Orchestra with Chorus

The form of Immortal Diamond is modeled after the structure of Bach’s Passion of St. Matthew. The gospel story of Jesus’ passion, death (and, in the case of this piece, the resurrection) is the basic framework sung by choruses and soloists as in Bach’s works. However, in this piece, the focus is not just these events in the life of Christ, but in the lives of human beings being mystically related to Him. The sufferings and triumphs of Christ are interspersed by chorales in Bach’s Passions, but, in this work, I have not used chorales as meditations, but rather 20th and 21st -century texts from Martin Luther King, Jr., Gerard Manley Hopkins, Alice in Wonderland, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, and a myriad of other texts and poems to help present a personal theological belief that there is a mystical unity between Christ’s suffering and that of the individual human being. The person, having gone through all of life’s vicissitudes is finally “Immortal Diamond.”

This work is dedicated to all children who suffer and die too soon. The work was composed with the intention of evoking compassion for the most innocent and vulnerable among us, along with the hope that acts of horror against the young and innocent throughout the world will happen never again. The piece is also a testimony to the transformative power of music, art and poetry in these children’s lives. (Featured audio is Birdsong)
Cantata For The Children Of Terezin includes:
Transports 5:30 A.M.
Home
Birdsong
A Little Mouse
A Little Garden
A Little Song Without Words
The Rose
Evening Transports
Someday