Cantatadetails

"To One in Paradise"
Cantata in seven movements for string orchestra and SATB soloists
Benjamin C.S. Boyle poetry of E.A.Poe

I. Sinfonia And all my days are trances (SATB)
II. Aria Thou wast all that to me love (T)
III. Duo Ah, dream too bright to last (SA)
IV. Fugue For alas! alas! (SATB)
V. Aria No more--No more (S)
VI. Duo A voice from out the future cries (AB)
VII. Chorale And all my dyas are trances (SATB)

Vladimir Lande, conductor
Shari Alise Wilson, soprano
Gus Mercante, counter-tenor
Jeff Dinsmore, tenor
Andrew Cummings, baritone
Bachanalia Festival Orchestra
Nina Beilina, artistic director

May 18, 2005 8pm
Merkin Hall
67th St. and Broadway
New York City

Program notes:

While in the midst of the extensive work with the writings and poems
of E.A.Poe in my song-cycle "Lenoriana" (2002), I became enamored of the
poem "To One in Paradise". However, I concluded that its grand design would
over-balance a 20 minute work for baritone and piano. Putting it temporarily
aside, I resolved to return to it with larger forces in mind.

Now, with a full string orchestra and vocal soloists at my disposal, I
have resolved to craft the poem into a seven movement Cantata, in formal
design akin to those of J.S.Bach. Thus, Bachanalia Festival Orchestra, with
its mission to showcase Bach's music and musical legacy, provided me the
perfect opportunity to create this new work.

The first movement will begin with an emphatic two chords, underscored
by ominous and surging repeated pitches in the viola, which announce the
call to "one in paradise". This will blossom into an imitative sinfonia:
"And all my days are trances....". The second movement, a tenor solo
movement, depicts the young lover recollecting his sweet days with the
departed. Following that, a duo-aria (soprano and counter-tenor) mourn "Ah,
dream too bright to last!". The centerpiece of the work will be a double
Fugue (much like the omnes generationem of Bach's Magnificat) on the texts
"Alas, Alas!" and "No More, No more." The fifth movement will be a
beautiful vision of the "one in paradise" (a soprano solo) comforting the
mourning lover. A dark duo recitative follows with the baritone and
counter-tenor exchanging voices "from out the Future and Past". The piece
then closes with a tutti chorale repeating the opening text, giving the work
musical closure, but also (I hope) leaving an imprint of divine peace and
resolution (much like the "In Paradisium" of Durufle's Requiem).