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“Et conversus sum ut viderem vocem” (“Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me”) World Premier
Brett Carson, Text: Revelation 1:12-18

Our Music Director writes: “Brett Carson’s biography and many credentials may be found elsewhere in this program, so we’ll focus for a moment on this work. I have been privileged to work with Brett for several years as the accompanist at Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church, where I am currently the Music Director.  Brett has often astounded me with his technique, knowledge and creativity.  Then I began listening to his compositions. I was floored! This was an entirely new musical language to me.

A few months ago, Brett came to me with the idea of writing a new work for Diablo Choral Artists.  Without checking in with anyone, I immediately said “YES!”.  I knew that this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to learn a new musical dialect. And the Choral Artists have risen to the challenge.”

The composer writes, “I have had a fascination with the Biblical book of Revelation for many years, its imagery and dramatic intensity, its wrathful deity, great multitudes, cosmic cataclysm, and its theater of absolute universal transformation. For me, the actual “meaning” of the book is secondary. Scholars agree that it is one of many texts in the ancient genre of apocalyptic literature, forecasting the end of time (or perhaps the end of Rome) and seemingly written in a “code” to be understood by a select few, replete with number symbolism and references to the Jewish scriptures. Divorced from both the era and the culture of its intended audience, Revelation serves me as a continuously refreshing repository of images and ideas, an archetypal well of beasts and dragons. Almost every piece I’ve written over the last several years contains a reference or literal quotation from the book, but this is the first piece I’ve written that actually uses an excerpt as its sole libretto.”

“This composition combines choir and electronic sound, as a dramatization of a portion of the introductory chapter of the book, in which God reveals himself to John in a terrifying symbolic manifestation, declaring, among other things, the mind-boggling “I am the First and the Last”. As such, I’ve aimed for a sound-world both ancient and futuristic, at times reverent, at times overwhelming, invoking the transcendent majesty and impossibility of such a God. The choir serves as a collective One, speaking simultaneously as totality and plurality, the voice of a God who is not bound by our conventional understanding of space and time.”

We are honored to premiere this wonderful music today.

Sylvia Baba, soprano

 
et conversus sum ut viderem vocem quae loquebatur mecum et conversus vidi septem candelabra aurea
Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,

Chorus

 
et in medio septem candelabrorum similem Filio hominis vestitum podere et praecinctum ad mamillas zonam auream
and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
caput autem eius et capilli erant candidi tamquam lana alba tamquam nix et oculi eius velut flamma ignis His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;

et pedes eius similes orichalco sicut in camino ardenti et vox illius tamquam vox aquarum multarum

 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;

et habebat in dextera sua stellas septem et de ore eius gladius utraque parte acutus exiebat et facies eius sicut sol lucet in virtute sua

He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

Sylvia Baba, soprano

  
et cum vidissem eum cecidi ad pedes eius tamquam mortuus et posuit dexteram suam super me dicens
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid;

Chorus

  
noli timere ego sum primus et novissimus
I am the First and the Last.
et vivus et fui mortuus et ecce sum vivens in saecula saeculorum et habeo claves mortis et inferni I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

 

“Et conversus sum ut viderem vocem” (“Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me”) World Premier
Brett Carson, Text: Revelation 1:12-18

Our Music Director writes: “Brett Carson’s biography and many credentials may be found elsewhere in this program, so we’ll focus for a moment on this work. I have been privileged to work with Brett for several years as the accompanist at Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church, where I am currently the Music Director.  Brett has often astounded me with his technique, knowledge and creativity.  Then I began listening to his compositions. I was floored! This was an entirely new musical language to me.

A few months ago, Brett came to me with the idea of writing a new work for Diablo Choral Artists.  Without checking in with anyone, I immediately said “YES!”.  I knew that this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to learn a new musical dialect. And the Choral Artists have risen to the challenge.”

The composer writes, “I have had a fascination with the Biblical book of Revelation for many years, its imagery and dramatic intensity, its wrathful deity, great multitudes, cosmic cataclysm, and its theater of absolute universal transformation. For me, the actual “meaning” of the book is secondary. Scholars agree that it is one of many texts in the ancient genre of apocalyptic literature, forecasting the end of time (or perhaps the end of Rome) and seemingly written in a “code” to be understood by a select few, replete with number symbolism and references to the Jewish scriptures. Divorced from both the era and the culture of its intended audience, Revelation serves me as a continuously refreshing repository of images and ideas, an archetypal well of beasts and dragons. Almost every piece I’ve written over the last several years contains a reference or literal quotation from the book, but this is the first piece I’ve written that actually uses an excerpt as its sole libretto.”

“This composition combines choir and electronic sound, as a dramatization of a portion of the introductory chapter of the book, in which God reveals himself to John in a terrifying symbolic manifestation, declaring, among other things, the mind-boggling “I am the First and the Last”. As such, I’ve aimed for a sound-world both ancient and futuristic, at times reverent, at times overwhelming, invoking the transcendent majesty and impossibility of such a God. The choir serves as a collective One, speaking simultaneously as totality and plurality, the voice of a God who is not bound by our conventional understanding of space and time.”

We are honored to premiere this wonderful music today.

Sylvia Baba, soprano

 
et conversus sum ut viderem vocem quae loquebatur mecum et conversus vidi septem candelabra aurea
Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,

Chorus

 
et in medio septem candelabrorum similem Filio hominis vestitum podere et praecinctum ad mamillas zonam auream
and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
caput autem eius et capilli erant candidi tamquam lana alba tamquam nix et oculi eius velut flamma ignis His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;

et pedes eius similes orichalco sicut in camino ardenti et vox illius tamquam vox aquarum multarum

 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;

et habebat in dextera sua stellas septem et de ore eius gladius utraque parte acutus exiebat et facies eius sicut sol lucet in virtute sua

He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

Sylvia Baba, soprano

  
et cum vidissem eum cecidi ad pedes eius tamquam mortuus et posuit dexteram suam super me dicens
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid;

Chorus

  
noli timere ego sum primus et novissimus
I am the First and the Last.
et vivus et fui mortuus et ecce sum vivens in saecula saeculorum et habeo claves mortis et inferni I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.