Rising – Ratniece, My soul will sink within me
Santa Ratniece – My soul will sink within me
Sunrise, Thursday April 9
I will remember this over and over
and my soul will sink within me.
From this brief moment in the life of St. Clare, Santa Ratniece drew her title and inspiration for her work My soul will sink within me - the seventh and final of our Seven Responses – a companion piece to Buxtehude's cantata, To the Face. Santa's color world is extraordinary, unique, mesmerizing. Her music has already been heard in Rising w/, and here she is again. Because: Santa. We just love to sing it. Sweetness. Memory. Mirror.
What you hold, may you continue to hold
That color world is a collage of micro-tuning and textures that seem to be perpetually gathering and disintegrating, while the music feels like it is moving in a specific direction. It's as if the music itself yearns "toward." The entire first half of the work reaches endlessly upward until, at those title words, I will remember..., there is a turn from without to within. The long descent downward commences, floating through clouds of color, till finally there is a great congregation of voices as the harp begins a simple yet protracted sinking into what feels like the oblivion of our memory - things we knew we knew, but are beyond words. It is music that looks deeply inward. Santa writes:
All the lyrics in some way reflect The Face in many dimensions. We can see our faces only in the mirror. St. Clare is diving deeply into the mirror of Eternity.
Here is melancholy. And longing.
It looks within and finds desire.
Stay well...just as I very much desire to stay well,
and be sure to remember both me and my sisters
- The Whole Team @ The Crossing
My soul will sink within me
music by Santa Ratniece
words from letters of St. Clare of Assisi to Blessed Agnes of Prague, 1253
recorded live in concert at Seven Responses
June 25, 2016 at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral
commissioned by board member Eric Owens for The Crossing and Donald Nally
with the International Contemporary Ensemble
audio by Paul Vazquez of Digital Mission Audio Services
* * *
Look into this mirror every day,
O queen, spouse of Jesus Christ,
And continually examine your face in it,
So that in this way you may adorn yourself completely,
Inwardly and outwardly,
Clothed and covered in multicolored apparel,
Adorned in the same manner
With flowers and garments
Made of all the virtues as is proper,
Dearest daughter and spouse of the most high King.
Moreover, in this mirror shine blessed poverty,
Holy humility, and charity beyond words,
As you will be able, with God's grace,
To contemplate throughout the entire mirror.
–The fourth letter of St.Clare of Assisi to Blessed Agnes of Prague, 1253
Valete in Domino et oretis pro me.
(Farewell in the Lord. And pray for me)
–The first letter of St.Clare of Assisi to Blessed Agnes of Prague, 1234
Vale, carissima filia, cum filiabus tuis usque ad thronum gloriae magni Dei et optate pro nobis.
(Farewell, dearest daughter, together with your own daughters, until we meet at the throne of glory of the great God, and pray for us)
–The fourth letter of St.Clare of Assisi to Blessed Agnes of Prague, 1253
What you hold, may you continue to hold,
What you do, may you keep doing and not stop,
But with swift pace, nimble step, and feet
That do not stumble so
That even your walking does not raise any dust.
–The second letter of St.Clare of Assisi to Blessed Agnes of Prague, 1235-38
I will remember this over and over
and my soul will sink within me.
–The fourth letter of St.Clare of Assisi to Blessed Agnes of Prague, 1253
Place your mind in the mirror of eternity;
Place your soul in the splendor of glory;
Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance;
And, through contemplation,
Transform your entire being
Into the image of the Divine One himself,
So that you, yourself,
May also experience
What his friends experience
When they taste the hidden sweetness
That God alone has kept from the beginning
For those who love him.
Vale semper in Domino, sicut me valere peropto, et tam me quam meas sorores tuis sacris orationibus recommenda.
(Stay well, always in the Lord, just as I very much desire to stay well, and be sure to remember both me and my sisters in your holy prayers)
–The third letter of St.Clare of Assisi to Blessed Agnes of Prague, 1238