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“Mioritza - Requiem for Rachel Corrie”
for trombone and tape (2003)
I created Mioritza in memory of Rachel Corrie,the 23-year-old
American peace activist who on16 March 2003 was murdered by an Israeli
forces bulldozer while attempting to defend a Palestinian doctor's
home from demolition. Many innocent Israelis and innocent Palestinians
have been killed during the Israeli occupation; this young American
had come there to help in peace-making and defending the innocent. And
so when Monique Buzzarté asked me to write a piece, I decided
to dedicate the work to Rachel Corrie's memory. I took the title
“Mioritza” from a traditional Romanian poem of that
name, which translates into English as “the clarivoyant
lamb.” The piece begins in a slow sarabande rhythm in a beat of
three, with the emphasis on the second beat. Towards the middle of the
piece the performer sings through the trombone an Indian raga melody
with a phrase in Sanskrit: “Vittala, vittala, vittala, vittala: Deva
vittala, Deva vittala...” which means roughly “glory to
God.” I created the tape part using C-Sound and ProTools. The
music and the poem, printed below, can be experienced separately or
together; they are two different expressions of my reaction to
Rachel's martyrdom in the cause of peace.
-- A.S.
Mioritza
Yeast, foam, froth, spume,
the subject of exaltation,
I am a sheet of floating ice, the forehead of the morning.
I am a place for the washing of clothes,
a breathing water for the washing of feet,
in sunset a sistrum of light on the waves,
the rim thereon finished off in gold between the breasts,
admired even where the gods gather together
to thrust back the fastening of a gate
in air.
I am a cloud or body of mist,
epithet of sleep, sweet, grateful, refreshing,
the cloud-gatherer
from which one is not easily
roused.
Fragrant to lay ahold of,
kindly welcome,
from beyond where the water wells up
from the dark,
with your swanshift of feathers
over the surface of the earth the heavens revolve,
spinning
over the axis of symmetry
about which the body is arranged,
engirdled by the cerulean fields on high,
enravishing,
dyeing the world azure in a bath of bliss,
the marvelling echo streaming
from the sky
-- Alice Shields
Biography
One of the woman pioneers of electronic music, since 1964 Alice
Shields has created works including some of the first electronic
operas, as well as computer pieces for dance and vocal and
instrumental music. She received a doctorate in music composition
from Columbia University, served as Associate Director of the
Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and as Director of
Development of the Columbia University Computer Music Center, and has
held faculty positions at New York University and Rutgers University.
Shields' recent works include Azure for flute, violin, viola, cello
and tape, premiered by the Azure Ensemble in April, 2003, Merkin Hall,
NYC; and large computer works for dance, including The Mud Oratorio,
commissioned by Dance Alloy of Pittsburgh and premiered at Frostburg
State University, MD in April, 2003; and Dust, commissioned by Dance
Alloy and the Arangham Dance Theatre of Madras, India, which premiered
in Pittsburgh in 2001 and toured India in 2002, performing in New
Delhi, Hyderabad, and Chennai (Madras). As a singer Shields has
performed roles with opera companies in the U.S. and abroad, including
the New York City Opera, the Opera Society of Washington, D.C. and the
Clarion Opera Society in Italy, and has performed as vocalist for
Indian classical dance (Bharata Natyam). Her music is recorded on
Koch International Classics, New World, CRI, and Albany Records (to be
released in 2004), and is published by Jilmar Music.
“Powering Up/Powering Down” is sponsored in part by the University
of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA), the Center for
Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA),
and the UC San Diego Department of Music in connection with the departments
of Visual Arts, Music, and Literature at UCSD along with the UC Riverside
and Los Angeles campuses.
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