THE SILVER CORD
Remember also your Creator…before the silver cord is snapped…and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
-Ecclesiastes 12
The text for the Silver Cord, a choral symphony in three movements, is drawn largely from the book of Ecclesiastes. The first movement laments the fact that we are locked into a cycle of recurring historical events, and grow weary of this repetition in which there "is no remembrance of former things."
The second movement is a rondo, a formal structure (Rondo-episode-Rondo-episode-Rondo) frequently used by classical composers for joyful or playful purposes. Here, however, the normal character is turned on its head, and the music of the recurring theme is in fact bitter and frenzied, expressing the text: "There is nothing better to do than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in our toil." Two introspective sections (episodes) stand in contrast to this recurring theme. The first, beginning with the text "As we came from our mother's womb so shall we go again" is texturally "naked" at its outset, pairing the solo cello alone with the baritone soloist. After the return of the rondo material, the voice of the solo cello begins the second episode, gradually descending as the choir sings "Who knows if the spirit goes upward…?" The movement ends in a frenzy with the final return of the rondo theme.
The third movement begins quietly, and without a pause after the tumultuous ending of the second. The sixth verse of Psalm 130, the "De profundis", provides the concluding text for this choral symphony: "My soul waits… as the watchman waits for the morning." The movement remains peaceful throughout; the focus is on active waiting.
The Silver Cord is ultimately about life, the seeming futility of which is constantly overcome, even in the most desperate of conditions, by a fragile hope--a vulnerable faith perhaps--a delicate cord which connects us to our source of meaning.
The work was commissioned by the KW Philharmonic, Kitchener Ontario (now the Grand Philharmonic), and was premiered on 14 May 1994.
TEXT
FIRST MOVEMENT
Choir:
The words of the Preacher, the son of David,
the words of the king in Jerusalem.
Soloist:
Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!
What do we gain by all the toil at which we toil under the sun?
A generation goes, a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever.
The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south, and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.
Choir:
All things are full of weariness; it cannot be uttered;
Soloist:
The eye is not satisfied with seeing, the ear is not filled with hearing.
Choir:
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done;…
Soloist:
Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"?
Choir:
……and there is nothing new under the sun.
Soloist:
It has been already in the ages before us.
Choir:
There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to happen among those who come after.
Choir:
All things are full of weariness.
Soloist:
What do we gain by all the toil at which we toil under the sun?
All things are full of weariness.
Choir:
There is nothing better to do than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in our toil.
Soloist:
Aswe came from our mother's womb, so shall we go again; naked, and take nothing from our toil.
What gain have we that we toil after wind and spend all the day in darkness and grief,
in much vexation and sickness, in much resentment.
We are as the beasts: we have the same fate as the beasts, we breathe the same breath, we suffer the same death as the beasts. We have no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.
All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Choir:
There is nothing better to do than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in our toil.
Whoknows if our spirit goes upward, who knows if the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?
Soloist:
Who knows? All go to one place, all are from the dust and all turn to dust again.
So I saw that there is nothing better than that we should eat and drink and enjoy our work, for that is our our lot.
Choir:
All is vanity!
THIRD MOVEMENT
Choir and Soloist:
My soul waits, as the watchman waits for the morning.
Texts assembled by the composer from Ecclesiastes (Movements One and Two) and Psalm 130 (Movement Three).