PROGRAM NOTES
Tonight’s concert features two cantatas that explore the relationship between human
and divine love. Both works are scored for the same musical forces—soprano and
baritone soloists, chorus and strings—and may be performed together as an entire
program, independently, or in part (movements as individual pieces).
The Cloud of Unknowing
The first cantata—The Cloud of Unknowing—is a setting of texts by St. Teresa of Ávila (in
16th century Castillano), Psalms 42 and 136 (in Latin), and excerpts from an anonymous
14th century guide to contemplation, which provides the title for the work. For the latter,
I made my own contemporary version based on the Middle English of the original. The
texts are set in two parts, each of which alternates movements in English and Castillano,
and finishes with a Psalm in Latin (from the Hebraicum and/or Gallican psalters of the
Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible).
Part I of the work is entitled Songs of Night and it consists of four movements. In the first
movement (unknowing in English), the soloists and chorus describe the “cloud of
unknowing” as a hindrance to experiencing divine love: “This is the cloud of
unknowing/between you and the One.” The second movement (fearing on a text of St.
Teresa of Ávila) is a dialogue between the soprano and baritone soloists, who pose
existential questions, such as, “And what do you most fear in yourself?” Finally,
together, they ask God to “let my soul have You,/ To make a sweet nest/Wherever it be
best for her.”
In the third movement (forgetting in English), the listener is asked to “think only
about/The pure being of the One…” because the only way to experience divine love is
to “Love the One for itself alone.” The last movement of Part I is a psalm of lamentation
(longing, Psalm 42 in Latin) which affirms, “By day, the Lord commands/His steadfast
love;/And at night, his song is with me,/A prayer to the God of my life.” The psalm
ends with a serene prayer that is sung by the men’s chorus in counterpoint with the
women’s chorus. It has the quality of a mantra, as the men and women continually
repeat the words “Deus meus” in ever-changing contrapuntal and harmonic
combinations, which suggest the transformation of night into dawn.
The structure of Part II of the cantata (Songs of Dawn) reflects Part I (Songs of Night) in its
alternation of Castillano and English texts. The first and third movements (waiting and
beseeching on texts of St. Teresa of Ávila in Castillano) feature a repeated passage of
music (a refrain or ritornello): “I am Yours; I was born for You./What do You wish to make of
me?” The ritornello is sung by the two soloists alone, or by the soloists and chorus, and
in each case, it is immediately followed by a list of answers to the question that was
posed. In the manner of “call and response,” the soprano and baritone express the
unquenchable desire of the individual to surrender to divine love, in spite of the
challenging dualities of human life (sickness/ health, poverty/wealth, war/peace, etc.).
In stark contrast, movements 1 and 3 alternate with the English texts of movements 2
(thinking) and 4 (piercing), in which the listener is told that he or she may never reach the
One “through thinking,” but may only “Find the One by loving the One.” Finally, the
listener is urged to act: “Pierce the darkness above you!/Strike with a single word of
love!”
Movement 5 (surrendering on a text of St. Teresa of Ávila in Castillano) demonstrates the
result of this action, maintaining that “all things pass,” but “God does not change.”
Only divine love is enough to fulfill every need: “Whoever has God/Lacks
nothing:/Only God is enough.” The majestic lyricism of this movement (enduring,
Psalm 136 in Latin) gives way to an ecstatic choral dance of affirmation and praise,
which features an exclamatory ritornello: “For his steadfast love endures forever!” It
occurs eleven times, culminating in a final, joyous acclamation.
Songs of the Soul
The second work on tonight’s program is Songs of the Soul for soprano, baritone, chorus
and strings, which I composed as a cantata in the manner of J. S. Bach. As in the case of
a Bach cantata, it is primarily contrapuntal in nature (“line against line” as opposed to
“chordal”) and it alternates movements that are composed for contrasting musical
forces (soloists or chorus). Moreover, it features an ongoing spiritual narrative.
Songs of the Soul traces the journey of the soul from its most despairing and earthbound
condition to its most joyful and transcendent state of being. The text of the work sets out
seven stages of development in the life of the soul, as reflected by the first word of each
of its movement titles: Descending; Venturing; Hoping; Transforming; Arising; Uniting; and
Transcending.
In this cantata, the odd-numbered movements (1, 3, 5, 7) are for chorus and strings, and
the even-numbered ones (2, 4, 6) are solo/duo pieces for soprano, baritone and strings.
