Synopsis of the Tunes
Look below for what the composer's have to
say about their creations.
Dream of Oenghus - Is about a prince who has a nightmare every
night about a princess, who he falls in love with, yet can never
attain. Eventually, upon awakening, he decides to take a journey to
find this princess.
Song of Moses, Listen Oh Heaven that I May Speak- This song I
believe is a prayer, from the slaves in Egypt, for a savior (our hero
Moses) to lead them on a journey from Egypt and slavery to the
Promised Land (milk and honey and all that stuff)
Escape from Plato's Cave - This piece is about a group of people
who live underground and have never seen the beauties of the world
above.
Message of Man (our ballad) - Is about a guy who finds these
people and tells them what they are missing from living in a
cave.
Escape to the Light - A few of our friends, the cave dwellers,
take on the challenge of the Escape and eventually, through noble
battle and dark journey, emerge from the shadowy underworld into the
light.
"Journey out of the Darkness"
It's a journey, starting with our nightmare in Oenghus. We awaken
from our nightmare (which is our symbolic darkness) to make a prayer
(or resolution if you want to stay away from the religious road) to
leave the dark place and to find a better life. The Message of Man
is our understanding that the better place (the light) really exists.
And Escape to the Light, is our battle with the things which hold us
in darkness. Fear, Uncertainty.
The journey from darkness to light is something that people
struggle with every day. The Darkness can be anything: Chaos,
Insanity, Sickness, Loss, Evil, Racism, The job you hate, A
relationship that goes bad, (you fill in the blank). Any personal
darkness that people may realize and strive to get to a better place.
This is represented by Oengus. Darkness. Confusion. We are lost.
Savage...and of course there is the emotional resolve of coming out
of the darkness, into light or happiness or recovery or the promise
land (Listen O Heavens)... the rest of the show plays off that
concept and recapitulates it (Plato's Cave is a true coming out of
darkness, physically and spiritually). The closer at the end
reiterates the motif again.
"Journey out of the Darkness"
Movement 1 -- Darkness
Movement 2 -- Faith (or Discovery)
Movement 3 -- Escape
Movement 4 -- Rebirth (transformation)
The Dream of Oenghus
by Rulf Rodin (b.1961)
Rolf Rodin was born in Frankfurt/Main (Germany) on December 9,
1961. He studied music education, composition, conducting and theory
of music in Frankfurt and Wurzburg. After graduating in composition
(1991) and conduction (1992) he lives as a freelance composer and
since 1993 he also lectures theory of music at the Frankfurter
Musikhochschule. Rulf Rodin held a scholarship of the
"Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes" and in 1990/91 was also
awarded a scholarship for a six month sojourn in Paris at the Cite
Internationale des Arts from the Bavarian Ministry for Cultrual
Affairs. Some of his compositions for chamber music, choir and
orchestra have won prizes at Germany and international
competitions.
The musical poem The Dream of Oenghus refers to the Irish legend
of the same name which was edited by Frederik Hetmann in his
collection "Irish Magic Garden - Fairy Tales, Legends and Stories
from Ireland." The collection was published by the Eugen Diederichs
Verlag. In this legend Prince Oenghus has a nightly vision when fast
asleep: He sees a girl who plays the flute and falls in love with
her. However, as she keeps disappearing she remains unattainable for
him for the time being. He consequently set out to search for her
until he finally finds the girl. This piece is no musical retelling
of this legend, in a way it rather invites reading the story, as
there are only single phases and atmospheres of the legend serving as
extra - musical sources of imagination.
The composition is conceived in a large two part form. The first
part was composed in 1993/94 and commissioned by the Confederation of
German Band and Folk Music Associations as a Grade 3/4 test piece and
consequently selected for the competitions that took place during the
second German Federal Festival of Music in Munster/Westfalia.
The music of the first part largely converts into sound patterns
the vision which is described at the beginning of the legend. It was
the atmosphere of something dreamlike or also something unattainable
that became the inspiration for writhing the music of a tenderly
somber world of dreams: Noise sounds of the beginning, bell like
motifs and a vacillation sound stratum hovering in itself bestow upon
this composition its mysteriously nocturnal character. Following it
(through several repetitions of a mysterious chant in continuously
increasing instrumentation and dynamics) an arc which apparently does
not end is created that is able to symbolize the quest for the girl
in terms of length of space and time in a dreamlike premonition.
