Ruth Lomon

for flute, clarinet, oboe/english horn, bassoon, horn in F, timpani, percussion, harp, soprano, mezzo soprano, tenor, bass, baritone, violin, viola, cello, and bass

An oratorio for SATB chorus, SATB soloists, and chamber orchestra. There are 14 movements, any of which may be performed separately. The text for the oratorio is composed of poetry of victims and survivors of the Holocaust sung in six languages.

The first chorus, a Hebrew supplication from the 2nd century gives a historical perspective to the Testimony of Witnesses Oratorio. The baritone solo The Survivor tells of the guilt of the survivor. Mes Yeux describes poignantly the roundup of Jews in Paris where the poet lived. Lokomotywa is a child's poem about a wonderous train rushing through the countryside - but where is it going?

The following four sections are all poems of children who were in the Terezin concentration camp and the poems move from hope and will to live, to fear, and resignation. The first half of the oratorio concludes with the Sachs poem "We orphans, Oh world, we accuse you!"

After intermission the chorus Transport tells of forcing Jews into trains, children searching for their parents, arrival at the camp, as told in many voices. Poème Macabre describes the taunting and cruelty of a Kapo in a concentration camp. Gedale's Song speaks of hope for a new beginning in Israel 'where we shall be men among other men"

The last chorus Unite is a fragment of poem found in Terezin, a plea for a bright freedom.

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Ruth Lomon

for soprano, mezzo soprano, tenor and baritone accompanied by oboe/english horn and piano

ca. 1 hr 00'45"

Settings of poetry written by Holocaust victims and survivors. Composed in 1996 as a Fellow of the Bunting Institute/Harvard.

Poems in French, German and English. 10 songs.

Click here to view the score.

Click here to view the recording at New World Records.

Lois V Vierk

fore three tenor voices and three bass voices, with conductor

Kana was my first piece for multiples of like-instruments or voices. Soon after writing this short piece I composed TUSK for 18 trombones, Go Guitars for 5 electric guitars, then works for multiple cellos, multiple trumpets, etc. While composing this piece I was a composition student at California Institute of the Arts, and I was also playing ryuteki flute in the Gagaku (Japanese Court Music) ensemble at UCLA. I was very familiar with a Gagaku piece called Etenraku. Kana takes as its starting point the sung version of the flute part of etenraku. The sung version, called shoga, is not performed, but can be thought of as a kind of solfeggio of gestures. The player is supposed to learn and memorize the shoga first, before playing the melody on the flute and before looking at notation. In Kana, I started with the shoga syllables to Etenraku and developed textures of sound organized into three short sections: glissandi, which move into a rhythmic middle section, and then close with sung and whispered glissandi incorporating short rhythmic patterns.

There are some real words in the score. The intentional words are names of two of the instruments in the Gagaku orchestra, namely Taiko (big drum) and Hichiriki (double reed wind instrument).

Recorded live in concert by singers from California Institute of the Arts, conducted by the composer, at the Second Second Story Series, produced by the Independent Composers Association, Los Angeles 1978.

Click here to view the score.