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Song of Reconciliation (2018)
PREMIERE October 21, 2018 at St. John's United Methodist Church Lubbock, TX DURATION 6.5' |
This year, St. John’s is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a Reconciling Congregation. In honor of this important milestone, we have created this piece of music in order to sketch a map of what the reconciling journey can mean for LGBTQIA individuals and congregations like St. John’s. The journey is both deeply personal and highly political. It requires faith and involves a struggle for a spiritually grounded, affirmative message that is inclusive of all. This is reflected in the text and music of “Song of Reconciliation,” which attempts to capture the journey toward reconciliation at St. John’s and in the broader Church. Elyse Kahler and Alec Cattell worked together to create this piece. Here are some of their thoughts on the creative process:
Alec: One Sunday in early 2018, I made an announcement in church asking for ideas on how to mark St. John’s 20th anniversary as a Reconciling Congregation. Elyse caught me afterwards and suggested possibly writing a new piece for the occasion.
Elyse: My only caveat? I rarely write texts. Almost all of my sacred anthems are lifted directly from the Bible.
Alec: If Elyse was offering to write the music, I thought I might be up to the task of putting together a text.
Elyse: This sat on the back burner for me through most of the spring semester, both because I was busy, and also because I prefer putting music to existing text, rather than writing music and then trying to make text fit.
Alec: The challenge for me was keeping the text short. There is so much ground to cover when speaking about St. John’s reconciling journey. I have heard many stories from long-time members about important steps that were taken along the way, moments in which the St. John’s community was challenged to become more inclusive. Since part of the journey involved struggling with theology, I decided to write a prose poem that highlights certain passages from the Bible that are often used to condemn and exclude LGBTQIA persons. I wanted to counter these with passages that can be invoked to help build a community where everyone is accepted just as they are.
Elyse [Smiles]: Alec gave me a lot of words.
Alec [Smiles]: It is indeed true.
It’s certainly no Haiku.
It’s a lot of words.
Joking aside, the text takes the listener on a journey from a place of condemnation, shame, and despair to a place of Spirit-inspired, collective affirmation. The middle is where the difficult work of reconciliation happens, where humility, listening, and reflection are required in order to realize what is required of us: To love and celebrate God’s LGBTQIA children as part of God’s diverse and good creation.
Elyse: Alec and I sat down and discussed the text before I wrote a single note. I wanted the music to reflect the journey he wrote to the best of my ability. The opening section, full of the shame and despair, consists of spoken word and harsh chaos - devoid of the beauty of music. Next, soloists sing about the anguish so many people go through by themselves without a community to support them. Key signatures are said to have particular affectations to the emotions of the listener, and this opening section is in Eb minor, a key described as eliciting “feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depression, of the most gloomy condition of the soul.” Following a modulation to Eb major (a key of “love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God”), the entire choir joins to let us know we are not alone. After a lilting and joyful 6/8 section, the choir mirrors the opening chaos, but singing instead of speaking - everyone at their own pace, an aural representation of the individual conversations, both with ourselves and with others, that occur in pursuit of reconciliation.
Alec: When Elyse sent me the sheet music and an audio preview of the music she had created, I was in awe. I felt that she really managed to capture, musically, what the text was getting at emotionally. Listening to this piece, I hope you can hear, both in the words and in the notes, that the journey of reconciliation is complex, that it is challenging, but that it is worth it.
Alec: One Sunday in early 2018, I made an announcement in church asking for ideas on how to mark St. John’s 20th anniversary as a Reconciling Congregation. Elyse caught me afterwards and suggested possibly writing a new piece for the occasion.
Elyse: My only caveat? I rarely write texts. Almost all of my sacred anthems are lifted directly from the Bible.
Alec: If Elyse was offering to write the music, I thought I might be up to the task of putting together a text.
Elyse: This sat on the back burner for me through most of the spring semester, both because I was busy, and also because I prefer putting music to existing text, rather than writing music and then trying to make text fit.
Alec: The challenge for me was keeping the text short. There is so much ground to cover when speaking about St. John’s reconciling journey. I have heard many stories from long-time members about important steps that were taken along the way, moments in which the St. John’s community was challenged to become more inclusive. Since part of the journey involved struggling with theology, I decided to write a prose poem that highlights certain passages from the Bible that are often used to condemn and exclude LGBTQIA persons. I wanted to counter these with passages that can be invoked to help build a community where everyone is accepted just as they are.
Elyse [Smiles]: Alec gave me a lot of words.
Alec [Smiles]: It is indeed true.
It’s certainly no Haiku.
It’s a lot of words.
Joking aside, the text takes the listener on a journey from a place of condemnation, shame, and despair to a place of Spirit-inspired, collective affirmation. The middle is where the difficult work of reconciliation happens, where humility, listening, and reflection are required in order to realize what is required of us: To love and celebrate God’s LGBTQIA children as part of God’s diverse and good creation.
Elyse: Alec and I sat down and discussed the text before I wrote a single note. I wanted the music to reflect the journey he wrote to the best of my ability. The opening section, full of the shame and despair, consists of spoken word and harsh chaos - devoid of the beauty of music. Next, soloists sing about the anguish so many people go through by themselves without a community to support them. Key signatures are said to have particular affectations to the emotions of the listener, and this opening section is in Eb minor, a key described as eliciting “feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depression, of the most gloomy condition of the soul.” Following a modulation to Eb major (a key of “love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God”), the entire choir joins to let us know we are not alone. After a lilting and joyful 6/8 section, the choir mirrors the opening chaos, but singing instead of speaking - everyone at their own pace, an aural representation of the individual conversations, both with ourselves and with others, that occur in pursuit of reconciliation.
Alec: When Elyse sent me the sheet music and an audio preview of the music she had created, I was in awe. I felt that she really managed to capture, musically, what the text was getting at emotionally. Listening to this piece, I hope you can hear, both in the words and in the notes, that the journey of reconciliation is complex, that it is challenging, but that it is worth it.