Runs deep, bends time
for choir and electronic tracks.
commissioned by the Vancouver Chamber Choir.
Composed in 2021 and 2022.
1. Find peace
The focus of this section is the exercise that I asked members of the group to do. Choir members were asked to say something about somebody they have lost. 5 of these are spoken in this section .
The musical underlay of this section derives from the Requiem of Tomas Luis de Victoria from 1603 . I’ve done spectral analysis of the Requiem , which is then processed and reordered so the original is unrecognizable, but the subconscious effect of the original may still be felt.
Choir: Find peace.
Speaker 1
Choir: Find rest
Speaker 2
Choir: Find peace.
Speaker 3
Choir: Find rest
Speaker 4
Choir: Find peace.
Speaker 5.
Choir: Find rest
Speaker 6
Choir: Life is worry, care, grief, disappointment,
Life is rage, betrayal, revenge.
We fear our deaths because we know. We envy dogs because they don’t
Thanks evolution for that little tweak.
Don’t need Zen don’t need medication.
You can have peace in this life.
2. 1348
This section tells the story of the 1348 pandemic as described in the Decameron of Boccaccio. The Italian you hear is the original , the English is my interpretation.
Vocode: milletrecentoquarantotto
Choir: one thousand three hundred and forty-eight,
Alto solo: That was the year
When the deadly plague descended
Was it a celestial event
Or was it the righteous anger of God
Choir interspersed: What was it? Celestial event.
Or was it the righteous anger of God ?
Vocode: giusta ira di Dio
Choir: Righteous anger of God.
Solo: Righteous anger of God as retribution for our sins
Vocode: la mortifera pestilenza
Solo: The disease came in stages
Tumours would appear all over the body
Then came the black blotches
These spots were a sign of impending death
Choir: The deadly plague
Vocode: non valendo alcuno senno né umano provedimento
Choir: All human knowledge
Solo: All human knowledge was useless
Few were cured, and death came after 3 days
It was spread by the slightest contact
After three days
Vocode: molti consigli dati a conservazion della sanità
Choir: Instructions were issued to preserve health
Solo: Instructions were issued to preserve health
Some said live modestly
Others said drink, enjoy life , dance and have fun
Solo and choir: Ecco la primavera. Che’l cor fa ralegare
Spring has come. Happiness is here
Solo : Too dangerous to mourn - no tears no flowers.
From March to July one hundred thousand people died.
Choir: No tears no flowers. One hundred thousand people
3. You will pass through the gate
We will all come up to the gate between life and death. There is nobody who can tell you what is beyond the gate. Anybody who knows, you can’t ask.
Choir: you will pass though the gate
You know it .
Billions of humans have lived on earth
Not one of those billions have answered the question
What happens beyond the gate
The only people who know you can’t ask
4. Dr Kalashnikov
Mikhail Kalashnikov invented a rifle for the Russian Army in 1947. It is said to be the deadliest gun ever invented. But Kalashnikov was tortured by the fact that he was responsible for such destruction. I wrote this section long before the current war. But as you will hear, the Kalashnikov rifle is still very much in use.
News voice: Best porridge I’ve eaten in a long time.
Kalashnikov puts the soldiers at ease with one simple phrase
Vocode: AK47
Choir: Automat Kalashnikova . AK47
Invented nineteen forty seven for the Russian army
News voice: You were in Afghanistan? Show me your rifle please .
Choir: Six hundred rounds a minute . Easy to use
Doctor Kalashnikov.
News voice: AK behaves like a warrior in combat
Vocode: Wanted to be a poet
Wished he'd invented the lawnmower
Choir: He wanted to be a poet
He wished he'd invented the lawnmower.
Vocode: One hundred million of them
Choir: One hundred million of them
AK kills two hundred fifty thousand a year.
Vocode: Revolution, insurrection, sedition.
Choir: Revolution, insurrection, sedition.
Vocode: Used by death squads, terrorists, cartels.
Choir: Used by death squads, terrorists, cartels.
Bass solo: He wrote a letter to the Patriarch
This is what he said
Vocode: My spiritual pain is unbearable.
Choir: My spiritual pain is unbearable.
Bass solo: My pain
Choir: Was I to blame for their deaths ?
Bass solo: Was I to blame ?
Choir: So much envy, greed and aggression
Bass solo: So much envy. So much aggression.
Vocode: I had never held a gun in my life. Russia declared war on us. I got like super super angry. I got my Kalashnikov rifle and I’m learning to shoot it. Yes, I’m prepared to use it.
