Stephen Albert - To Wake the Dead (3/3)

Stephen Albert (1941-1992)
To Wake the Dead (1978)

I. How it ends
II. Riverrun ("The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly")
III. Pray your prayers
IV. Instruments (Voice Tacet)
V. Forget, Remember
VI. Sod's brood, Mr. Finn
VIII. Passing Out

Lucy Shelton, soprano
21st Century Consort
Christopher Kendall, conductor

To Wake the Dead is based on excerpts from Finnegans Wake (1939) by James Joyce. Joyce's work is infamous for being one of literature's most challenging, if not incomprehensible, novels ... One of the attractions of Finnegans Wake for the composer is that the language, while obscure so much of the time, is informed by rich imagery, a mysterious atmosphere, and an almost hypnotic rhythm. As the language of the novel is kin to the language of dreams, it seemed an intriguing prospect to translate this dream-state into something more palpable, less surreal. The music tries to offset the dissociated and fragmented sensibility by speaking in a relatively direct manner which is strongly melodic and tonal throughout ... The texts of the songs were chosen for their relative clarity and unified theme (Birth, Death, and Transfiguration). The music of the cycle is largely based on the only tune that Joyce includes in Finnegans Wake. It is quoted in its entirety in the opening of the second movement, where it is given a music-box setting to Joyce's version of 'Humpty Dumpty.' To conclude, a few thoughts from Joseph Campbell's book A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake (1944) might be useful: 'Tim Finnegan of the old vaudeville song is an Irish hod carrier [a laborer who assists bricklayers on the job] who gets drunk, falls off a ladder, and is apparently killed. His friends hold a deathwatch over his coffin; during the festivities someone splashes him with whisky, at which Finnegan comes to life again and joins in the general dance ... Finnegan's fall from the ladder is hugely symbolic: it is Lucifer's fall, Adam's fall, the setting sun that will rise again, the fall of Rome, a Wall Street crash. It is Humpty Dumpty's fall, and the fall of Newton's apple. It is the irrigating shower of spring rain that falls on seeded fields. And it is every man's daily recurring fall from grace ... It is by Finn's coming again (Finn-again) -- in other words, by the reappearance of the hero -- that strength and hope are provided for mankind.' ~ Art of the States

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Music

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