Viñao: Poems & Prayers
Expected to ship in 1-2 weeks.
Shipping Policy- Composer: Alejandro Viñao (1951-)
- Format: Full Score
- Instrumentation: SATB Choir, Piano I, Piano II, Percussion Quartet
- Work: Poems & Prayers (2023) (16 voices)
- Binding: Spiral Bound
- Size: 8.3 x 11.6 inches
Description
The texts of the three movements of this work are concerned with our relationship to each other, to ourselves and to the environment, in this order. The 1st movement 'Dreams' is based on selected lines from Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself' and from the tile of his poem "I Dreamed in a Dream". Whitman's text describes the kind of relationship he envisages between human beings both at the social and personal level. But he states that if his view is not "yours as much as mine, then "it is nothing or next to nothing". In a world as divided as ours is today, this perspective seems to me specially relevant.
The text of the 2nd movement 'The Doubter and the Doubt' consists of stanzas I selected from the poem "Brahma" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. His view in this poem is that human beings can perfect themselves morally and spiritually by going beyond the permanent binary oppositions that plague the human mind, that is, the idea that everything must be reduced to thinking in terms of either 'this' or 'that'.
The 3rd movement deals with our dysfunctional relationship with the environment (Mother Earth) which currently poses an existential threat to our species. The indigenous people of the Americas, have traditionally considered Mother Earth an entity which makes possible and sustains life. A widely given name to Mother Earth is Pachamama. The text of this movement is written by myself. I have structured it in the form of a prayer to Pachamama. I chose the prayer format taking into account the following: when we pray, the only person we can be sure is listening is ourselves. If we are asking for change, we are the ones best placed to effect such change. This is specially apparent if we ask Pachamama to protect us and the environment. Since we are the ones damaging the environment, we are the ones who can stop doing so. Praying to Pachamama to save us and the environmental is no different than asking ourselves to protect us from ourselves. Form this perspective, I see praying primarily as a commitment to change. The text of this movement seeks to express the emotions that come with this realization.
A.V. London June 2023
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Viñao: Poems & Prayers
