there was a tree
It sprang from soil
of a strange richness,
and people fed its roots.
Aria, soprano with chorus
A woman nurtured it,
He sits upon the vault of the earth, [sopranos]
and offered light
and warm places.
He stretches out the heavens as a curtain,
She found its budding brow-leaves
of such fine affection,
and spreads them as a tent in which to dwell. [altos]
they seemed to have
a glowing of their own.
and spreads them as a tent in which to dwell.
Recit, bass
She did not see the lighting
that she gave.
Recit-Aria, soprano-bass
And always what it did not know
made the wood to grow wider,
to grow whiter, and the leaves it wore
wanted to wind to the sun.
PART 2
Recit, bass
And it kept wanting,
even after the wood was cut
and set against another tree.
Polyphonic Chorus
He chooses a tree that will not rot.
He chooses a tree that will not be moved.
It said
Aria, bass with chorus backdrop
"I thirst.
Feed me, Father where the light is;
The people of the earth will not take root, [tenors]
the whirlwind will take them away as stubble. [basses]
I am cut off too soon."
INSTRUMENTAL
Recit, soprano
Even when the wood was laid aside
and sealed to the insensate,
the sap flowed, seeking,
for three days.
PART 3
INSTRUMENTAL
Recit, soprano-bass
Then it received.
Duet Aria, soprano-bass with chorus
And they that wait upon the Lord
It grew so great
that the wood they cut was wider
than their sight could hold,
And they that wait upon the Lord
and so white
will mount up with wings as eagles.
that their eyes were filled
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
with nothing, when they looked.
He chose a tree that would not rot.
He chose a tree that would not be moved.
Closing Chorale
1. To whom then will you liken God?
To what likeness will you compare him?
2. There is no searching of his understanding.
|