Symphony of Meditations (Symphony No. 3) (2009)
Composer Note:
My new Third Symphony, Symphony of Meditations, takes its inspiration from texts by the eleventh-century Spanish poet Solomon Ibn Gabirol, in luminous translations by poet, translator and recent MacArthur Fellow Peter Cole. I first encountered Peter in the late 1990s. Subsequently, when my wife and I visited Jerusalem, Peter was our host and guide to the city. He had galleys of his new book of translations of poems by Ibn Gabirol, and handed me a copy of the largest section in it: Kingdom’s Crown (Keter Malkhut). It’s a magnificent text, symphonic in scope and proportion. The beauty and flowing quality of Peter’s version appealed to me immediately, and even at that time I spoke to Peter about using it for something – though I didn’t know what, and it sat on my poetry shelf for many years. After my parents both passed away, in 2004, I began to re-familiarize myself with the text (along with shorter Gabirol poems) in Peter Cole’s Selected Poems of Solomon Ibn Gabirol (Princeton, 2001). Memories of attending synagogue in my early years began to resurface for me. Though I am not religious in the sense of being consistently observant of holidays, ritual, and synagogue-going, I identify myself definitively as Jewish. I still have the sound of an unaccompanied cantor in my ear. I have repeatedly turned to spiritual issues and texts from many faiths as the basis for my vocal work, and at this point in my life the Gabirol text seemed utterly necessary for me to work with. Only a relatively modest portion of Kingdom’s Crown is used for the third movement of this work. The other texts come from shorter spiritual poems in the anthology. The complete Kingdom’s Crown is truly a work of symphonic proportions. Someday I hope to continue to set more of it. The Symphony is in three movements of dramatically different lengths and moods. Invocation (7’) opens with declamations of prayer from the baritone and choir, closing with gentle works of praise. In Meditation on Oneness, the solo soprano spins out a lyrical line on either side of the build of gradual whirling repetitions by the chorus. Supplication, the final and largest movement, is itself of symphonic proportions at over forty minutes. It ranges in intensity from the baritone’s recitatives and arias of reflection and desolation, to a searing, climactic orchestral interlude and very gradually calms toward the joyful and resolute concluding lines of prayer in Hebrew. Many of the themes in Gabirol’s work and especially in Kingdom’s Crown – praise of God, preparation for death and the whatever-follows-life, sin and asking for mercy, supplication to a Divine Being – are foreign to me, even as they connect to distant memories. And yet, since I am so moved by the poetry and this translation, it has been compelling and nurturing to embrace these words as an adult while attempting to grapple honestly with their content. In crucial ways this piece represents to me a statement of my faith and has made me ruminate and meditate a great deal – especially in light of raising my two dear children – upon how it is that we human beings and our souls are created and shaped, and what makes us into our own selves. It was written between August 2007 and May 2009 for the Seattle Symphony and music director Gerard Schwarz and was premiered in June 2009. The work is dedicated to Jeff and Lara Sanderson, in profound appreciation of their support and belief in the transformative power of music, to Gerard and Jody Schwarz in friendship and admiration, and in memory of my parents. It was commissioned by the Seattle Symphony with the generous support of Jeff and Lara Sanderson.
— Aaron Jay Kernis
Text:
Solomon Ibn Gabirol, trans. Peter Cole