Rising – McLoskey, Zealot Canticles
Lansing McLoskey – "No. 1, Renunciation (Preludium)"
from Zealot Canticles
Sunrise, Tuesday May 19
I need nothing.
I feel nothing.
I desire nothing.
Words from the delirium of a hunger strike.
Why?
Because Wole Soyinka spoke out against the suppression of human rights.
And free speech.
And was imprisoned.
And wrote.
And wrote.
And wrote.
The sun has risen, for those that are able to see it.
Sometimes writing can sustain us.
We know this...
Rising w/ The Crossing.
Today, the opening movement, “Renunciation (Preludium),” of a work very close to us: Lansing McLoskey’s Zealot Canticles. Words of Wole Soyinka: canticles – songs – of the zealot.
He wakes from a long delirium.
Is it Wole who is the zealot?
...swears
He has seen the face of God.
Is it Lansing?
Or, is it us, asking to have these words assembled and set?
Singing them?
God help all those whose fear never raged.
Sometimes a piece of music that would make less sense in another time, suddenly lands with universal understanding.
And fear.
And resignation.
I need nothing.
I feel nothing.
I desire nothing.
Or is it triumph?
We don’t love singing Lansing McLoskey’s Zealot Canticles: the words are too real, the story too violent, too capable of emerging out of our morning mist and marching toward our doorstep with sudden clarity. Despite the haunting beauty of Lansing’s musical worlds – the mantras, the empty exclamations, the sheer singability of it all, and the dramatic arch that leave us drained – we wish we hadn’t been compelled to commission it. We don’t relish singing some of these words.
But we must.
And we do so with indivisible determination.
And that reminds us that we really love singing together, as one, more than ever.
And to love Zealot Canticles.
For all the things we are not.
- The Whole Team @ The Crossing
So much depends on the sound of a clarinet.
Zealot Canticles
No. 1, Renunciation (Preludium)
Canticle I
music by Lansing McLoskey
words by Wole Soyinka,
Canticle I. from Twelve Canticles for a Zealot
recorded live in concert March 19, 2017
at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill
audio by Paul Vazquez of Digital Mission Audio Services
with Doris Hall-Gulati, clarinet;
Rebecca Harris and Mandy Wolman, violins
Lorenzo Raval, viola
Arlen Hlusko, cello
art by Steven Bradshaw
Two movements of Zealot Canticles were commissioned by Donald Nally and the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati. The full oratorio was commissioned by The Crossing and Donald Nally, with funding from the Barlow Foundation.
* * *
He wakes from a prolonged delirium, swears
He has seen the face of God.
God help all those whose fever never raged
Or has subsided.
I need nothing.
I feel nothing.
I desire nothing.