'Precepts' speaks to present
Composer Stephen Hartke faced a dilemma while he was conceiving a piece commissioned by the Cantata Singers. It had to fit comfortably on a program with Bach cantatas, which means it would have to involve sacred texts. The problem is, Hartke says, he's generally uninterested in writing religious music.
What did appeal to him was the idea of setting a series of common moral teachings reflected in the Bible. In his search for texts he came across a passage from the Book of Proverbs. Titled "Wisdom Personified " in the New English Bible's translation, it's a vivid portrait of Wisdom as an angry figure desperate to catch the attention of the masses, who ignore her. The image caught his imagination.
"She's rushing around," says Hartke, 54, over the phone from his home in California, "haranguing people, saying, 'Listen to me, listen to me. And because you're not listening to me, you're going to suffer.' "
The result was an anthem titled "Wisdom Cries Aloud in the Open Air." It and a Latin motet form "Precepts," which the Cantata Singers will premiere tonight on a program with a concerto and two cantatas by Bach.
"Precepts" is a co-commission with Winsor Music, whose artistic director, Peggy Pearson , is the longtime oboist in the Cantata Singers' orchestra. Her instrument would play a significant role in the piece, and Hartke realized that it could take on the role of Wisdom herself. "The oboe is like a person moving in a crowd," he says. "You see her head popping up from time to time, buttonholing people."
He also inserted a line from a different section of Proverbs as a kind of commentary: "An ignorant ruler brings harm to his people." To drive his theme home even more clearly, he added some text from Lamentations as well: "To trample underfoot prisoners in the land / To deprive a man of his rights. . . / To pervert justice in the courts / This the Lord does not approve."
Given the pointed nature of the words, it's not surprising that the music Hartke conceived for "Wisdom Cried" is pointed and dissonant, with a lot of jagged counterpoint and the oboe darting in and out of the complicated texture.
For the motet, "Non Negabis Mercedem Indigentis," Hartke chose a Latin translation of a passage from Deuteronomy. It begins, "Do not keep back the wages of the poor and needy, whether your fellow countryman or an alien living in your lands and settlements." Here the music is softer, the voices knitted more closely together. That's a specific response to the text, which is more in the spirit of a gentle admonition, though its message, he says, is simple and direct: "You should pay them at the end of the day, because they need it. They're poor. It's as simple as that."
The contemporary resonance of the "Precepts" texts is unmistakable, and Hartke isn't shy about offering his views on the issues they reflect. ("Karl Rove might put me on a no-fly list," he jokes.) But the political subtexts of the piece are, he says, "really something of a side issue, as far as I'm concerned. Generally, my interests in choosing texts center on ones that have a potential for resonance across the ages and cultures."
That's a stance that seems apt for Hartke, whose knowledge is prodigious and wide-ranging. His musical voice is difficult to label with conventional categories: It is unmistakably modern yet bears echoes of the Renaissance and Middle Ages. Two beautiful and mysterious works that embody this era-crossing aesthetic are "Tituli" and "Cathedral in the Thrashing Rain. " Both were written for the Hilliard Ensemble, a vocal quartet, and have been recorded on the ECM label.
This brings up one more essential aspect of his composing: his preference for writing for performers he knows well. Their sound leaves a deep imprint on the music, something that was especially true with the Hilliards. "When I sent them the score [of 'Cathedral' ], it didn't have the names of the voice categories on the staves. It had the names of the singers on them. I was thinking very specifically of their color."
The same holds true for "Precepts." "I had the sound of both Peggy Pearson and the Cantata Singers in my ear as I was working, which was a delightful situation and very inspiring."
Tonight at Jordan Hall; 617-868-5885 , cantatasingers.org
