These are excerpts and edits from Sympho's site-specific concert, ARCO, commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory (NY) to open the Tune-in Music Festival of 2011. ARCO is a modern creation myth that speaks of the human condition; it is at once a musical exploration of an architectural icon and a sonic voyage through time and space. The music is a journey in the landscape of the human soul, where we witness the soul’s evolution in the place where the struggle toward divinity and grace finds its battleground.

This excerpt of "Building" employs the second movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony as both a point of departure and a guide. Using rigorous musical forms – imitation, canon, fugue and passacaglia – the music witnesses mankind as he forms his singular identity, his perspective and his world. As he reaches completion man turns to covetousness and militantly protects that which he has created, thus "Aggression." Listen for the "ghosts" of the Armory: samples of past works performed in the space, battling for prominence amongst the previous material.

"Aggression 2" is the turning point of the concert during which the violence of war moves towards complete annihilation. An audio recording and video will be available soon. Contact me for details.

The Tapu'at (mother-child) symbol of the Hopi is a seven-circuit labyrinth, it is not a maze, but a single circular pathway leading either into the labyrinth's center or out from it. This particular design is identical to those found on ancient Cretan coins, and has been found in ancient culture around the world.

From the Hopi perspective, the Tapu'at labyrinth is a symbol for emergence from one world into the next, and a description of the earth's dimensions. The Hopi believe the earth has seven energy centers (corresponding to the Hindu chakra system) and can be defined within four directions: North, South, East, and West. It follows that the labyrinth has seven circuits that rotate around the center, and the lines (or walls) used to define the labyrinth end in four points, corresponding to the directions.

This piece follows the path one would travel if emerging from the center with each circuit lasting roughly a minute - emerging into the world by the seventh minute. The music describes each energy center as correlated to the chakra system, and has been constructed in the order of pathways taken. Using the image, you may trace the pathway beginning at the center. If ordering each circuit outward from the center, you will notice that you begin on the third circuit, and it follows:

Circuit 3 - Chakra 3 - Solar Plexus - Fire
Circuit 2 - Chakra 2 - Sacral - Water
Circuit 1 - Chakra 1 - Root - Earth
Circuit 4 - Chakra 4 - Heart - Air
Circuit 7 - Chakra 7 - Crown - Spirit
Circuit 6 - Chakra 6 - Third Eye - Light
Circuit 5 - Chakra 5 - Throat - Sound

Spectre Scenes comes out of an experience I had living in an extremely haunted part of Southern Massachusetts. When I think back on that time, the memories that arise are almost always biased toward that haunting – the images are very movie-like, and in turn, so is this piece.

Spectre Scenes follows the path of a disembodied soul, one that is trapped within this plane of existence by some tremendous grief. Reliving the terrible events of its demise over and over, the spectre haunts its space. Slowly its shape – its leftover humanness – comes into focus.The spectre tells the story of its grief, and with this release it is freed of its horror and vanishes into the ether.

Beyond Completely Gone
(Parasangate)

In the Heart Sutra, the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokitesvara, describes a fundamental concept in Buddhism (known as the “heart” of Buddhism): “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” Rather than go into a lengthy discussion of this seminal text, I’d like to say why its significant to me, and the way I understand it. This emptiness, this “luminous” emptiness, is the gateway to compassionate action. Once realizing that all things, ideas, and the whole of reality are empty (and that emptiness is all things), the mind is freed from the division of self and other and a quality of true compassion is unleashed into the world. Through emptiness we are inseparable, in turn, our experience of suffering is also inseparable. Simply put, we are all in this together. I think we all know this already but we are consistently forgetful and these ideas and practices are here to help us remember.

The piece uses the mantra given to us by Avalokitesvara at the end of the Heart Sutra as a guide on the path to exploring emptiness and compassion: “gate gate, paragate, parasangate, bodhi svaha.” Many people say mantras cannot – or should not – be translated, as they believe it is the sound of the words as a generator of consciousness that does the work...nevertheless, here it is: gone gone, beyond gone, beyond completely gone, awakened, so be it.

1. Bird
2. Bug
3. Fish

"Bird" was initially composed to accompany a short animated film.
The goal of the next two pieces is to explore these creatures through a child-like lens, as inspired by the children's books which I've been reading to my son.

