Songs of Darkness, Dreams of Light 彼得版

BBC 委託我為 2018 年 "舞會最後之夜 "創作這部作品時，我得到了一份相當詳細的任務書。首先，這部作品應該由 BBC 歌手和 BBC 交響合唱團（與 BBC 交響樂團合作）共同完成，兩個合唱團應該相互獨立。其次，歌詞應紀念第一次世界大戰結束一百周年，但又樂觀地展望未來。為了紀念這一百周年，我選擇了一戰詩人以撒-羅森伯格（Isaac Rosenberg）寫於 1914 年的《在陰間》（In the Underworld）。這首詩原本是關於單相思的，但如果你不瞭解它的背景，就會覺得它是對未來四年的預言，讓人感到留在家中的婦女無法理解她們的男人在戰壕中面臨的恐怖。BBC 歌手代表羅森伯格，他們的音樂基於一種優美的阿什肯納茲猶太祈禱模式--也被稱為 "烏克蘭吉普賽 "模式。我在閱讀卡里爾-紀伯倫（Kahlil Gibran）的《先知》（寫於 1923 年）時，看到了這些詩句，它們似乎回答並緩解了羅森伯格詩中表達的恐懼。BBC 交響合唱團扮演紀伯倫的角色，用優美動聽、旋律優美的馬龍派敘利亞聖歌演唱，紀伯倫出生在黎巴嫩，信奉的就是馬龍派敘利亞聖歌。後來，他對伊斯蘭教，尤其是蘇菲派產生了濃厚的興趣；因此，整首樂曲採用了蘇菲派 Zikr 的形式，打擊樂中帶有蘇菲派的虔誠節奏，開始時安靜而低沉，但慢慢變得高亢、快速和響亮。兩個合唱團開始時是分開的，但後來合併成'對話'，有時會重疊，最後以積極的音符結束：羅森伯格的《光明與幸福的生物》在紀伯倫的《我們將在天空中建造一座高塔》之上

作曲家: Panufnik, Roxanna
樂器: Mixed Voices, Orchestra
出版社: Edition Peters
原文簡介:
When the BBC commissioned this work for the Last Night of the Proms 2018, I was given quite a detailed brief. First, the work should be for the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus (with the BBC Symphony Orchestra), and the two choirs should be quite independent of each other. Secondly, the words should acknowledge the centenary of the end of World War I, but look optimistically to the future. For the centenary I chose In the Underworld by World War I poet Isaac Rosenberg, written in 1914. Originally about unrequited love, it can read, if you do not know its context, as a prophetic look at the next four years, with the sense that the women left at home cannot begin to comprehend the horrors their men face in the trenches. The BBC Singers represent Rosenberg and their music is based on a beautiful Ashkenazi-Jewish prayer mode – also known as the ‘Ukrainian Gypsy’ mode. While I was reading The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (written in 1923), I came across these lines, which seem to answer and assuage the fears expressed in Rosenberg’s poem. The BBC Symphony Chorus take on the role of Gibran, singing in a beautiful, melismatic, Maronite Syriac chant, into which faith Gibran was born in Lebanon. Later in his life, he became very interested in Islam, particularly Sufism; therefore the whole piece is in the form of a Sufi Zikr, with Sufi devotional rhythms in the percussion, starting quiet and low, but slowly becoming higher, faster and louder. The two choirs start separately, but merge into a ‘conversation,’ sometimes overlapping, and ending on a positive note: Rosenberg’s Creature of light and happiness over Gibran’s We shall build a tower in the sky.