While discussing this new work for Conspirare, Craig and I spoke about many ideas surrounding themes of community, nature, compassion, and healing. He expressed interest in creating a sonic space that united the singers and audience in collective feelings of compassion and grief. This idea resonated with me and these communal aspects brought to mind the concept of a liturgical service.

Many composers throughout history have written liturgical works such as masses, requiems, and cantatas. Many of these settings come from Christian liturgy with text in Latin. There are also many secular masses that are not written specifically for a liturgical purpose nor have text exclusively in Latin. In very recent years, composers such as Sarah Kirkland Snider (Mass the Endangered) and Carlos Simon (Requiem for the Enslaved) have further expanded these forms by weaving in elements of social justice.

I was inspired by my contemporaries to combine the old with the new and bring a piece of my identity and tradition into this work. As a result, rather than using the Christian liturgy, “Sacred Place” is based on the Jewish service. Additionally, while each movement is titled after a different pillar of a Jewish service, none of the text is in Hebrew. Instead, I stitched together the writings of several American environmentalists and poets who have spoken about their relationship with the earth.

“Sacred Place” is broken into 6 movements: “Opening Prayer”, “Amidah”, “Shema”, “Mi Sheberach”, “Kaddish”, and “Closing Prayer”.

“Opening Prayer” and “Closing Prayer” use the same serene Wendall Berry passage from the poem “The Porch Over the Swing”. “Amidah” (to stand) uses snippets of a letter written by John Muir to Theodore Roosevelt asking him to meet at Yosemite National Park. Muir pleads Roosevelt to “stand” with him in preserving this land. “Shema” (to listen) uses a poem by William Stafford who urges us to listen to what the earth is saying. “Mi Sheberach” (a prayer for the sick) is the only English translation of the Hebrew prayer in the work. In the Jewish service, the Mi Sheberach is often the emotional peak as it asks for the congregation to pray “for those in need of healing”. (There is a beautiful Debbie Friedman version of the song that is often sung.) I view this movement as a call to action for us as inhabitants of the earth to do our part to heal it. Finally, “Kaddish” (a prayer for the dead) uses a very short line from the Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore speaking about the sunset as a metaphor for remembering those who are no longer with us.

The title “Sacred Place” holds many meanings. Each writer that I have chosen views the earth as sacred. They speak of us as inhabitants, as visitors. Without the earth, there is no us. Another dimension is the experience that the listener has while hearing the piece live. It is not a coincidence that a piece framed in a Jewish service is being performed in a Lutheran church. I find it beautiful that the audience will be entering one sacred space with its own history and religious traditions and experiencing elements of another culture’s service. There is a deep unifying power in collective listening that transcends a single person or a single group’s traditions. I am thinking about the concept of the “service” in the broadest sense: coming together to sit, listen, breathe, and understand. The audience is entering a sacred space within themselves, silently resonating with those around them.