Without having read the legend again in some two years, the second
larger part of the musical poem was written in 1996 for the State
Wind Orchestra of Baden Wurttemberg. It examines the more "real"
aspects of the legend. At its beginning already the second part of
this composition makes association, expressed by its ferocity, to the
prince's "aberrations" in his quest for the girl. This, as we know,
was shown in the first part in a visionary and idealistically
transfigured way. This also applies to the importance of the flute
which was alluded to only towards the end of the first part whereas
here it is given ample room for development: A large cantilena full
of enigmatic expression floats above an harmonic carpet which links
the visions of nightly tranquillity of the first part. A constantly
repeated rhythmical increase of march like character climaxes in
picking up the "mysterious chant" of the first part. In that way it
leads to formal unity of the complete work in an evident way. The
atmosphere of the apotheosis of the final coda makes the relieving B
flat major disappear in the visionary noise sounds of the beginning
and dismisses the audience in a peaceful "legendary" atmosphere.
The Song of Moses
1. Listen O Heaven, I Will Speak!
3. The Lord's Portion is His People
by David R. Holsinger (b. 1945)
Holsinger was born December 26, 1945 in Kansas City, Missouri. He
received his Bachelor of Music degree from Central Methodist College
in Fayette, Missouri in 1967, and his Master of Music degree from
Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg in 1974. He did
further postgraduate study at Kansas University from 1979-81 where he
also served as staff arranger for the University Bands and was
Director of the Swing Choir. Holsinger was twice the recipient of the
prestigious Ostwald Award for band composition, sponsored by the
American Bandmasters Association. He currently serves as assistant to
the Chief Musician at Shady Grove Church in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Among his activities, he arranges and produces worship music albums,
directs the Academy instrumental music program with his wife, Winona,
and teaches theory in the church-affiliated Bible College. Holsinger
serves annually as an instructor at several church music conferences
and visits several universities yearly, serving as guest
composer-conductor. He has held similar temporary posts in Poland and
Guatemala. He was commissioned by Kappa Kappa Psi, national honorary
band fraternity, to compose a work for their National Intercollegiate
Band and conduct its premiere performance at their national
convention in 1989.
Composed in 1993, A Song Of Moses, consists of four movements for
SATB Voices, Winds and Percussion, based on portions f scripture
found in Deuteronomy 32. This section of the old Testament deals with
the final words of Moses, both prophetic and admonitory, given to the
children of Israel shortly before his death. The composition had been
originally sketched in 1992 for SATB voices and Timpani only.
However, when approached by former Air Force Band Commander Alan
Bonner, to write a work incorporating the superb talents of the Sing
Sergeants with the Air Force Band, this earlier sketch took on added
dimension and was greatly enlarged to include the vast panorama of
musicians it now requires. This is Holsinger's second commission for
the Air Force. in 1990, he wrote, To Tame the Perilous Skies for the
then Tactical Air Command Band under the direction of Colonel Lowell
Graham, now the conductor of the Washington D.C. Air Force Band.
Escape From Plato's Cave
1. The Cave, The Struggle, and The Man from the Light
2. Message of the Man (The Fragile Heart)
3. Escape ... Into the Light
by Steven Melillo
Story:
Plato tells a story in which cave-dwellers are deprived the
knowledge of the Light outside. In this story, Escape from Plato's
Cave, the people of the Underworld are visited by a Man from the
Light. He tells them of a wondrous world outside. Some Cave dwellers
struggle against the would be listeners, using chains to forever
imprison them in the shadows of the Cave. His message heard, a few
take on the challenge of the Escape and eventually, through noble
battle and dark journey, emerge from the shadowy underworld Into the
Light.
Dedication:
At the very moment I had reached for the climax of the third
movement, the transcendence from "D"ark to "G"od, I received word
that Father Peter Rinaldi died. As a boy growing up, so often running
to him at recess and serving mass with him every day of the summer,
he taught me, by action, the Message of "the Man "... a message of
Love. He literally gave me the shirt off his back one day, no show,
no lesson, only Love. His entire Life was in dedication to something
higher ... a Prayer to that which humbled him. My young adult novel,
Only For Now, was dedicated to him, his name that of the main
character. Subconsciously, I've quoted the 9 movement Wind Ensemble
Suite, my first piece, inspired by that book. Now Father Rinaldi has
gone into the light. He would not have me dedicate anything to him.
His eyes were always looking upward beyond himself. But, to him, a
man from the light ... I bow humbly and offer back that which was,
and never really will be mine to give.
EMail
me if you have any comments or suggestions.