Ivan Moody
Programme Notes
This
page contains programme notes for various of my works. Similar notes for other
works are available on request: please e-mail me at
* * *
The Adoration of the Lamb
SSMMAATTBB
Much has been written concerning the advent
of the new millennium. We cannot know what it will bring us, but it may serve
as a point of reflection on the theme of eternity. For this reason, and in
order to celebrate the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Christ, I
have chosen to set passages from the Book of Revelation dealing with the
eternal. Interspersed with these is the Trisagion, a prayer for mercy
frequently used in the services of the Orthodox Church.
The Adoration of the Lamb was written for The Tallis Scholars, and was first
performed by them, conducted by Peter Phillips, as part of the Dorset Summer
Music Series, on 28th July, 2000.
IM
Estoril, November 1999
Canticum Canticorum I
ATTB
Canticum Canticorum I was written in 1985 and first performed by the
Hilliard Ensemble in Vienna in 1987. It sets three brief texts from the Song of
Songs in Latin. Though the Byzantine world is suggested by the drones of the
third of the set, no actual chant is quoted, all three being free responses to
the imagery of the poems.
IM
Estoril, January, 1998
Cantos Mozárabes
Solo SATB
The
four poems in this cycle are all jarchas, - a four-line verse in
Mozarabic or popular Arabic which concludes a muwassaha, a more
sophisticated form of Hebrew and Arabic poem. Linguistically the jarchas
are important because they are the first-known lyrics in proto-Spanish, dating
from the 10th century onwards. As poetry their power was well explained by
Gerald Brenan in his book The Literature of the Spanish people:
"According to the thirteenth-century
Egyptian poet, Ibn Sana al-Mulk, who composed an anthology of Spanish-Arabic muwassahas,
the jarcha is a popular verse, written either in Arabic or Romance, but
always in the idiom of the lowest dregs of the populace, and aiming at a
searing, penetrating cri de coeur effect which shall deeply stir and
move the hearer. That is to say not unlike the effect produced by those brief,
three-lined poems, the soleares, that are sung in cante jondo
Andalusia today."
The music, which was begun in Portugal and
finished in Morocco between 1992 and 1993, attempts in some measure to parallel
the apparent contradiction between the simplicity of the poems' vocabulary and
the intensity of their effect.
Cantos Mozárabes are dedicated to Gregory Rose and Singcircle.
Ivan Moody
Estoril, 27th March, 1995
Cantos Mozárabes II
Soprano & Harpsichord
I had already worked with Mozarabic love
lyrics (jarchas) in my cycle Cantos Mozárabes, written in 1993 for
four voices. This second cycle continues my interest in these texts which, in
spite of their astonishing simplicity, achieve a remarkable poetic intensity.
Here I have chosen to explore the possibilities of a solo voice with
accompaniment, the harpsichord perhaps providing a refracted memory of the
flamenco guitar as used in the modern equivalent of the muwassaha, the solea.
Cantos Mozárabes II were written for Julia Gooding and Sophie Yates, and
first performed by them at the Mafra International Festival in.October 1999.
IM
Endechas y Canciones
ATTB
The cycle Endechas y Canciones was
written for the Hilliard Ensemble between August 1994 and January 1996, and is
a sequel to my earlier cycle Cantos Mozárabes, which sets Arabic-Spanish
poetry. The first song of the cycle, "No pueden dormir mis ojos", was
also the first to be written, while I was composer-in-residence at the 1994
Hilliard Summer Festival, during which it was first performed. To this love
song I added two more; all three of them are laments in the characteristically
stylized verse of the Iberian Peninsula of the 15th and 16th centuries, whose
ritualized structures, rhyme schemes and symbolic imagery have frequently
suggested music to me. The second song, "Endechas a la muerte de Guillén Peraza",
is a lament for the dead (or dirge) from the Canary Islands. Its remarkable
imagery extends even further the interpenetration of the physical and
metaphysical worlds present in the first song.
IM
Lisbon, March 1996
Epitaphios
Concerto for Violoncello and String Orchestra
Epitaphios was written during the course of 1993, in various
European cities: Lisbon (Portugal), Tampere (Finland), and San Sebastián
(Spain). At the heart of the piece is the reek Byzantine chant for Holy and
Great Friday, "Simeron kematai epi xilou o en idasi tin ghin
kremasas" which appears played virtually unadorned by the solo 'cello
after an extensive but meditative introduction. The piece has a close
connection with my work Passion & Resurrection, first performed in
Tampere, and in which this chant appears sung by the bass soloist. The solo
'cello here could be seen as representing the voice of Christ. The introduction
is recapitulated at the end of the work, but with a sense of transfiguration,
since the opening of the chant "Christos anesti", "Christ is
risen", appears after a musical representation of the harrowing of Hell.
