Linda J. Chase: For Our Common Home, Resounding Ecojustice

Linda J. Chase | For Our Common Home: Resounding Ecojustice

Laudato si' (Praise Be to You) is the second encyclical of Pope Francis.  It calls on humanity to acknowledge the urgency of the human-caused environmental crisis and to work towards building a more just and sustainable world. Addressing not only people of faith, but everyone on earth, Laudato Si’ challenges us to engage in new dialogue and take action.  This oratorio, For Our Common Home, interprets the text as a call to action through music.

Laudato si’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”.
In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.

“Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.              
– Canticle of the Creatures, Saint Francis of Assisi

This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will….

Our goal is not to amass information or to satisfy curiosity, but rather to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and thus to discover what each of us can do about it.”             

– Pope Francis

Prelude
Chorus, orchestra
vocal soloists:Kat Skafidas, Anna Poltronieri Tang, Jádon Brooks, Kyle Seniw

We Come Together
Chorus, strings, flute, recorder, piano
vocal soloists: Sarah Matsushima, Kat Skafidas, Kyle Seniw, Jádon Brooks

Prayer for Our Common Home
Chorus, double bass, piano
vocal soloists: Jádon Brooks, Kyle Seniw

Interlude No. 1
Flute, double bass, piano

Languages of Trees
Chorus, flute

Interlude No. 2
Flute, viola

Laudato Si’
Chorus, orchestra

Sister Cries Out
Chorus, bass clarinet, strings, percussion
vocal soloist: Sarah Matsushima

We are Dust
Chorus, orchestra
Carson McHaney, violin solo; Adi Muralidharan, cello solo
vocal soloists:Anna Poltronieri Tang, Stuart Ryerse

Interlude No. 3
Cate Byrne, violin; Lyra Montoya, bass clarinet

Breathing
Chorus

They are not Recognized
Aimee Toner, flute; Carson McHaney, violin
Julian Seney, viola; Adi Muralidharan, cello
vocal soloists: Brittany Bryant, Maggie Ruochen Zang, Kyle Seniw

God of Creation, God of Liberation
Chorus, piano
vocal soloist: Jádon Brooks

Where is your Brother?
Orchestra
Nadav Friedman, drum solo
vocal soloists: Kat Skafidas, Kyle Seniw

This movement was written in the summer of 2020 while protests around the world accelerated with the Movement for Black Lives and response to George Floyd's murder. For many, uprising in the street was the first time we gathered since the beginning of the pandemic, coming together to demand that "injustice can be defeated in the land..." It is no longer about Cain and Abel, it is about George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, and the life-taking systems of oppression impacting this world. 

Dare to Turn
Chorus
Adi Muralidharan, cello
vocal soloists: Kyle Seniw

We are not God
Chorus, orchestra
Lemuel Marc, trumpet solo
vocal soloist: Brittany Bryant

Interlude No. 4
Stuart Ryerse, piano

Gratitude
Chorus, piano

Harmonize with Creation
Flute, clarinet, strings
“voice of nature”: Emmet Mathison, Adrian Chabla
vocal soloists: Anna Poltronieri Tang, Kat Skafidas

Interlude No. 5
Aimee Toner, flute; Lemuel Marc, trumpet

Preach to the Flowers
Chorus, double bass, piano
vocal soloist: Jádon Brooks

Interlude No. 6
Lyra Montoya, bass clarinet; Adi Muralidharan, cello; Solomon Caldwell, double bass
“nature sounds”: Emmet Mathison

Beyond the Sun
Chorus, orchestra
Stuart Ryerse, piano solo
 

Personnel

Chorus

Jádon Brooks
Brittany Bryant 
Christopher Chapin 
Mickey Cashman
Yunqi Li
Sarah Matsushima
Ryan O’Connell 
Anna Poltronieri Tang   
Stuart Ryerse  
Kyle Seniw  
Kat Skafidas
Anwei Wang
Maggie Ruochen Zang

