JAMES RA

CONCERTO for THREE VIOLAS & STRINGS (2021)

I. Invocation

II. troubling deaf Heaven with my bootless cries

III. singing hymns at Heaven's gate

IV. Like to the lark at break of day arising

ca. 25 minutes

Commissioned by the New York Classical Players

for Jordan Bak, Ramón Carrero-Martínez, and En-Chi Cheng, Dongmin Kim conducting.

Premiered September 17, 2021, at W83 Auditorium, NYC, NY and September 18, 2021, in Jordan Hall, Boston, MA.

PROGRAM NOTES

I hope to express longing in music. It is the most intrinsic quality at the heart of my work. This has taken various forms in the past, but for most of my life, I have avoided the expression of spiritual longing and beliefs in my concert music. It has always been something too close to my heart, too private, and too important to comment on in a way that might actually illuminate in a meaningful way to others. However, with every work that I write, I increasingly feel the urge and call to express those things which I hold dearest to my heart. 

For this particular collaboration, I was asked to compose a concerto for three violas, an altogether exciting and terrifying proposition! I have done my best to create a dialogue between the soloists and ensemble that is a reflection of our spiritual dialogue with God. The genesis of the work began with my reharmonization of the hymn, Great Is Thy Faithfulness by Thomas Chisholm, who wrote the hymn based on Lamentations 3:22-23 (Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.) Much of the work is based on harmonic progressions that emerge from this hymn.

I also used William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 as a vehicle to express some of the isolation, loneliness, despair, and self-pity prayers are too often full of. The first movement, which was composed last and the only movement of the four to be composed post-pandemic, is a prayer, a request for God’s presence in the midst of a worldwide pandemic that continues to bring out both the best and the worst in us. It takes a moment to reflect on the suffering endured by so many and the lives we lost. Each following movement expresses various aspects of dialogue with God and God’s response, or in the case of the second movement, God’s seemingly apparent lack of one to our prayers. Yet, we still yearn to connect with God and sing hymns at heaven’s gate, or as the lark sings in the last movement. Though we may always feel chained to our mere circumstances, we long to transcend them through connecting with God’s exalted love - He is faithful.

This work was originally scheduled to premiere before the pandemic changed the world and brought every other work and concert to a halt. The original meaning and intent behind the concerto takes on a greater and more poignant meaning for me as it now finally premieres. I feel immensely grateful. The Concerto for Three Violas and Strings is dedicated with much affection and gratitude to Jordan Bak, Ramón Carrero-Martínez, En-Chi Cheng, and Dongmin Kim.

Sonnet 29

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state, 

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself, and curse my fate, 

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, 

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, 

Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope, 

With what I most enjoy contented least; 

Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising, 

Haply I think on thee, and then my state, 

Like to the lark at break of day arising 

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate; 

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings 

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

-William Shakespeare