Epitaphios is dedicated to Raphael Wallfisch and was
commissioned by him with funds provided by the Arts Council of England. It was
first performed by Raphael Wallfisch and La Camerata at the Megaron Mousikis,
Athens, on 21st May 1995.
IM
In Nomine
Viol consort (Tr, Tr, T, B)
In Nomine was written in February 1996 as a birthday present
for Fretwork on their 10th anniversary. It relates somewhat obliquely to the English
In nomine tradition in that it is not built upon the chant of that name
as set by John Taverner in his Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas. Instead, I
have taken a Russian Znamenny chant for the same words (In Slavonic: Blagosloven
grady vo imya Gospodne. Osana v vyshnikh) from the Orthodox Liturgy of St
John Chrysostom. More specifically, the piece relates to these words as sung on
Palm Sunday, when the entry of Christ into Jerusalem on a donkey symbolizes the
passing from darkness into light, and initiates the events leading to His
Passion and Resurrection.
The first performance of In Nomine
was given by Fretwork in Prokopio, Evia, Greece, on 31st August 1996.
IM
Lament for Christ
SSAATTBB + Solo S, B
Lament
for Christ sets an extended Greek
poem dating probably from the early 15th century. In imagery it
suggests the "Lamentations" sung on Holy Friday in the Orthodox
Church, combining the lamentation of the Theotókos, the Mother of God,
over her Son with prescience of the Resurrection - "Rise, Compassionate
One, and raise us from the pit of Hades." The message is uncompromising,
and made more so by the dramatic contrasts of images, which take us straight to
the scene of the Crucifixion. The poem ends with the arrival of the
myrrh-bearing women at the empty tomb and a prayer for peace and salvation. Lament
for Christ was written on the windswept, sunlit island of Angistri, near
Aegina, while on honeymoon, and is dedicated to my wife, Susana.
IM
Estoril, January, 2001
Lamentations of the Myrrhbearer
String Quartet No. 1
Lamentations of the Myrrhbearer has as its starting point a work I wrote last year
for the Norwegian group Trio Mediaeval, The Troparion of Kassianí,
setting a liturgical poem sung at Matins of Wednesday in Holy Week in the
Orthodox Church. The poem was written by the 9th century nun and
hymnographer Kassia; in it she speaks in the voice of the woman who anointed
the feet of Christ before His passion and burial, whom later tradition
identified with Mary Magdalene. The poem traces the journey of the soul away
from sin through repentance to salvation. Though it is intensely personal, it
is yet universal – it has been said by the scholar HJW Tillyard that here
"the need of one sinner is absorbed into the cry of a whole suffering
world." Thus, though I did not employ it throughout, the music takes its
cue from the Byzantine chant melody for this text in current Greek Orthodox
usage, in this way constantly alternating between the personal and the
universal.
In Lamentations of the Myrrhbearer I
have attempted to portray the spiritual journey of which Kassia speaks. Thus,
the entire setting of The Troparion of Kassianí is quoted during the
course of the work, but in a fragmented fashion, glimpsed, as it were,
through the "dark and moonless" night of sin. The previous life
of the woman, recollected, so to speak, during the course of her journey, is
symbolized by references to folk music from the Greek island of Karpathos, and
the moment of conversion by the Greek chant Devte lavete to phos,
"Come, and receive the light", which opens the service of the Anastasis,
or Resurrection of Christ.
The first performance of Lamentations of
the Myyrhbearer was given by soloists from the Gulbenkian Orchestra at the
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, on 10 December 2001.
IM
Lithuanian Songs
Solo soprano and chamber orchestra
I
first came across these ancient Lithuanian folk poems, translated into English
by Arthur Paterson, in an article by Martin Lings which I read in 1986, and set
them to music very soon afterwards. Lings points out, following the ideas of
Guénon, that the apparently simple texts of these poems are a way of conveying,
in more or less veiled form, an esoteric meaning. That is to say, they are
symbolic of a spiritual message.
In these symbolic terms, all four of these
songs speak of the loss of the Edenic state, the moment when Adam and Eve were
cast out of the Garden. The mystic primordial marriage of the Sun and the Moon
is broken, and the "day of singing" has yet to arrive. Nevertheless,
the Alleluias of the Resurrection - which in the iconography of the Orthodox
Church is represented by Christ pulling Adam and Eve out of Hell, whose locks
lie shattered on the ground - may already be glimpsed in the third song. Of the
last poem Lings asks: "Would it be an exaggeration to say that the fourth
and last of those given here is one of the greatest lyrics in the world? And
through it, do we not breathe some of the fresh air of a remote
antiquity?" For it is with this poem that we are returned to the state of
spiritual perfection, Man in harmony with God and Creation, before he was cast
out of Paradise.
