WNMF 3: Worlds Within

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Knox United Church:

WNMF once again teams up with long-time collaborators Polycoro Chamber Choir – this time joined by Kamancello member Raphael Weinroth-Browne on cello – in a program of deeply personal, introspective musical creations, presented in the inviting and resonant Knox United Church.

Grammy-winning composer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Gilbertson’s choral work Returning explores what draws humans together, while WNMF 2024 distinguished guest composer Missy Mazzoli’s Year of Our Burning for vocal ensemble and cello presents a window into the mind of the artist during a time of great turmoil and deep isolation.

WNMF celebrates the life of the great Winnipeg-born composer Jocelyn Morlock, presenting her masterwork Exaudi, a stunning piece for vocal ensemble and cello that seeks meaning and empathy within the depths of grief.

Interspersed throughout the program are selections from Raphael Weinroth-Browne’s album for solo cello and electronics Worlds Within, each piece a richly atmospheric and wordless exploration of sound, space, and the complexities of our inner lives.

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Program Notes

Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Unending I / From Within II / Tumult I-II-III (2020) for solo cello & electronics

My first solo album Worlds Within is a continuous 40-minute piece for amplified cello, effects, and loop station. The composition is a variation set built from a very simple initial seed, gradually branching out and recreating itself in different forms. I think of it sometimes as the soundtrack to a life cycle, beginning from an unending ether (Unending I), emerging into innocence and wonder (From Within), growing into self-awareness (From Above) followed by chaos and upheaval (Tumult), making peace with what is (Fade [Afterglow]), and returning to the infinite (Unending II). I wanted the bookends to feel timeless and to reflect the passing of time from the perspective of nature. By contrast, I wanted the inner sections to have a fast-paced momentum, embodying human subjectivity and impatience.

Unending I represents the infinite, an endless ether. This piece illustrates an inchoate world, one without humanity. I wanted to express how the passage of time would be felt differently by forests, mountains, and rivers, in much larger intervals and without the strict metronomic clockwork that we as humans have imposed on it.

I’ve always felt From Within to be very evocative of nature, specifically the forest. The title suggests an inner world, the world we carry inside ourselves and the place where nascent ideas and thoughts take seed and eventually grow to tower over us. The piece opens with three melodic phrases which seem to pose questions that are left unanswered. The repeating groove that follows is akin to the inexorable passing of time and the cycles of nature, while the solo line that emerges and eventually takes centre stage represents the more subjective viewpoint of a human being attempting to navigate life. The ascending and atmospheric arpeggios in the final section signify the dissolution of previously held beliefs and flight beyond the shelter of the forest in search of renewed purpose and deeper truths.

Tumult I-II-III is a medley of the first three parts of the Tumult suite from Worlds Within. It is the dynamic apex of the album and contains some of the more metal-influenced sections as well as some percussion loops, which I create by tapping rhythmically on the bridge pickup and running the signal through a delay pedal. This results in a unique sound reminiscent of electronic/programmed drums, but with a more organic quality.

The piece opens with short, fragmented motifs, like disparate thoughts that slowly intertwine and form a tangled web, a mind lost in chaos and confusion. These repeating rhythmic loops are akin to insistent voices that echo over and over again. Each movement of the piece builds up from a single cell to a fully formed structure, dissolving almost as soon as it is complete, with musical themes reconstructing themselves again from nothing like old thoughts in a new guise. This triptych ends as it begins, emerging darkly triumphant from an arduous struggle.

—Raphael Weinroth-Browne

Michael Gilbertson – Returning (2015) for choir
Part I: What knits us
Part II: I thought of staying quiet

Michael Gilbertson’s 20-minute Returning is loosely based on the biblical story of Jonathan and David; exploring what draws one human to another.

Part I

What knits us
to the soul of another
the way dusk light becomes
a part of dankness returning

What connects us to a life
more than our own

What makes us choose

Night pours into sky
like the first rains
in a riverbed
colors of stone
made true by water

(David)

Your voice speaks now
as it spoke before
though what I hear more
the space between words
your breath preparing for sound

(Jonathan)

I think of what I forget
the slipping image of your hand
the rivers in your fingers formed
by the waters of use
currents carrying me towards you

Night pours into sky
like the first rains
in a riverbed
colors of stone
made true by water
If I speak to you now
could you hear
for the air around me
is like your nearness

You were always the wilderness
taste of the unknown berry
colors etched in my lips
foliage lush without water

What makes us choose

How many kinds of light
live in a night sky

Is light ever separate
from the time
it travels through

What connects to a life
more than our own

Part II

I thought of staying quiet
the night of the full moon

Air that night
like the colors of stone
made true by water

Before I spoke that night
I knew my father
would curse

If I had not asked you to speak
a lie

Why are there words
I cannot speak to your face
but only to your memory

would you still be alive

I thought of staying quiet
the night of the full moon

or a part of the silence
we come to know

For a moment
my silence
became my reign

Are you dead
because of my life

For a moment
my quiet
spoke king

Would you have ruled
better than I

For a moment
I let you die

What knits us
to the soul of another
the way dusk light becomes
a part of darkness returning

Tonight I look at the sky
and cannot find
the space between light and dark

Tonight I look at the sky
the space between light and dark
how the edge of one
becomes the edges of the other

Jocelyn Morlock – Exaudi (2004) for choir & cello

Exaudi explores a spectrum of emotional reactions to the words “exaudi orationem meam ad te omnis caro veniet.” As the music progresses, the cooler, ritualized aspects of the music are transformed into awe and terror, which gradually recede into something more calm. During the conclusion of the piece, which works like an extended coda, the cello solo becomes the main focus of the music. It is echoed and amplified by the sopranos, while the other voices have very simple chorale-like parts.

Exaudi was written for a concert about memory, mourning, and loss. My grandmother died in the year prior to me writing it…Exaudi is loosely based on her emotional and spiritual life as I saw it from a distance, in addition to being written out of love for her.
She lost her husband at a young age, and this relates to the meaning of the first half of the text, “Exaudi orationem meam,” which means “hear my prayer (or “hear me”), all flesh will come to you.”
At the beginning of the piece, this text is set as ritualized repetition of words from the requiem mass, but during the course of the first section of the piece these words become very specific, meaningful, and painful, describing my grandmother’s overwhelming sense of loss following the sudden death of her husband.

My grandmother lived to be almost 90. As she got older, the horror of death in general, and the painful nature of her grief, changed and faded. When she was much older, the idea of death became a more gentle thought to her, comforting, and possibly something to look forward to. She talked about perhaps being reunited with her husband after she died. (This is the second section, the In Paradisum section of the piece. That sense of comfort.) She used to joke about him seeing her and wondering who this old woman could possibly be…

—Jocelyn Morlock

Widely considered a masterpiece and of Jocelyn’s greatest works, Exaudi is presented on this program in tribute to Jocelyn and in celebration of her life and contribution to the musical arts. She was a great artist and a dear friend; she is deeply missed.

—Haralabos Stafylakis

Missy Mazzoli – Year of Our Burning (2021) for choir & cello
o Part One: Darkness
o Part Two: Blame
o Part Three: Alone
o Part Four: Rescue
o Part Five: Rebirth