THIS RAVELLED DUST: CANTATA FOR A NUCLEAR AGE (2009) SATB choir (with S/A solos) Vocal soloists: Tenor, Bass, boy Sopranos “Curlew Ensemble”: Flute, Horn, Viola, Contrabass, Harp, Percussion texts: — Morning Glory: Radiant Night – poem by Robin Muir-Miller — 7 O Antiphons (liturgical Advent texts) — Biblical passages echoing the antiphons (some from Handel’s Messiah) duration: ca. 45 minutes World premiere April 30, 2010 with the Toronto Choral Artists at the Music Gallery in Toronto. Mark Vuorinen, director; Andrew Haji, tenor; Andrew Love, bass; boy sopranos: Luke Hudson, Ebuka Moneme, and Paul Picotte (prepared by Caron Daley, St. Michael’s Choir School); add'l solos: Erin Bustin, Tamara Mitchell, and Claudia Lemcke. from Part 1: In the original Garden of Eden: "a gauzed and shimmering hush...[His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord]" from Part 3: Serpent arrives; "a raunchy luring aroma invades the Arcadian glade like an alien fungus" from Part 4 into Part 5: "strains of a murmuring fungus explode into garish babbling moonblooms...[O Adonai, leader of the house of Israel]" from Part 5: aftermath, "in a crimson country garden, gashed by a ravishing flashback...Arson blossoms [for he is like a refiner's fire] rasp and hollow the evening's hallowed aurora...irradiant" from Part 7: "Rapturous singing ravels the roots of a cloven thorn" (acceptance and reconciliation) PDF: program note, color-coded libretto, sample full score Watch the full-length VIDEO About the piece: This Ravelled Dust explores the paradoxes of nuclear proliferation, the allegory of the Garden of Eden, and the risks inherent in our thirst for knowledge. The piece interweaves the liturgical "O Antiphons" set as SATB anthems, with episodes of the poem set for solo voices, choir and chamber ensemble. Brief biblical passages echo and comment on the main action. The piece uses almost the same instrumentation as Britten’s church opera Curlew River, and a similar compositional plan: as in Britten's piece, the action of This Ravelled Dust unfolds via the interaction of images, or “characters”, each with a distinctive pitch, instrumental timbre, and recurring motive. The "characters" interact musically, sometimes taking on each other's harmonic and melodic material for ironic or dramatic effect. The piece occasionally quotes from Handel's Messiah, and borrows from Celtic sources including harmonic progressions found in the unique 1623 Robert ap Huw manuscript of Welsh harp music, and rhythms borrowed from the cláirseach (Gaelic harp) playing of Ann Heymann. In the poem "Morning Glory: Radiant Night", Robin Muir Miller (who contributed many important ideas during the composing of the piece) has constructed an unusually rich web of sound associations that develop a quasi-narrative of their own alongside the semantic meanings of the words. The vocal writing highlights this and adds further layers of meaning.	Buy my music on Order perusal or performance scores