My Project:
...No New Word from god
...No New Word from god
Now, I want to take a moment to explain my project in its entirety. Although I have made references in passing over the course of this website, I want to take this time to fully document the work that went into conceptualizing and preparing for this project. I will also use this space to compile additional materials that I had prepared or commissioned for this event. The scores of the music written for the recital will not be included, at the request of my composers, but I will include commissioned advertorial materials and other miscellaneous documentation.
THE PROJECT:
...No New Word From God was conceptualized to take place in the Duderstadt Video Studio to utilize both the projection and lighting technologies available in the space, and to ensure that the performance was professionally recorded. The performance was to be split into 5 different sections, each indicative of another stage in the development of a world. Each of these sections had a piece commissioned for it, in accordance with the specific stage of world development in question. In-between each of these sections would be an interlude for solo bassoon, conceptualized as prayers from mankind in an attempt to communicate with their creator.
i). Visualization of the narrative progression of the project.
Each section, and each interlude, were to feature projected visuals on either, or both, of two sets of screens. The first, a giant screen owned by the Duderstadt Video Studio, was to showcase visuals representative of the creator of the world. The second set, two pillar like constructions I had planned to build myself out of cardboard or plywood, were to showcase visuals representative of mankind. The use of these two sets of screens was meant to represent the disconnect between the creative force behind our world and the people who inhabit it.
The two screens were to be used depending on the narrative section in question. In some sections, for example, only one screen would be primarily used. In others, both were to be used. As the performance went on, it was planned that the two screens would become more and more at odds with each other, creating a greater sense of discord and anxiety over time. This idea would be heightened by a more and more obvious static filter to be present on the smaller, man screens over time. The idea I hoped to express was the importance of communication and understanding in human relationships, and how the lack of these things in the relationship between mankind and their object of prayer, God, can ultimately lead to confusion and despair.
The performance was to open with the live construction of the set by myself and my musical collaborators. During this time, we would have been singing a folk song called Down to the River to Pray. This introduction was meant to foreshadow the themes of prayer and communion present throughout the narrative of the performance.
ii). Folk song to be sung at the beginning of the performance, as the set was being constructed.
SECTION ONE: CREATION OF WORLD
The first section was the birth of the world, through the force of some creator. This stage featured a bassoon, oboe, and piano trio commissioned through the Colab program at the University of Michigan. Like many of the visual elements, the projections for this section were never finalized due to the cancellation of this project because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Below is a draft used to show how the visuals for this section would have looked like (focused mainly on the larger, God screen, and showcasing mostly natural elements with little visual distortion.)
iii). Section one (creation of world) visual draft.
This first section would have been immediately followed by the first interlude, or prayer. Each of these prayers had texts, chosen to be representative of the section of the narrative in question. These texts were to be read by two readers, on either side of a raised prayer pedestal which I had planned to have constructed for the final performance. Below is the text that was to be used for this first prayer.
I don’t know where prayers go, or what they do.Do cats pray while they sleep half-asleep in the sun?Does the opossum pray as it crosses the street?The sunflowers? The old black oak growing older every year?I know I can walk through the world along the shore or under the trees,with my mind filled with things of little importance, in fullself-attendance. A condition I can’t really call being alive.Is prayer a gift, or a petition, or does it matter?The sunflowers blaze, maybe that’s their way.Maybe the cats are sound asleep. Maybe not.
While I was thinking this I happened to be standingjust outside my door, with my notebook open,which is the way I begin every morning.Then a wren in the privet began to sign.He was positively drenched in enthusiasm,I don’t know why. And yet, why not.I wouldn’t persuade you from whatever you believeor whatever you don’t. That’s your business.But I thought, of the wren’s singing, what could this be if it isn’t a prayer?So I just listened, my pen in the air.
SECTION TWO: INTRODUCTION OF MAN TO WORLD
The second section was the introduction of man to this newly created world. This section was to feature a piece for string quartet and bassoon, commissioned from a peer of mine in SMTD. The visuals for this piece were to feature both the larger, God screen and the smaller, man screens. This first interaction between the two screens was meant to express the impact mankind has had on the natural world, and the disconnect between man and nature more generally. The visuals for this section were actually completed in their entirety, shown below.
iv). Finalized visuals for second section (introduction of man to world.)
Below is the text that was chosen for the prayer immediately following this section.
There are things you can’t reach. Butyou can reach out to them, and all day long.
The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of God.
And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier.
The snake slides away; the fish jumps, like a little lily,out of the water and back in; the goldfinches sing from the unreachable top of the tree.
I look; morning to night I am never done with looking.
Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around as though with your arms open.
And thinking: maybe something will come, some shining coil of wind, or a few leaves from any old tree— they are all in this too.
And now I will tell you the truth.Everything in the worldcomes.
At least, closer.
And, cordially.
Like the nibbling, tinsel-eyed fish; the unlooping snake.Like goldfinches, little dolls of goldfluttering around the corner of the sky.
of God, the blue air.
