Youtor
A Chain is Broken
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=Lg-b6ZHZ-90
A Chain is Broken • Music: Dominick DiOrio (b. 1984) • Text: Khashayar Tonekaboni • Devin Mercer, tenor soloist • Sonya Hayes, violin • Rebecca Ehren, piano • From the Arlington Chorale June 11, 2023 concert We Stand Together . • Dr. Ingrid Lestrud, Artistic Director • You can view the program from this concert here: https://www.arlingtonchorale.org/uplo... • Program Notes: • A Chain is Broken is a musical setting of an original poem, Earth’s Anthem, by Iranian-American author and poet Khashayar Tonekaboni (pen name Terry Pinaud). The poem is a creative reimagining of the poet’s own experience of starting a new life in the United States, after he moved here from Iran to study at Indiana University. In the poem, Tonekaboni writes in both Persian and English, as he illustrates the difficulties associated with finding a new way when he was also gradually learning to understand a new language. As the poem progresses, its initial uncertainty turns to feelings of aspiration, optimism, and joy, even while still recognizing that “with freedom comes a cost.” • The music is also aspirational in its trajectory, moving from the opening murkiness in which a tenor soloist is heard over a foggy confusion of English words to an ever more powerful clarity infused with rhythmic propulsion and an energetic drive. • The work was written by DiOrio for NOTUS—the contemporary vocal ensemble at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music—to perform at the 12th World Symposium on Choral Music in Auckland, an opportunity which sadly never came to pass because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The commissioning of the music and the text were both made possible with support from the Indiana University New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Extraordinary Opportunity program. And it is dedicated fondly to those thirty-one students who would have originally brought it to life, if we had been able to travel and sing safely. • Dominick DiOrio (May 2020) • Text: • Gham daaram, Maadar • Kojayee, Pédar? • Gharibeh-am keh dar • Beyneh gharibeh-haast • I’m sad, Mother • Where are you, Father? • I’m a stranger • Among strangers • Deerooz, baa ham boodeem • Deerooz, khandeh • Chehreh-ye Maadar, key fe da kardeh • Khaterehi tanh be yneh sedaahaast • Yesterday, we were together • Yesterday, there was laughter • Mother’s countenance and her sacrifice • Are but memories among the voices • Cheh meegooyand? • Cheh meeporsand? • Beh cheh meekhandand? • Gom-sho deh injaa tanhaast • What are they saying? • What are they asking? • What makes them laugh? • He who is lost is here alone • Do they understand? • A smile and • A nod and • A barrier is crossed • And I see unity • Of ideas, of thoughts that brings • Laughter at laughable things • Together, engendering trust • A new world is at hand • New faces, new expressions • Together in diverse collections • An ocean of love and lust • For freedom stands • Facing me, embracing me • Carrying, chasing me • From maybe to must • Certainty replaces • Trepidation and fear • Friends and lovers are here • Laughing, crying, their faces embossed • With joy, with pain • Still, a chain is broken • And moods are spoken • But with freedom, comes a cost • Dearie bear the burden of • Standing on both feet and • Shouting to the world, taking a stand • I am no longer tossed • On the waves of will • Of others. I’ll speak • For me and mine, no longer meek • And for the globe whose crust • Is baked the love of all • Sometimes hidden • Some forbidden • But never is Mother thrust • In the dark of hate • For long when all the I’s • Proclaim Earth’s anthem never dies • Singing the stories of each of us.
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