While the former movements are musical responses to motets by Josquin, Lassus,
Victoria, and J. S. Bach (four of my favorite composers), the latter movements constitute
a setting of Noche oscura/Dark Night, a deeply mystical eight-verse poem by St. John of
the Cross. He also wrote a renowned commentary on Noche oscura and my texts for the
odd-numbered choral movements were selected from scriptural passages that he cites
during his discussion. Thus, all of the movements are directly connected through a
single source that powerfully unifies the work, both textually and spiritually.
The Cloud of Unknowing plants the seeds that grow into its complement, Songs of the Soul,
in regard to musical materials (both melodic and harmonic) and the texts of St. John of
the Cross (1542-1591) and St. Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582). St. John of the Cross was
greatly influenced by St. Teresa of Ávila, a Carmelite nun who convinced him to found
the Discalced (“barefoot”) Carmelites with her, in an effort to reform the Carmelite
Order. In regard to spiritual journey, the blossoming of The Cloud of Unknowing into
Songs of the Soul suggests the theological and literary relationship between its authors: at
least in part, the work of St. Teresa of Ávila inspired St. John of the Cross to write Noche
oscura. The two saints are inextricably bound through their exploration of the nature of
divine love.
The journey of Songs of the Soul begins in the depths of despair with a lament,
Descending: From the Abyss (Mvt. I in English). The soul cries out to God to save it from
emotional and psychological chaos, as represented by the destructive force of water:
“Out of my distress, I cry to you, O Lord,/For you cast me into the deep,/Into the heart
of the sea…Save me, O God.” (Jonah 2: 3-4, 6-7; Psalm 69: 1-3).
The second stage of the journey is Venturing: On a Dark Night (in Castillano), in which
the baritone sings about starting out on a “happy venture” on a “dark night/aflame
with fervent love” (verses 1-2 from Noche oscura), while the soprano sings a haunting
wordless song to him from afar. Throughout the cantata, the baritone represents the
earthly personality, while the soprano personifies the soul. The chorus—embodying the
community—responds with an anthem, Hoping: Toward Dawn (Mvt. III in Latin and
English). Its text is a paraphrase of the De profundis (Psalm 130 in English): “Out of the
depths, I cry to you, O Lord…/My soul waits upon your word;/My soul hopes…I
wait.”
The urgency and drama of the De profundis gives way to Transforming: Loved into Lover
(Mvt. IV in Castillano), which culminates in an ecstatic duet sung by the soloists, “O
night that joined lover to beloved, beloved transformed to lover!” (verses 3-5 of Noche
oscura). Then, the chorus divides into four choirs—two women’s and two men’s
ensembles—and rejoices with a quick, dance-like movement titled Arising: A Time for
Song (Mvt. V). Throughout this polychoral and multi-lingual motet (in Latin, Castillano,
and English), the entire community celebrates the joys of love, both earthly and
spiritual, as it repeatedly declares a Song of Songs text, “Set me as a seal upon your
heart…upon your arm…Come away!”
In Uniting: Leaving My Cares (Mvt. VI in Castillano), the soloists express love’s blissful
nature in an extended, lyrical setting of the final three verses of Noche oscura. The
soprano “regales” the baritone as “cedars (fan) the air,” and he responds to her song
with pure melody (vocalise) as she continues to describe the scene: “The
breeze…grazed his neck…and held all his senses still.” Finally, they sing as one, “All
things ceased, I left myself,/ Leaving my care/Forgotten among the lilies.”
The final phase of the journey is Transcending: And Love Remains (Mvt. VII in Latin), a
fugal motet that is my most direct response to Bach, a setting of the revered text from
Corinthians I (13: 4-7, 12-13): “Love is patient,/Love is kind…Faith, hope, love; these
three, but the greatest of these is love.” The chorus is divided into four choirs, and sings
a wide range of canonic and fugal treatments of the opening theme of the movement,
which is explored from diverse musical angles.
In the fifth and seventh choral movements, the canon and fugue subjects are often
triadic (as opposed to a single melodic line), and when they are set against themselves
in polyphony, they create lush polychordal harmonies of 3, 6, 9, and 12 parts, instead of
the conventional 4 or 5 voices. This continual harmonic ebb and flow represents the
process of becoming self-aware through the experience of human and divine love, as so
eloquently expressed in the text: “…For now we see/In a mirror, dimly,/But then we
will see face to face./Now I know only in part; Then I will know fully,/Even as I have
been fully known.”
With my deepest gratitude, I dedicate The Cloud of Unknowing and Songs of the Soul
to Craig Hella Johnson, David Farwig, Abigail Haynes Lennox, Estelí Gomez, and
Conspirare Company of Voices, who never fail to inspire me through the vibrant
musicality that they infuse into the living out of their art.
–Robert Kyr