These pieces come from a Sympho concert, FLECTION, in which Barber's Adagio for Strings was used as a through line, woven about an evening of otherwise new music, composed by Paul Haas, Judd Greenstein, and myself. Each new piece examined some aspect of the Adagio. I was most taken with the Adagio’s use through history as accompaniment to particular events. For many, I’m sure the Adagio will forever trigger images of Ground Zero, memories of Franklin D. Roosevelt, or scenes (real or imagined) of World War II and Vietnam.

"Forgetting"
Just as the Adagio brings memories to mind, it is an incredible distraction in all its beauty. Memory is fallible, emotions will fade, the mind will latch to anything within its gaze that is attractive - especially when faced with a painful experience. In this piece the Adagio is that memory. It is a painful one and we try to wipe it away from the mind: first by turning away, then through distraction. Its distinctness fades and the memory is forgotten. But despite the evolving world all around us, a sadness remains, an emptiness. And to fill that void we seek out the thing we’ve forgotten.

"Remembering"
In this piece, the Adagio shines a light on a particular memory, which, upon breaking through the surface, churns over and over in the mind - going so far into the experience that we almost leave the present day. Upon returning, there is a kind of emotional afterglow or stain in the heart.

An audio recording will be available soon, contact me for details.

On Taos was composed for Robert Mirabal and the Taos Chamber Music Group. It is a roughly fifteen minute work that incorporates both composed and improvised music, featuring Mirabal on several flutes and didgeridoo.

I spent several years living in the expansive refuge of Taos and her sister cities, and it seemed fitting that I compose a work related to my time with her, getting to know her people, her history, her landscape...Taos has a way of forcing your perspective into present wonder, and simultaneously easing your mind into nostalgia. By exploring Pueblo music, the Alabados sung by the Spanish settlers, the famed Taos hum, and landmarks like the gorge, Blue Lake, and Taos Mountain, I attempt to paint my personal feelings upon Taos’ canvas. And in that way On Taos is a musical collage of memory, whereby one flips the pages of an old photo album and history clutters the space as though it were the present moment.

Robert Mirabal and I have been collaborating for several years now, and it is my great pleasure to help introduce his virtuosity to classical audiences.

I. Le Parapluit
II. La Tristesse de Saint Louis
III. Le Manteau Gros
IV. Agate Rhythm

During the Nazi occupation of France, the young rebellious types met in cafes and jazz clubs to escape their oppressors and talk politics and philosophy. They were called "Zazou". They walked the streets in enormous coats (rather like Zoot suits) in defiance of rations on fabric, and carried "Chamberlain" umbrellas - which were never opened, rain or shine. In order to safeguard their beloved swing music, jazz promoters and fans renamed several of their favorite tunes, hiding their origins. This piece uses two of those: "Agate Rhythm" for Gershwin's classic, and "La Tristesse de Saint Louis" for Handy's famous St. Louis Blues.

"...jazz became the symbol of, or the last tie with, the outside world (Downbeat, 1946)..."

During the first three decades of the 1900s, when a silent film was shown in Taiwan it was accompanied by a narrator. These narrators were called benzi masters. They were quite famous; more famous than the actors for whom they gave voices. For the benzi, the film was a vehicle for improvisation. A plot might insight social commentary, a comedy might become tragedy, a beautiful setting might inspire poetry...

Instruments:
wind chimes, shaker, triangle, clave, 2 wood block, 5 temple blocks
bass drum, 2 low drums, snare drum, tenor drum, 2 congas, 4 tom-toms
3 suspended cymbals, 4 sizzle cymbals, chinese gong, large gong, 2 tam-tams
vibraphone, marimba

The piece was composed to allow for instrumental flexibility. Please feel free to replace some instruments with like instruments from Asian culture. The "low drum" was written with a tanggu in mind, the toms with paigu, the small chinese gong should be a jingluo, and the clave is replaced easily with the "clappers" of the bangzi.

Please use multiple sizes of all duplicate instruments. The gongs should be of different tuning, one of the tam-tams may be swapped with a third large gong, and the cymbals may have a wide variety of sizes.
The listed mallets and beaters in the score should only be used as a guide. Please use whatever sticks, mallets, and beaters you deem musically appropriate. The piece requires 5 bows for vibraphone and tam-tam.

Balal (to mix or confuse) is a humorous music theater piece for percussion quartet that tells the biblical story of Babel.