News voice: Kira Rudik is a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
5. Cycles
As humans, we are part of a larger cycle of life. And we are a very small part of that cycle. And we now have the capacity to end the cycle both for ourselves , and our home planet.
Choir: We’re in cycles within cycles within cycles within cycles
There’s the cycle of planet earth 4 billion years so far.
If we don’t blow ourselves up
We should get 3 billion more.
Humans on this time line. Barely a dot
Human time on this planet. Barely significant
We’re in cycles within cycles within cycles within cycles.
We won’t be here to see the end if all goes well.
We’re in cycles within cycles within cycles within cycles.
6. The women
I’ve lived in this city for decades. The disappearance of women over the years is the worst tragedy that has happened here. This is my personal take on this as a person, a man and a citizen.
Choir member speaking: We weren’t going to mention this
The lethal dark cloud that has hung over this city
The women. Yes, the women
Too many of us have been silent.
Silence can mean words alone can not express
Or silence can mean nothing to say
Or silence can mean nothing at all
Choir: What are we left with when she doesn’t come home?
When do we start to worry?
What are we left with when there’s no one there to worry?
What are we left with when she was was there yesterday?
Will anybody care that she’s not here today?
What are you left with when her voice will never be heard again?
When does somebody look into that?
What are we left with when hundreds don’t come home?
How do we even process that?
What are we left with when thousands don’t come home?
When do we need to worry?
What are we left with when the cycle is broken?
You know It can never be fixed.
What are we left with when the span is interrupted?
Or rather , somebody interrupted the span.
What are are we left with when there are men who want to make women disappear?
Will there ever be enough psychotherapy for that?
What are we left with?
Memorials, grieving, government commissions.
Promises to do better, that it will never happen again
What are we left with ? (x9)
7. Afterlife
You may be gone, but your thoughts live on. Your afterlife is what you leave for other people.
Choir: You may be dust
but your thoughts live on
You remember your mother- all kinds of things she said
Your memory is her afterlife
So many gone before you
Your memory is their afterlife
Vocode: You remember your mother- all kinds of things she said
Choir: You have the terrible ability
to imagine your own end
When you pass through the gate
You will know the answer
The afterlife is in what you leave for other people
When you pass through the gate
8. 2020
This is my attempt to encapsulate our own pandemic. Another title for this section might be “Screen life”.
Vocode: Twenty one twenty two (repeats) . Twenty twenty twenty twenty one. (repeats)
Choir: Twenty twenty twenty twenty one twenty two.
Tenor solo: To see the world we stayed home
Choir: We stayed home. Didn’t go out. Looked at screens.
Tenor solo: Looked at our screens
Stayed home
We watched each other on screens
We hid from each other on screens
We lived at home. We loved at home. We hated at home.
We died at home. Grieved at home.
We saved people from dying. Couldn’t save people from dying
Some of us were there. Most of us saw this on screens
We learned to bake on screens. We learned Russian on screens.
We read War and Peace on our screens.
How many hours. How many days. How many weeks.
We danced in the kitchen on our screens.
We danced in the hallway on our screens.
We sang into our devices. Good luck with that
We saw our leaders behave like idiots .
Saw them grow beards. deny it was real.
Then get sick themselves.
Solo and choir: Dine in dream on. No travel no way
No school ever. Computers only.
Open up . I don’t think so.
The cure arrived
First shot second shot
First shot second shot repeat
Did everybody want one. Not a chance.
Did everybody get one? What do you think?
repeat repeat repeat repeat
Some of us are still here. Some of us didn’t make it.
9. Talking to dead people
This last section starts with the seemingly senseless thing that we all do - have intense conversations with people who are gone. And often we’re thinking about what we should have said.
Then comes the ritualistic ending that echoes the first section.
In this case choir members were asked to imagine a message from somebody they have lost. Six of these are spoken in this section.
As humans we don’t have the capacity to imagine eternity.
My best attempt at this idea is “Runs deep, bends time”
Choir: I find myself talking to dead people.
Upside. They can’t talk back.
Downside. They can’t talk back
Wow! that zinger really would’ve got ‘em.
That would have hurt! No coming back from that!
Speaker 1
Speaker 2
Choir: But it’s also I miss you
Speaker 3
Speaker 4
Speaker 5
Choir: You never said.
Talk now. They won’t be back. Ever.
Never. Ever.
Eternity is the thunder word.
Runs heavy. Runs long.
Runs deep.Bends time.