Lithuanian Songs is dedicated to the memory of Andrei Tarkovsky
(1932-1986), who also knew the value of symbols of the sacred.
Ivan Moody
Lisbon, Holy and Great Thursday, 23rd April,
1992
Lithuanian Songs
Solo Soprano
Flute (movts. I & III)
Clarinet in B flat (movt. I)
2 Horns in F (Movts. III & IV)
1st & 2nd Violins
Violas
Cellos
Double Basses
Ideally the Strings should comprise a
minimum of six 1st violins, six 2nd violins, eight Violas, four Cellos, and two
Double Basses. Of course, more may be used if available.
Duration = c. 30 minutes
The Manger
A Carol for Christmas
SATB
This carol makes use of three complementary
texts: the kontakion for the Nativity of the Orthodox Church, the
children's carol Away in a Manger and the refrain "God is with
us" from the Canticle of Isaiah sung at Orthodox Great Compline on
Christmas Eve. The text of the kontakion expresses awe at the mystery of
the Incarnation of the God of the Universe in the form of a helpless baby; and
while the refrain "God is with us" reflects upon that awe, the carol Away
in a Manger views the birth of Christ through a child's eyes. The Manger
is dedicated to my children, Sebastian and Sofia.
The Manger was first performed by the English Chamber Choir,
conducted by Guy Protheroe, in London on 19 December 2000.
IM
The Meeting in the Garden
SSMATBarB
The Meeting in the Garden might be described as a sacred drama. Its text, from
the Gospel of St John, concerns the moment when Mary the Mother of God realizes
that the body of her Son is no longer lying in the tomb and the tremendous
subsequent moment of recognition when she meets the Risen Lord face to face.
Intercalated with the Gospel narrative is the opening hymn, sung to the
appropriate chant, from the Office of the Resurrection as celebrated in the
Greek Orthodox Church, which is chanted as the Paschal light is distributed to
the faithful.
The Meeting in the Garden was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, the Grupo
Vocal Olissipo.
IM
Estoril, October, 1998
Myron
Flute & Piano
The title of this work is a Greek word
meaning annointing oil, or myrrh. St John of Damascus, in his Homily on
Great Saturday, writes that Christ is, as well as the Annointed One (the
name Christ means "annointed"), also the annointing oil or myrrh
itself, the "myrrh that is poured forth unto our restoration" (to kenothen myron eis imon anakainisin)). It is upon this idea that the music meditates, not
only quoting two chants from the Orthodox Church ("Come ye and receive
light, from the Unwaning Light", sung at the beginning of Matins of the
Resurrection, and the Paschal hymn "Christ is risen from the dead"),
but also employing heterophonic writing, at various points during the work, as
a musical symbol for the pouring forth of streams of myrrh.
Myron is dedicated to João Pereira Coutinho.
IM
Estoril, Saturday after the Exaltation of
the Cross, 16th September, 2000
Penthos
Viola and Marimba
This
work was commissioned by André Cameron in memory of his sister, Toni. The Greek
word penthos means "mourning". Mourning is something
necessary, an indespensable element in the human condition, which may even
imply frustration and rage. In the Orthodox Christian tradition, the texts of
the funeral rites insist on the reality of the recpetion of the soul of the
departed by God, the return to Paradise, whose memory has been all but lost on
earth. The musical trajectory of Penthos is precisely a reflection on
the return to Paradise, our true homeland, gradually leaving behind worldly
concerns. Near the end, I quote the music of the kontakion for the dead,
as sung in the Russian Orthodox Church: "With Thy Saints give rest, O
Christ, to the soul of Thy servant, where there is no pain, nor sorrowing, nor
sighing, but life eternal."
Penthos was first performed by André Cameron (viola) and Pedro Carneiro
(marimba) at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, on 9th May, 2000
IM
Pnevma
Treble recorder and strings
"The spirit blows where it wishes; you
hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from, or where it is
going." (John 3.8)
This work may be considered as a meditation
on the Holy Spirit ("Pnevma" is the Greek for "Spirit"),
symbolized by the "spirit" of the solo recorder. Two Greek Byzantine
chants are quoted during the piece: the megalynárion (hymn to the Mother
of God) for Pentecost, in modally altered form, and the tropárion (hymn)
for Theophany, quoted in fragment near the end.