Instruments:
temple blocks, 2 clave sets, woodblock, cowbell, egg shaker, guiro
2 congas, bongos, 4 tom-toms, snare
brake drum, 3 sus. cymbals, sizzle cymbal, hi-hat, gong
4 books

I encourage the use of "found" instruments in place of any or all of those listed below. The listed instruments should serve as a guide for the kind of instrument used, but beyond that, be as creative as possible. also, any choice of drumsticks or other beaters is your judgement.

The michiyuki, from Japan's puppet plays, is a literary device which catalogues in poetry the landmarks passed by two lovers as they journey away to commit suicide. This piece is based on the michiyuki that ends Chikamatsu's The Love Suicides at Sonezaki. Since the play was written and produced within one month of the event upon which it was based (May 22, 1703), the audience had tangible experiences of both the people and places enumerated in the script. It is suggested by Donald Keene that the popularity of the play "started a vogue for love suicides...the number of such suicides, both in life and on the stage, rapidly multiplied, until in 1722 the government banned plays with the word shinju (love suicide) in the title."

Tokubei has refused to marry his uncle's niece because of his great love for the courtesan, Ohatsu. He means to return the dowry money already given to his mother, but after lending it to a shady friend, he is tricked out of it. Tokubei is disgraced and cannot remain in Osaka with Ohatsu.

Michiyuki (for marimba) begins when Ohatsu and Tokubei leave Osaka to commit suicide in Sonezaki. "We who walk the road to death, to what should we be likened? To the frost by the road that leads to the graveyard, vanishing with each step we take ahead." They hear the morning six o'clock bell, by seven they will be dead. The narrator responds furiously, foreshadowing their death with vehement strikes - intoning the prayer to Amida Buddha, "Namu Amida Butsu". The lovers cross Umeda Bridge (musical bird call), recalling the myth of Herd Boy and Weaver Girl, two stars who cross a bridge built by magpies to meet eachother. Across the water they hear someone singing in an upstairs teahouse. It is a ballad of a lover's suicide. Once they reach Sonezaki wood the narrator tells of spirits who fly by them like lightning flashes, ghostly companions in their travels to the afterlife. Tokubei ties Ohatsu to a tree trunk while praying "Namu Amida Butsu." The seven o'clock bell begins to sound. "Twice or thrice the flashing blade deflects this way and that until a cry tells it has struck her throat." Tokubei prays for himself and quickly slits his throat. The final bells sound and Tokubei and Ohatsu travel to the afterlife, perhaps "reborn on the same lotus" in Amida Buddha's heaven, the Pure Land. (All quoted text translated by Donald Keene.)

This little piece is based on a vocal trio setting of the poem, by Neruda. It was originally composed for my brother's wedding. Naoko had asked me for a simple, short and beautiful piece and this seemed fitting. I renamed the piece, but I think the sentiment remains.

It will be available for sale through MostlyMarimba.com in the near future.

Basho (1644-94) was born Matsuo Kinsaku but later changed his name to honor a disciple’s gift: a banana tree rare to Japan, the basho. This tree was replanted all over the islands because Basho constantly wandered – searching for new experiences. He spent his life as a Zen monk and is considered by many to be the greatest poet of Japan. Basho was responsible for revitalizing haiku at a time when the form’s structure had nearly defeated its inspiration. Doho, a disciple of Basho, wrote the following:

“The master said, ‘Learn about the pine tree from a pine tree, and about the bamboo stalk from a bamboo stalk.’ What he meant was that the poet should detach his mind from self...and enter into the object, sharing its delicate life and its feelings. Whereupon a poem forms itself. Description of the object is not enough: unless a poem contains feelings which have come from the object, the object and the poet’s self will be separate things.”

From Basho is divided into three sections, taking their titles from each consecutive line of Basho’s poem as translated by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto:

To the willow—
all hatred, and desire
of your heart.

The composition of this piece was as much choreographic as musical and therefore the images created by the performer’s body in relationship to the harp are as important as the music.

Breath – Philip Levine

Who hears the humming
of rocks at great height,
the long steady drone
of granite holding together,
the strumming of obsidian
to itself? I go among
the stones stooping
and pecking like a
sparrow, imagining
the glacier’s final push
resounding still. In
a freezing mountain
stream, my hand opens
scratched and raw and
flutters strangely,
more like an animal
or wild blossom in wind
than any part of me. Great
fields of stone
stretching away under
a slate sky, their single
flower the flower
of my right hand.

