messages
(2024)
for solo mezzo-soprano, SATB choir, percussion, and string orchestra
TEXT
Movement 1: He sent
after 2 Chronicles 36:15
He sent messenger after messenger,
prophet after prophet,
judge after judge,
king after king
and you never listened.
Because He loved them, he sent these messengers,
but the people never listened.
Movement 2: They sat at our table
Excerpt from the Mayan Account of the Spanish Conquest (1540-1546) in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel
The following text has been further excerpted in the performed work.
When they came,
They arrived from the east.
When Christianity began also,
In the east was its word completed.
Heaven Born Merida
Was the seat of the katun.
This is the account of what occurred, Of what they did. . . .
When misery came,
When Christianity came
From these many Christians
Who arrived
With the true divinity,
The True God.
For this indeed was the beginning of misery
For us,
The beginning of tribute,
The beginning of tithes,
The beginning of strife over purse snatching,
The beginning of strife with blowguns, The beginning of strife over promotions,
The beginning of the creation of many factions, The beginning of forced seizure for debts,
The beginning of forced imprisonment for debts, The beginning of village strife,
The beginning of misery and affliction, The beginning of forcible separation,
The beginning of forced labor for the Spaniards And the sun priests,
Forced labor for the town chiefs, Forced labor for the teachers,
Forced labor for the public prosecutors, By the boys,
The youths of the towns, While the force of great suffering Afflicted the suffering people.
These were the very poor,
These were the very poor who did not rebel
At the oppression
That was inflicted on them.
This was the Antichrist Here on earth,
The Earth Lions of the towns, The Foxes of the towns,
The Bedbugs of the towns
Are the bloodsuckers of the poor peasants here.
For indeed the time is coming soon Of the day of the coming
Of tears to the eyes And the presence
Of our Lord Who is God.
The justice of our Lord God will descend
Everywhere
In the world.
God will be very angry
And something will come
From Yellow Death
And the Destroying Spirit,
The oppressors
On the face of this earth.
Movement 3: I was like you
Inspired by Kao Khalia Yang’s letter to a refugee child going to ‘a better place’
Many years ago,
I was like you.
I was six years old
and my mother took my left hand firmly in her right.
We were in a line,
It was my first time on such a journey
and I was leaving everything I knew behind.
It was all I knew.
Grandmother told me stories
of a life before the war,
of mountains so high
they grew into the sky.
I was scared.
A stranger sat beside us.
He looked straight ahead.
My stomach was full of air.
My heart was heavy with tears.
I couldn’t cry.
Movement 4: I love you, girl
Excerpt from 'Ascension' by Caleb Simon (Worcestershire’s Young Poet Laureate 2023) & Psalm 46:6 from Clementine Vulgate
I love you, girl,
Laying down roots like skipping ropes,
Knowing that they’ll soon be torn from the earth,
But you’ll thrive in a bigger pot.
You lounge beneath the ferns,
Bathed in the midday sun
That washes away the sins that were never yours to bear.
[…]
I love you, girl,
Budding like a plastic rose,
Brimming with yet to ‘be’s and ‘never will’s,
Stretch out your branches in a languid wave
And promise to return to your first temple,
A land of beetles, hope and moss,
Your hair that snags on twigs as you climb
Will only trap you for so long,
Until you hoist yourself skyward,
Up! Up! Up!
Escape the canopy and rise,
But promise you’ll come back.
Ascendit Deus in jubilatione, et Dominus in voce tubae.
Dedit dona hominibus.
Dominus in caelo paravit sedem suam.
Alleluia.
Movement 5: This place is a message
Excerpt from a public report from Sandia National Laboratories (1993) for long-term nuclear waste warning messages & Psalm 53 from Clementine Vulgate
This place is a message...
Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.
This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here.
The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.
The danger is to the body, and it can kill.
Deus, in nomine tuo salvum me fac, et in virtute tua judica me.