Pnevma is dedicated to António José Carrilho, Vasco Azevedo and the Lisbon
Sinfonietta, who gave the first performance of the work at the Mafra
International Festival of Music in September, 1998.
IM
Estoril, September, 1998
Polyeleos
Mixed choir
Polyeleos is a name used principally to refer to Psalms 134
and 135, which make up the third appointed reading from the Psalter at Matins
on Great Feasts, as well as certain Sundays (or even, according to some uses,
every Sunday), in the Orthodox Church. The name "polyeleos" means
"much mercy", and arises from the frequent repetition of the word
"mercy" in Psalm 135. These texts, insisting as they do on the
eternal compassion of the Lord and striking simultaneously a note of praise,
seem to me a suitable way to welcome the new Millennium. The music is derived
from a Russian znamenny chant, clearly audible in the opening phrase of
the piece.
Polyeleos was commissioned by Royal Holloway Chapel Choir, of
which I had the pleasure and privilege of being a member from 1982-85. It is
dedicated to the choir and to its conductor, Dr Lionel Pike, who gave the
work’s first performance in the chapel of Royal Holloway on 11th June, 2000.
IM
Estoril, 17th November, 1999
St Gregory the Wonderworker
The Prophecy of Symeon
SATTB
The Prophecy of Symeon is an attempt to "visualize" musically the
prohetic words of Symeon at the presentation of Christ in the temple. I chose
two texts from the Gospels (of St John and St Luke). The first describes the
vision of Symeon, in which he understands the divinity of Christ and foresees
not onlt great events in the House of Israel, but the sword which will pierce
the soul of Mary, the Mother of God. With the second text, we jump forward, to
the moment of the Crucifixion: the sword has already pierced the soul of the
Virgin. Between these texts, I have used the opening of the megalynarion
of Theophany, from the Greek Orthodox liturgy, as a refrain.
This work was commissioned by Oporto
European Capital of Culture 2001, and is dedicated to the Grupo Vocal Olisipo,
faithful and unequalled performers of my music. The world première was given at
the Claustro de São Bento, Oporto, on 14th October 2001.
IM
Estoril, October 2001
Revelation
Narrator, male choir, chamber organ, two trombones, two viols
Introduction for BBC radio broadcast
The Greek word Apokálypsis means
"Revelation", and it is because the word "Apocalypse" in
English nowadays tends to suggest only images of destruction that I have
preferred to call this work Revelation. Apocalypses, both Christian and
pre-Christian, were works written by visionaries, conveying a prophetic or
ethical message in highly rich, symbolic language. Though the very nature of an
Apocalypse demands a sudden, catastrophic change in order to modify an existing
situation in which evil is predominant (and here a parallel may be drawn with
the catharsis of ancient Greek tragedy), such change is the precursor of a new
and glorious age, and the final message is consolatory and full of hope.
It is this positive, even joyful, aspect of
Revelation which I have endeavoured to emphasize: Orthodox Christianity says
that we cannot know what will happen after death, and similarly we cannot know
what will occur at the end of time. The Revelation of St John is a mystical
experience, highly personal and charged with the symbolism of his time, and was
consequently not easily accepted into the Biblical canon; it would be unwise to
take his every word literally. What resounds through the Book of Revelation,
however, is the message of hope: "Surely I come quickly. Even so, come,
Lord Jesus". I have emphasized this message by prefacing the score with a
poem entitled "Mirrors" by the Greek poet Yiannis Ifantis, to whom
the work is dedicated:
In most men you see
yourself "as in a glass darkly."
Almost always
before you, narrow windows, cracked or
blurred, stand
or pass. And I think that the presence of
God
or, as they say, the Day Of Judgement, shall
be
nothing more
than a clear, large mirror where you shall
see yourself
from head to toe, and rejoice
in the essence of your presence with crystal
clarity.
That clear, large mirror will, one must
suppose, show the negative as well as the positive - hence the prayers for
mercy which I have incorporated into the text from Matins of Sunday of the Last
Judgement, celebrated in the Orthodox Church two weeks before the beginning of
Great Lent.
