Mandala of the Four Directions:
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| North Ensemble (divided into 4 duos): Soprano Saxophone doubling Alto Saxophone Horn in F Guitar doubling Banjo Harp Percussion (1 player) Viola Cello Double Bass |
East Ensemble: 2 Trumpets in C Horn in F Trombone Tuba Percussion (1 player) |
| South Ensemble: Bayan Mandolin Percussion (1 player) 2 Violins Viola Cello |
West Ensemble: 4 Clarinets in Bb (2 doubling Bass Clarinet in Bb) Percussion (1 player) |
Spatial setup, coordination, and choreography
Each of the four ensembles should have its own conductor. They are to be coordinated using a live video feed on the conductor of the North ensemble, viewed by the other conductors on individual video monitors. Only the North ensemble should be directly visible to the audience. The other ensembles are positioned behind screens of thin muslin or another sound-permeable material. The East and West screens will be used for the film projections which accompany the Long Healing Prayer.
The positions of ‘North’, ‘East’, ‘South’, and ‘West’ are relative to the construction of the performance space. It would be preferable, however, to find a space that is aligned with the cardinal directions. In any case, the performance area should be flat with approximately 50 to 70 feet between antipodal ensembles. A perfect location would be a large courtyard with high reverberant walls. Possible indoor spaces would include a warehouse, large barn, or gymnasium. The center of the space is reserved as a performance area for the singers during the opening invocations, and from the Long Healing Prayer until the last section. There should be clear pathways from the center of the space to the four outer points, so that the singers can easily move along them. During the central core of the piece, the four singers are positioned in front of their respective ensembles at the outer points (in front of the screens, in the case of the ‘veiled’ ensembles).
During the Entrance Music, the singers will enter from behind the East screen and proceed to the center of the space. After invoking each of the directions, the singers will depart to the outer points. During the Climactic Interlude they will walk slowly back to the center, where they will remain until the last narration is finished. At that point, during the latter part of the“ Midnight Turning” section, the singers will proceed ceremonially back to the East position and disappear behind the screen.
The ‘North’ ensemble is treated as an altar representing a unity between all the groups, with a duo linked to each of the four directions. In a fully choreographed performance, each duo will be visited by a dancer representing the given direction/element, during the opening section in which that direction is invoked. In each case, the dancer will enter from behind a screen at the position of the direction called upon. The dancer then moves clockwise around the perimeter of the space, places a stone in front of the corresponding duo at the ‘North’ altar, then continues to move clockwise to the point of origin. Other dance elements are to be developed in collaboration with a choreographer.
DJ
While it is possible to perform this piece independently with no electroacoustic aspect, the all-night vigil context invites collaboration with a turntablist DJ. The DJ setup should be in the center of the ‘North’ ensemble, equidistant from all the duos. During any of the following instrumental sections, a DJ may mix in recorded sounds related to the element or elements that are evoked by the music:
For the Long Healing Prayer, the DJ is to find a small pool of sounds to scratch with. Using a variety of fader techniques with the mixer, the scratching should be well blended with the instrumental parts and never dominate the texture. The DJ should be well acquainted with the mixed-meter rhythmic cycle in this section, locking in with it and adding improvisational syncopation.
During the final Midnight Turning section, it is intended that the DJ should mix in a complimentary rhythmic track and improvise with scratching on top of the live instruments before taking over the music completely. Sounds used in this section might include loops derived from samples of music heard earlier in the piece. In order to control newly recorded sounds with vinyl, it is recommended that the DJ setup include Stanton Final Scratch. This program allows the performer to manipulate digitally recorded sound in real time, using normal turntables and mixer with specially grooved records.
Opening mantras: (all 4 voices, independently)
ALLAH’U’ABHA
-Baha’i
OM
-Hindu/Buddhist
AVE MARIA
-Catholic
HARE RAMA
-Hindu
BISMILLAH AL-RAHMAN AL-RAHIM
-Muslim
ADONAI
-Jewish
OM TARE TUTARE TURE SOHA
-Buddhist
Invocations: (all 4 voices, together)
1. By the Air that is Her breath,
Powers of the East, send forth your light!
2. By the Fire that is Her spirit,
Powers of the South, send forth your flame!
3. By the Waters of Her living womb,
Powers of the West, send forth your flow!
4. By the Earth that is Her body,
Powers of the North, send forth your strength!
-Wiccan: adapted from Starhawk
[Text Copyright Ó Harper Collins, New York, 1979. Used by permission.]
“The Vigil”: (baritone narration)
Don’t go to sleep one night.
What you want most will come to you then.
Warmed by a sun inside, you’ll see wonders.
Tonight, don’t put your head down.
Be tough, and strength will come.
That which adoration adores appears at night.
Those asleep may miss it.
One night Moses stayed awake
and asked, and saw a light in a tree.
Then he walked at night for ten years,
until finally he saw the whole tree illuminated.
Muhammad rode his horse through the night sky.
The day is for work. The night for love.
Don’t let someone bewitch you.
Some people sleep at night.
But not lovers.
They sit in the dark and talk to God,
who told David, Those who sleep all night and every night
and claim to be connected to us, they lie.
Lovers can’t sleep when they feel the privacy
of the Beloved all around them.
Someone who’s thirsty may sleep for a little while,
but he or she will dream of water. A full jar beside a creek,
or the spiritual water you get from another person.
All night, listen to the conversation. Stay up.
This moment is all there is.
Death will take it away soon enough.
