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This week I got to premiere a new work by composer Christopher Wicks; written in response to the January 6th Insurrection. From Christopher: "After the insurrection of January 6, I was terribly shaken, and briefly nearly despairing about the USA. Somewhat to my surprise, over the following two weeks my thoughts coalesced into a poem, and then into a musical setting of it. Early on the morning of Tuesday the 19 th , I emailed the piece to a friend, Bostonian pianist and composer Julia Carey, and by that evening, she and her soprano colleague Kelley Hollis had enthusiastically created a video of my music. My poem is printed below, and also is available in the notes on the YouTube video." –C. Wicks The Mightier Word of Peace by Christopher Wicks (for hope for the USA, following the horror of the attempted coup in DC on January 6) How can a word of peace be spoken To men and women who behave Like beasts in rage? How does one speak The word of peace? How can a word of peace be spoken When glass is broken And lives are taken And sanity itself has been forsaken? Within these walls we once did nullify Outmoded laws debasing women and men, But ugly symbols of those laws are now unfurled again, And cowards, for convenience sake, would idly stand by, While reason is uprooted, And a reckless tyrant yells lie after lie. We will speak of peace, but not of yielding! We will sing, we will shout it to the sky! No, we will not leave the glass lying shattered! We will work as those who remember that which mattered! Without accountability, no one is free! Let us sing, Let freedom ring! January 19, 2021 Check out the piece below. It was also featured in 2 simultaneous Sunday broadcasts on January 24th, 2021 from First Church in Boston and Central Square Congregational Church in Bridgewater, MA.
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Just a wee Scottish ditty to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new.
Traditional Scottish Folksong Text by: Robert Burns Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And days o’ lang syne! For auld lang syne, my Dear, For auld lang syne, We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne. We two have run about the hills, And pulled the daisies fine; But we’ve wander’d many a weary foot, Since auld lang syne. For auld lang syne, my Dear, For auld lang syne, We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne. And surely ye’ll buy your pint‐cup, And surely I’ll buy mine; And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne. For auld lang syne, my Dear, For auld lang syne, We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne. |
Kelley HollisSoprano. Opera. New Music. Boston. Archives
March 2022
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