Orchestra

Catherine Byrne, violin
Carson McHaney, violin
Caroline Jesalva, violin
Avi Randall, viola, piano, synthesizer
Julian Seney, viola
Adithya Muralidharan, cello
Iverson Eliopoulos, cello, conducting assistant
Solomon Caldwell, double bass
Aimee Toner, flute
Lyra Montoya, clarinet, bass clarinet
Lemuel Marc, trumpet, flugelhorn
Ryan O’Connell, trumpet
Henry Wilson, percussion
Nadav Friedman, percussion
Adrian Chabla, electronics
Emmett Mathison, electronics
Stuart Ryerse, piano, recorder

Eugen Hubbs, field recordings and copyist

Bios

Linda J. Chase, PhD is a composer, ecomusicologist, and flutist. Her music weaves elements of chamber music, jazz and contemporary improvisation with spoken word and interdisciplinary arts. She has received composition awards from the Japan Foundation, Grand Canyon National Park, Kaji Aso Studio, the Morris Graves Institute, Berklee College of Music, Studio Red Top and ASCAP. She is an active member of Landscape Music Composers Network.
        Professor Chase teaches composition, performance, music and spirituality, ecomusicology, and interdisciplinary arts at Berklee College of Music, and New England Conservatory. She is certified through Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to lead Deep Listening® workshops, founded by Pauline Oliveros. 
       In 2016-2017, Chase served as composer in residence at the Old Cambridge Baptist Church where she collaborated with Reverend Dr. Harvey G. Cox to create The City is Burning. This multi-media oratorio, based on multi-faith sacred texts, contemplates how the arts can deepen awareness that inspires action. In 2012, she was Artist in Residence at Grand Canyon National Park and created Grand Canyon Sketches for string quartet and voice.  She has incorporated poetry of Rumi and Jane Hirshfield in her compositions and performances.

Before his recent retirement, world-renowned theologian and author Dr. Harvey G. Cox held the oldest endowed chair at Harvard (The Hollis Chair). He taught for fifty years in the Religious Study program of Harvard College and in the Divinity School and also lectured in the Law School and the Kennedy School of Government. A Protestant theologian, he is also held in high regard among  Catholics, has lectured at the (Jesuit) Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and has been  personally received by three popes. He has published eleven books, one of which, The Feast of Fools, was nominated for the National Book Prize and inspired the musical and film Godspell. Another, The Secular City, was translated into eighteen languages and became an international classic, selling over one million copies. . His most recent book, A New Heaven: Death, Human Destiny and the Kingdom of God, will be coming out in March 2022, published by Orbis Press.
        Dr. Cox is also a devoted amateur tenor sax player, having performed in a small jazz ensemble and an eighteen-piece big band. He is now largely retired from classroom teaching, but meets individual students for tutorials and works on his own projects, one of which is this oratorio performed tonight.

Boston-based conductor Holly Druckman is in demand as a smart, sensitive performer of early and contemporary music, and highly sought after as a guest conductor and artistic collaborator. She is the founder and music director of Carduus, and the music director of Vox Lucens. Other recent conducting engagements include the New England Conservatory Concert Choir, Beneficia Lucis, the choir at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Providence, the Grace Church Orchestra, the New England Conservatory Contemporary Ensemble, and short-term positions with the Commonwealth Chorale and Cappella Clausura. Ms. Druckman enjoys working with living composers, and has premiered music by Tyler Bouque, Jacob Hiser, Bernie Zelitch, Max Grafe, and Jeremy Wall. Upcoming projects include a collaboration with composer Stratis Minakakis and Carduus and a concert-cycle with the Seraphim Singers in the Spring of 2022. Ms. Druckman holds two master’s degrees with academic honors, in Choral Conducting and Historical Musicology, from New England Conservatory. She was the recipient of NEC’s 2018 Gunther Schuller award. For more information, please visit  druckmanholly.com.

Thank you

I am deeply grateful to Dr. Harvey M. Cox for his encouragement, inspiration, textual advice, and guidance throughout this compositional journey.

I would like to thank Stuart Ryerse for his endless energy, enthusiasm, expertise and multi-talented musicality which made this evening's performance possible.

A big thank you to Hankus Netsky for the conversations about chromaticism and range, for addressing essential details and especially for believing enough in my music to say yes to producing this event in a minimal period of time.

Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the NEC Contemporary Improvisation Department for sponsoring this performance.