You’ll be gone and this earth will be left
without a sweetheart, nothing but weeds growing inside thorns.
I’m through. Read the rest of this poem in the dark tonight.
Do I have a head? And feet?
-Jalalu’ddin Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
[Text Copyright Ó HarperCollins, New York, 1995. Used by permission.]
Antiphonal Refrain: (all 4 voices)
…somateeKA stoichEIa poiEI TEttara. Poor kai aEra kai HOOdor kai gayn, AIdeea men ONta, plAYthei de kai oleeGOtaytee metaBAllonta katA tayn sOOngkreeseen kai deeAkreeseen, … PhiLEEan kai NEIkoss.
[four physical elements: fire, air, water, and earth,
which are eternal, changing, by reason of large or small quantities present, by the process of compounding or dissolving, …Friendship and Strife.]
-Theophrastus, ancient Greek pronunciation guide and translation by Prof. Glenn Storey (University of Iowa)
[Used by permission, with many thanks to Dr. Storey for his assistance.]
Water Motet: (soprano, tenor, baritone)
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
-Psalms 137:1
Your lovers thirst, O my Lord, lead them to the wellspring of bounty and grace.
-Abdu’l-Baha, translated by Shoghi Effendi
[Text Copyright Ó by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, 1954. Used by permission.]
“Water of Life”: (mezzo-soprano)
Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal,
flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
through the middle of the street of the city;
also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit,
yielding its fruit each month;
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
-Revelation 22
“Mindfulness of Breathing”: (all 4 voices)
He trains thus:
“I shall breathe in experiencing the whole body,
I shall breathe out experiencing the whole body,”
He trains thus:
“I shall breathe in tranquilizing the bodily formation,
I shall breathe out tranquilizing the bodily formation,”
He trains thus:
“I shall breathe in experiencing the mental formation,
I shall breathe out experiencing the mental formation,”
He trains thus:
“I shall breathe in tranquillizing the mental formation,
I shall breathe out tranquillizing the mental formation.”
-Visuddhimagga by Buddhaghosa (interpretations of and commentaries on the teachings of the Buddha, written in Ceylon in the 5th century AD), translation from “Mindfulness of Breathing” by Michael Parsons
[Text Copyright Ó Michael Parsons, 1969. Used sans permission.]
“The Breeze at Dawn”: (soprano)
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.
-Jalalu’ddin Rumi
[Text Copyright Ó HarperCollins, New York, 1995. Used by permission.]
“O People of Justice”: (tenor)
that blazed in the Burning Bush!
The brightness of the fire of your love will no doubt fuse
and unify the contending peoples and kindreds of the earth,
whilst the fierceness of the flame of enmity and hatred
cannot but result in strife and ruin.
We beseech God that He may shield His creatures
from the evil designs of His enemies.
He verily hath power over all things.
-Baha’u’llah, translated by Shoghi Effendi
[Text Copyright Ó by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, 1954. Used by permission.]
“Grandmother Earth”: (baritone)
Upon You, Grandmother Earth, I shall build the sacred path of life.
By purifying ourselves for the people, we shall walk this path with firm steps,
For it is the path leading even to Wakan Tanka. Upon this path there are four steps which are sacred.
May my people walk this path! May we be pure! May we live again!
- Black Elk, recorded and translated by Joseph Epes Brown
[Text Copyright Ó the University of Oklahoma Press, 1953. Used by permission.]
Long Healing Prayer: (all 4 voices)
He is the Healer, the Sufficer, the Helper, the All-Forgiving, the All-Merciful. I call on Thee O Exalted One, O Faithful One, O Glorious One! Thou the Sufficing, Thou the Healing, Thou the Abiding, O Thou Abiding One! I call on Thee O Sovereign, O Upraiser, O Judge! Thou the Sufficing, Thou the Healing, Thou the Abiding, O Thou Abding One! I call on Thee O Peerless One, o Eternal One, O Single One! Thou the Sufficing, Thou the Healing, Thou the Abiding, O Thou Abiding One! I call on Thee O Most Praised One, O Holy One, O Helping One! Thou the Sufficing, Thou the Healing, Thou the Abiding, O Thou Abiding One! I call on Thee O Omniscient, O Most Wise, O Most Great One! Thou the Sufficing, Thou the Healing, Thou the Abiding, O Thou Abiding One! I call on Thee O Clement One, O Majestic One, O Ordaining One! Thou the Sufficing, Thou the Healing, Thou the Abiding, O Thou Abiding One! I call on Thee O Beloved One, O Cherished One, O Enraptured One! Thou the Sufficing, Thou the Healing, Thou the Abiding, O Thou Abiding One!
[continues on]
-Baha’u’llah
[Text Copyright Ó by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, 1954. Used by permission.]
“How can I choose to sleep”: (tenor)
How can I choose to sleep, O God, my God, when the eyes of them that long for thee are wakeful because of their separation from thee?And how can I lie down to rest when the souls of thy lovers are sore vexed in their remoteness from thy presence?
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious!
-Baha’u’llah
[Text Copyright Ó by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, 1954. Used by permission.]
Parting words: (mezzo-soprano)
Stay together, friends.
Don’t scatter and sleep.
Our friendship is made
of being awake.
The waterwheel accepts water
and turns and gives it away,
weeping.
Stay here, quivering with each moment
like a drop of mercury.
- Jalalu’ddin Rumi
[Text Copyright Ó HarperCollins, New York, 1995. Used by permission.]