...................Last night
the fire died into itself
black stick by stick
and the dark came out
of my eyes flooding
everything. I
slept alone and dreamed
of you in an old house
back home among
your country people,
among the dead, not
any living one besides
yourself. I woke
scared by the gasping
of a wild one, scared
by my own breath, and
slowly calmed
remembering your weight
beside me all these
years, and here and
there an eye of stone
gleamed with the warm light
of an absent star.

...................Today
in this high clear room
of the world, I squat
to the life of rocks
jewelled in the stream
or whispering
like shards. What fears
are still held locked
in the veins till the last
fire, and who will calm
us then under a gold sky
that will be all of earth?
Two miles below on the burning
summer plains, you go
about your life on
more day. I give you
almond blossoms
for your hair, your hair
that will be white, I give
the world my worn-out breath
on an old tune, I give
it all I have
and take it back again.

The first piece in this set originally came about as a duet composed for a friend's wedding. Later that year I expanded it into the current choral setting. Initially, wind chimes were used as accompaniment for the soprano and tenor and in setting these pieces, I've used aspects of the sonic quality throughout. Namely, seven notes locked into a particular octave which when sounded, create minuscule melodies that integrate into a constant, consonant drone.

1. How Sweet and Musical (2001)
2. Love is a Smoke (2003)
3. How Silver-sweet (2005)

*two more pieces are planned

All texts by William Shakespeare.

1. As sweet and musical

As sweet and musical
As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;
And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Make heaven drowsy with the harmony.

2. Love is a smoke (collage)

Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs,
...a fire sparkling with lovers' eyes,
...a sea nourished with lovers' tears.

Love is merely a madness.

My bounty is as boundless as the sea.

Love for thy love, and hand for hand I give.

Love is a spirit all compact of fire.

Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt I love.

3. How silver-sweet

How silver-sweet sound lovers tongues by night
Like softest music

Pied Beauty – Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things -
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced - fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

The poetry of "Potter's Clay" was written by my good friend, Naomi C. Rose; it ends the first story found in her award winning children's book, "Tibetan Tales for Little Buddhas," with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Throughout the story, Naomi weaves a mantra from the Buddhist tradition, "Om mani padmé hum."

This mantra is spoken to Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, who vowed to hear the prayers of all sentient beings and postpone his own enlightenment until every being on earth achieved nirvana. In some renderings of Avalokitesvara's story, Amitabha Buddha endows him with 11 heads and 1,000 arms, so he may better hear and assist those who suffer. His mantra, "Om mani padmé hum," manifests compassion, good fortune, and purifies negative karma.

Life is like a potter’s clay
changing shape from day to day.
As stars sparkle in the sky
light and dark go quickly by.
What’s the future, no one knows
So be at peace with how life goes.

Om Mani Padmé Hung

www.naomicrose.com

There are two number structures that organize this piece. Firstly, the mantra is composed of 6 distinct syllables, and Naomi Rose's poetry reflects this by using 6 lines, each with 6 words (except the last line). The 6 syllables in the mantra are said to purify the 6 realms of existence, and in turn, describe the path that is laid before a Buddhist practitioner. Thus, the piece is sung by 6 different parts, culminating in a climactic 6 note chord, the mantra is chanted in groupings of 6, and is performed 36 times (6x6), and there is prevalence of the harmonic interval of a 6th from the crescendo into the climax to the final melodic phrase of the piece.

The second number structure is parallel to the concept of Om. Om is composed of three primordial sounds, A, U, and M, representing mind, speech, and body. In this piece, Om is always sounded with a 3 note motif, the notes a, c, and d. When intoning Om, one intends to replace their impure mind, speech, and body with the mirror image of Buddha's pure mind, speech, and body. One musical analog for this would be the reverse intervallic image of of a, c, d: you begin with a minor 3rd and then a major 2nd, the reverse would be a major 2nd and a minor 3rd, thus a, c , d, becomes a, b, d. In the piece the mantra is primarily intoned on a, b, and d. The turning point of the piece is generated by the simultaneous use of the mantra in both d and e. The mantra in e acts like the outside fear element that often imposes upon pure mind, speech, and body and the result of this is a question that is frequently our greatest downfall: "What's the future?"

(My use of numerical systems is irrelevant to an audience. My hope is that this kind of organization assists an audience’s experience of the composition – music allows us to experience numerical relationships in a qualitative way.)

Psalm 95

O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

His hands are the depths of the earth,
and the heights of the mountains.