Structurally, Revelation is divided
into four parts. The first is "Proclamation of the Revelation", using
words from the beginning of the Book of Revelation describing in symbolic terms
the majesty of the Lord, the Alpha and the Omega. The second part, which begins
with words from Matins of the Last Judgement, is called "The Battle - War
in Heaven", a battle which is described by the Narrator, using the
awe-inspiring imagery of St John, and by the instrumental group (more specifically
the organ). "The Victory", Part Three, is similarly conveyed by the
Narrator and the instruments, which engage in a series of dialogues using
musical material from Part Two, culminating in a heterophonic section which
brings all the instruments together only at the end. The fourth part,
"Epilogue", recalls the music of the opening of the work, the Alpha
and the Omega, following the structure of the Book of Revelation, and finishes
with the magnificent final words of St John, in English and in Greek:
"And the Spirit and the Bride
say: Come. And let him that heareth say: Come. And let him that is athirst
Come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. He which
testifieth these things saith, surely I come quickly. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Amen."
The Book of Revelation seems to me eternally
contemporary, and eternally full of hope.
IM
Lisbon, 6th December, 1995
St Nicholas of Myra, Wonderworker
The Sea of Marmara
Virginals or Harpsichord
"On the day when the City was taken,
the people hastened to place the altar on a ship for transport to the country
of the Franks, to whom they hoped to entrust it. But on the Sea of Marmara the
ship met with a sudden violent storm. As it had been equipped in haste and
overloaded, it was unable to resist the waves and sank with its crew and its
cargo.
Thus the altar of Aghia Sophia escaped
sacrilege, not in the way that the Byzantines had hoped, but as God pleased.
The altar of Aghia Sophia rests at the
bottom of the sea on its bed of sand and shells. But the place where the vessel
sank is known to sailors and easily reached. In fact, even when the worst
storms whip up the waves round about and make the sea rage, only calm and peace
prevail in that place. Sweet odours rise from the smooth and shining surface of
the waves, and echoes of angelic songs can be heard. Many skilled divers,
collectors of red corals and sponge-fishers have tried to descend to see the
wreckage of the vessel. None have reached it. The sea, which is very deep in
this place, guards the altar and the relics from all desecration.
But when we recapture the city, the altar
which is engulfed in the sands of the sea-bed will rise to the surface, as a
diver rises. It will sail by itself to Byzantium and we shall receive it. We
shall take it back to Aghia Sophia and reconsecrate it, amid hymns of joy, to
the Divine Wisdom.
Then, in the cathedral built by the great
Justinian, the gold mosaics will glitter once again, the holy images, the
Gospels and the cross will reappear on the marble altar weathered by the
waves…"
* * *
The Sea of Marmara, commissioned by and dedicated to Sophie Yates, is a
meditation upon the extraordinary idea of the altar of the cathedral of Aghia
Sophia rising from the depths of the sea and sailing of its own accord back to
the City. During the course of the piece I quote the Byzantine chant Ti
ypermakho, which is dedicated to the Mother of God and whose text was
written in thanks for the delivery of the City from siege. It is today sung in
the Orthodox Church during Great Lent.
The first performance of The Sea of
Marmara was given by Sophie Yates in London on 23 June 1999.
IM,
Estoril, October 1999
The Troparion of Kassianí
SSS
This troparion (liturgically speaking
a sticheron doxasticon) is appointed to be sung during Matins of
Wednesday in Holy Week in the Orthodox Church. It is a text much loved in the
Greek Church, written by the 9th century nun and hymnographer
Kassia, who, though born into a wealthy and aristocratic family, withdrew to a
monastery after the Emperor Theophilos had rejected her as a possible bride.
Here she speaks in the voice of the woman who anointed the feet of Christ
before His passion and burial, whom later tradition identified with Mary
Magdalene. The poem, surpassing every hymn in the Lenten service books in its
directness and power, traces the journey of the soul away from sin through
repentance to salvation. Though it is intensely personal, it is yet universal –
it has been said by the scholar HJW Tillyard that here "the need of one
sinner is absorbed into the cry of a whole suffering world." Thus, though
I have not employed it throughout, the music takes its cue from the Byzantine
chant melody for this text in current Greek Orthodox usage, in this way
constantly alternating between the personal and the universal.
The Troparion of Kassianí was written for Trio Mediaeval, for whom I had
previously written Words of the Angel, which they sing, of course,
angelically. The Trio gave the first performance of the work in Sandefjord,
Norway, on 26 March 2000.
I M
Words of the Angel
SSS
Words of the Angel was written for Trio Mediaeval, whom I had the
pleasure of hearing sing in Cambridge in August 1998. The text is the megalynárion
(hymn to the Mother of God) as sung during the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom on
Easter Day in the Greek Orthodox Church - the dramatic greeting from the angel
to Mary the Mother of God outside the empty tomb.
The world première of Words of the Angel
was given by Trio Mediaeval in Oslo, Norway, on 11 December 1998
IM
© 2002 Ivan Moody
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