Product Description
This is the Vocal Score with Piano reduction of William Hawley's Songs of Kabir, in the composer's revised computer engraving of the original manuscript used in the World Premiere Performance (Lauren Wagner, Soprano, Kevin Helppie, Baritone, the Seattle Choral Company Chorus and Orchestra, Fred Coleman, Conductor, Meany Hall, Seattle, June 4, 1995).
The work is a 30-minute single-movement setting of poems by Kabir, the 15th Century Indian poet, in the English translations of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941).
A second performance, with Heather Meyer, Soprano, Raymond Martinez, Baritone, the West Marin Festival Chorus and Orchestra, Carol Negro, Conductor, was given in Angelico Hall, San Rafael, California, April 21, 2000 (no recording available).
Composer's note in the printed program for the West Marin performance:
"Songs of Kabir is a setting of the poetry of the great 15th Century mystic poet and saint of India known by the single name of Kabir. Little is known of Kabirs life, other than that he was born in or near Benares, India, probably in the year 1440, lived until 1518, and was the actual or adopted son of a Muslim weaver. He became the disciple of the Hindu master Ramananda, and lead a life devoted to spiritual realization through poetry. His work speaks eloquently across the centuries to modern Western audiences, as it is universal in scope, and includes among its influences the Persian mystics Rumi and Hafiz, as well as Christian sources and those of his native philosophy of Brahmanism.
Reading the excellent English translations by the modern Indian author Rabindranath Tagore, I was drawn immediately to Kabirs expression of divine aspiration cloaked in the language of romantic love, so like the Medieval courtly poets of Europe, who intermingled and even equated spiritual desire with its emotional and physical counterparts. I conceived of a work for soloists, chorus, and orchestra which would illustrate these wonderful verses on a somewhat large scale, yet with the intimacy the poetry itself evokes, and have freely set several of Tagores translations, forming a single movement in which the varied modes of the poets expression are linked in a continuous musical fabric." --William Hawley, March, 2000
The following PDF files are also available at SMP Press:
1. Full Score
2. Set of Orchestral Parts:
2 Flutes
2 Oboes
2 Clarinets in Bb
2 Bassoons
2 Horns in F
2 Trumpets in Bb
2 Trombones
Bass Trombone
Timpani
1 Percussion (Three Triangles (Sm., Med., Lrg.). Large Suspended Symbal, Glockenspiel) Celesta
Harp
Strings (with permission to copy multiple String Parts as required. Suggested minimum strings: 6,6,4,4,2 for a Chorus of 32 singers):
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Violoncello
Contrabass
The Vocal Score is formatted for 8.5" X 11" Letter Size printing. The Full Score and Orchestral Parts are formatted for printing on 9" X 12" Concert Size paper, but may readily be printed at 8.5" X 11" Letter Size or A4 by selecting "Fit" or "Shrink Oversized Pages" in Adobe Acrobat, Acrobat Reader, or other PDF printing application.
The mp3 audio file included with the Full Score and the Vocal Score contains the complete recording of the World Premiere with Lauren Wagner, Soprano, Kevin Helppie, Baritone, the Seattle Choral Company Chorus and Orchestra, Fred Coleman, Conductor, Meany Hall, Seattle, June 4, 1995. Performance duration of the work: 30 minutes. ASCAP
https://williamhawley.net
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