For he is our God,
and we the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.

O come, let us worship, come let us bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, for he is our Maker!

The sea is his, for he made it;
and his hands formed the dry land.

O that today you would hearken to his voice!

A Patre unigenitus
Veni Redemptor genitum
Agnoscat omne seculum
Verbum supernum prodiens Amen

Make we merry, more or less,
For now is the time of Christemas.
Let no man come into this hall,
Nor groom, nor page, nor yet marshall,
But that some sport he bring withall.

If that he say he cannot sing,
Some other sport then let him bring,
That it may please at this feasting,
For now is the time of Christemas.

Make we mery, more or less,
For now is the time of Christemas.
If that he say he naught can do,
Then for my love ask him no more
But to the stocks then let him go;
For now is the time of Christemas!

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī – known by most as just Rumi – was a Persian poet and Sufi mystic who lived during the 13th century. At the age of 24, he succeeded his father as a professor in religious sciences. His introduction to the mystical path of Islam (Sufism) came by way of Shams of Tabriz. Their deep relationship and Shams' disappearance and death became the source of much of Rumi's inspiration. His search for Shams (the "beloved") ultimately became his search for the divine. Rumi's funeral lasted 40 days and was attended by Muslims, Jews, Persians, Christians and Greeks. Upon his death, his followers founded the Mawlawi Sufi order, known also as the Whirling Dervishes.

Presences: Songs from Rumi (in progress)
translated by Coleman Barks

1. Presences
2. Lion of the Heart
3. Water from Your Spring
4. Inside this River
5. Hoping to Be More Alive
6. The Most Alive Moment
7. Blessing
8. A Wished-For Song
9. The Bright Core of Failure
10. I, You, He, She, We
11. What I See in Your Eyes
12. The Wide Plain of Death
13. Children Running Through
14. Dance
15. Daring Enough to Finish
16. I'm Not Saying this Right
17. Mirror and Face
18. A Door
19. Out of Stillness
20. Tent
21. Sometimes I Do
22. Presences

Remembrance
A New Year’s gift for the old settlers in town 12 and 13.

Come forward all, it's ev'ning and winter
If you can't see clearly, come with a lantern,
Sit down and let's chat, about the old days
Which thirty long years ago knew different ways.

We didn't have much, when we came to these lands
But we had diligence, bright minds and strong hands.

We didn't have houses, no shed and no stable
Expensive were cattle and food on the table
We didn't have bed-steads, no tables, no chairs
The land we bought was wild woods still, I swear.

We set to the task, robust, and with courage
Each settler clear'd himself a passage
We built our homes, a fence was put up
And trees were marked where our properties stopped.

We work'd hard all day, we were clearing and burning
With smoke in our eyes and our hands blist'ring
We rarely complain'd, all eager we were
The hope in our hearts was a powerful spur.

And when, at last, we had houses and stables
And some bread and potatoes and meat on the table
A school and a church house stood now on our site
All pain was forgotten, the future look'd bright.

At last we had roads - though not quite perfected –
The fruits and flour were faster collected
If carts were stuck in the mud at the task
Atleast now we have a good swig in our flask.

And now we have good land, decent houses, a stable
We've money and maybe some stocks, we were able
To live through the trouble and live through the pain
So let's praise the Lord for the comfort we've gained.

Some friends from our past have been gone for so long
Yes, some suffer'd downfall some sinn'd and did wrong
But none of our friends will we ever forget
So say the Lord's Pray'r rememb'ring the dead.

-Nicholas Becker, 1854 from the Luxemburgish by Georges Calteux

1. "Awake my dear"
...Awake, my dear.
Be kind to your sleeping heart.
Take it out into the vast fields of Light
and let it breathe... (Hafiz transl. by Ladinsky)

2. "the lamp in a glass"
God is the light of the heavens and the earth; 
the likeness of God's light is as a niche wherein is a lamp, 
the lamp in a glass, the glass as it were a glittering star kindled
from a blessed tree,
an olive that is neither of the East or the West, 
whose oil well-nigh would shine,
even if no fire touched it; light upon light;
God guides to God's light whom God wills. (Qur’an 24;35)

3. "light upon light"
I, by the light of the soul,
realize that the beauty of the heavens
and the grandeur of the earth
are the echo of Thy magic flute. (Sherif)

4. "Awake my dear"
(flute solo)

5. "forming the sun"
I am the day unto myself,
not formed by the sun,
but rather, forming the sun, igniting it.
I am the understanding not understood,
but rather, allowing all understanding,
illuminating it.
I have a voice of thunder, living sound, living light,
the movement of all creatures. (Hildegard Von Bingen)

6. "Awake my dear"
(piano solo)

7. "self-revealing Light"
There the sun shines not,
nor the moon and the stars,
nor the lightning,
let alone this earthly fire.
Only when illumining Light shines,
everything else shines;
the self-revealing Light illumines the entire universe. (Sri Chinmoy)

Three Meditations is intended for performance without break.

