Seven Responses
A two-night event: Friday June 24, 2016, 8 pm and Saturday June 25, 8 pm @ Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral
Major funding provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage with Quicksilver Baroque Orchestra, Robert Mealy, Director, and ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), Claire Chase, Artistic Director
Friday, June 24, 2016, 8 PM
Buxtehude's Cantatas 1-4 (feet, knees, hands, and side) and the responses of David T. Little, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Caroline Shaw, and Hans Thomalla
Saturday, June 25, 2016, 8 PM
Buxtehude's Cantatas 5-7 (breast, heart, and face) and the responses of Lewis Spratlan, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, and Santa Ratniece
Continuing and expanding its role as a curator of new music, The Crossing embarks on its largest project yet: Seven Responses. Seven of the world's foremost composers are composing fifteen-minute musical responses to Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri, an iconic sacred work of the German Baroque consisting of seven cantatas. The Crossing will perform the new works in repertory with Buxtehude's 17th-century work with two leading ensembles in their respective fields of performance: Robert Mealy's Quicksilver Baroque and Claire Chase's International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). Seven Responses will challenge artists and audiences alike to explore our relative distance from, or closeness to, music across centuries, cultures, and continents. The project will be presented over two evenings, alternating between old and new works throughout each evening. Each composer has been invited to collaborate with an author of their choice, or to create their own libretto - those will include the words of Icelandic poet Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir, American poet Paul Kane, the words of St. Clare of Assisi, and Danish poet Ursula Andkjær Olsen.
The Crossing's commissions have increasingly addressed issues related to the environment, to equality, and to the individual's place in the community. Human suffering is often a theme in contemporary secular works, similar in character to sacred words of the past. Membra Jesu Nostri (1680) addresses the suffering of Christ; this will serve as a starting point for the secular cantata each composer of Seven Responses will write.
There will be a pre-concert lecture by Buxtehude scholar Kerala Johnson Snyder one hour prior to each performance.