SECTION THREE: CONFLICT BETWEEN CREATED WORLD AND MAN
This section featured a piece written by a close friend of mine, who was a student at another music school at the time. The piece featured a string quartet and bassoon, and also utilized electroacoustic elements. Specifically, this piece was to feature a tape to be played alongside the music, which would include a spoken word reading of a poem written by the composer himself. That poem is replicated below.
you were a soft mist which carried God to meyou were a child and you lived for everythingyou touched the earth to your face and thought about nothingin a moment, you were gone
poised to win you back I became the changerO scourge! great and terribleslate landmine under burning canopysingeing armor with coal dirtyelling fire to summon God long since departed
but you were a lost child gone from nature’s arms inner conflict outer conflict barren excessive gone from nature’s armscounting down oxycontin fever dreams gone from nature’s armsone one thousand two one thousand gone from nature’s arms
The visual elements for this section were never completed. This would have been, however, the first section to utilize the static filter on the man screens as described above (to represent the growing disconnect between the actions of man and the expectations/wishes of their creator.) Below is a draft of what this static filter might have looked like.
v). Static filter test, to be eventually used in section three (conflict between created world and man) and beyond.
This was to be the midpoint of the recital. After this section, the visuals were meant to become more abstracted, messy, chaotic, and disconnected. This was to visualize the growing discord between man and God. Below is the text that was chosen for the prayer immediately following this section.
End of August. Heatlike a tent overJohn’s garden. And some thingshave the nerve to be getting started,clusters of tomatoes, standsof late lilies—optimismof the great stalks—imperialgold and silver: but whystart anythingso close to the end?Tomatoes will never ripen, lilieswinter will kill, that won’tcome back in spring. Orare you thinkingI spend too much time looking ahead, likean old woman wearingsweaters in summer;are you saying I canflourish, havingno hopeof enduring? Blaze of the red cheek, gloryof the open throat, white,spotted with crimson.
SECTION FOUR: CONSEQUENCES OF THIS CONFLICT
This section would have featured a piece for string trio, piano, percussion, bassoon, saxophone, and clarinet, commissioned by a peer at SMTD. This piece was drone-like and tense, and the visuals were to complement that. Narratively, at this point in the performance the discord between the creator and man was meant to have reached a breaking point. I conceptualized this as something like climate change, but in all honesty the COVID-19 Pandemic provides another salient example of what this could look like.
The visuals in this section are also unfinished, but the idea here was to have the intensity and static of the last piece continue on into this one. This piece was about 10 minutes long, and the visuals were to include long, static shots on the God screen juxtaposed with quickly edited, chaotic found footage on the man screens. The distortion would have grown much more unsettling over the course of this section. Below is an example of what this growing distortion was meant to look like.
vi). Growing distortion test, meant to showcase what sections four (consequences of this conflict) and beyond might have looked like.
Below is the text that was chosen for the prayer immediately following this section. This was to be the last prayer of the performance, a last ditch effort to connect to God by mankind in the face of an existential crisis. To reflect this, the readers of this text were to be agitated, almost yelling, desperate.
Time to rest now; you have hadenough excitement for the time being.
Twilight, then early evening. Firefliesin the room, flickering here and there, here and there,and summer’s deep sweetness filling the open window.
Don’t think of these things anymore.Listen to my breathing, your own breathinglike the fireflies, each small breatha flare in which the world appears.
I’ve sung to you long enough in the summer night.I’ll win you over in the end; the world can’t give youthis sustained vision.
You must be taught to love me. Human beings must be taught to lovesilence and darkness.
SECTION FIVE: DEATH OF WORLD
This final section was to feature a piece by a friend of mine who was a graduate of SMTD. It was to feature the largest instrumentation of the performance, with every instrument that had previously played over the course of the recital to be involved. It was the sole piece on the program that was largely improvised. The idea behind the piece was as follows:
The woodwind members of the ensemble would play and replay the folk song which opened the performance (Going Down to the River to Pray), as the strings and piano played angular, dissonant chordal accompaniment. As the piece went on, more and more players would play the melody, with more and more of the repetitions of this melody featuring improvisatory flourishes. By the end of the piece, the whole ensemble would have been wailing on the melody, playing it as loudly and as quickly, and with as many improvisatory elements, as possible. Suddenly, the whole ensemble would have cut off, and I would have read the final bit of text of the performance; the Lords Prayer (replicated below.)
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.
Following this section, the performance would have reached its end.
Final thoughts
As I hope this website has shown, I put a lot of time and thought into this project. I am truly disappointed that I couldn't present the project as planned, but I am optimistic that this document will provide anyone who wishes to produce something similar with the tools to do so. Whether it is figuring out what you want to do, finding and working with other artists, or applying for funding, I have tried to be as comprehensive as possible. My sincere hope is that this document helps students at SMTD, and at music schools around the country, do something truly ambitious and risky for their own senior recitals (or for even just for the fun of it.)
With this hope in mind, even though my performance did not occur as planned, I am truly happy for having attempted it. No matter how your work on your project goes (even if it ends up being cancelled like mine was) it will be worthwhile if you put all of your effort into it. The things you will learn, the confidence you will gain, and the skills you will master are worth it. The process of taking risks, of putting yourself out there, of making a splash, is worth it. I believe in you! You can do it!