Rumi's Words
Rumi, trans. by Daniel Liebert (title by the composer)

we came whirling
out of nothingness
scattering stars
like dust

the stars made a circle
and in the middle
we dance

the wheel of heaven
circles God
like a mill

turning and turning
it sunders
all attachment

if that rusty old sky
creaks to a stop
still, still I turn

and it is only God
circling Himself

The Meditation Wall behind Poshan Temple
Ch'ang Chien, trans. Red Pine

I entered an ancient temple at dawn
the rising sun lit the tall trees
a trail led off to a secluded place
to a meditation hall in a flowering wood
where mountain light pleased the hearts of birds
and pond's reflections stilled men's minds
the ten thousand noises were hushed
all I heard was the bell

Prayer of St. Francis
with modifications by Jenn Hawe and the composer

Oh Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, may I sow love.
Where there is injury, may I sow pardon.
Where there is doubt, may I sow faith.
Where there is despair, may I sow hope; where there is darkness, may I shed light;
and where there is sadness, may I bring joy.
Grant that I may never seek so much, to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand, or to be loved, as to love.
For it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; in giving we receive,
and in dying we are born, to eternal life.

This piece is intended for both performance and as an acting tool for singers, in which the singer learns the monologue and then applies the music afterward. In this setting, the tempo of the text is very close to a spoken tempo – which should aid in the transition from speech to singing. I am planning on revising the piece in the future and hoping to add further monologues to it.

O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep;
Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners’ legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider’s web,
The collars of the moonshine’s watery beams,
Her whip of cricket’s bone; the lash of film;
Her waggoner a small grey-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm
Prick’d from the lazy finger of a maid:
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
Made by the joiner squirrel or an old grub,
Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers.
And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;
O’er courtiers’ knees, that dream on court’sies straight,
O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees,
O’er ladies ‘ lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are:
Sometime she gallops o’er a courtier’s nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig’s tail
Tickling a parson’s nose as a’ lies asleep,
Then dreams, he of another benefice:
Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
That plaits the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes:
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage:
This is she—

True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air,
And more inconstant than the wind, who woos
Even now the frozen bosom of the north,
And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
Turning his side to the dew-dropping south.

— Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act I, scene IV

From Natasha Zajac –

Shanti, meaning “peace” in Sanskrit, uses a devotional chant to the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, who represents the energy of abundance. “Abundance is usually thought of as simple prosperity, but it is far more. Any form of abundance is the core meaning. Thus it can be friends as wealth, good health as wealth, and so on. The highest state of abundance is love. It is the pinnacle of every good and abundant thing. This specific mantra serves as an aid in the peaceful and harmonious transition to new and positive energy states” (Thomas Ashley-Farrand, Healing Mantras, pg. 145, Random House, 1999).

Om to she who is the great goddess
Vishnu’s constant, serene consort
To Lakshmi, I worship.

I came across this mantra in a center for Siddha yoga meditation while participating in a day-long retreat with my Swiss cousin Yasmine, who was studying at the center. Chanting this mantra with her was one of the single most incredible spiritual experiences of my life. That was the last moment I spent with Yasmine before she was murdered in 1993. This mantra has stayed with me and continues to be an inspiration.

I asked Paul Fowler to set Shanti for voice, cello, djembe drum, and six women’s voices because I wanted to include as many incredible people in the first performance as I could manage. The piece is programmatic, relating my life’s experieneces with the mantra. Paul divided the piece into seven sections, each holding a letter of Yasmine’s name and describing a specific occurence in my life:

.................................Y – invocation to the goddess (voice)
.................................A – the pain of Yasmine’s death (cello solo)
.................................S – seeking a path (drum entrance)
.................................M – epiphany (drum solo)
.................................I – finding a path (women)
.................................N – peace (cello solo)
.................................E – offering thanks (voice)