John Tavener: The Peace That Surpasseth Understanding: SATB: Vocal Score

For Flute (doubling Piccolo) Clarinet in B flat* Very large Tam-Tam (sounding from a high gallery) and Choir (SSATTBB).* Notated in C in the score. 'According to Hindu Cosmology welive at the end of a cycle the Kali Yuga the Dark Age. There are two important sayings of Christ that should accompany his disciples always during these challenging times. The first is ?The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against my Church? (Matthew 16 v. 18); and the second ?I am with you always unto the end of the world? (Matthew 28 v. 20). These sayings form the basis of this work which falls into two main sections each with the same structure and with linked material. Each section begins with Kali Yuga which I havetried to represent in a chaotic unstructured way in contrast to the cosmic Cries of Humanity to Christ (Kyrie eleison - Lord have mercy) and Christ?s responses from Saint Matthew?s Gospel.The work ends with a serene?Coda? of the sacred monosyllable ?OM? representing the peace and beatitude of God?s presence. The intermingling of Christianity and Hinduism is an important simile for our times; in the same way early Christianity did nothesitate to incorporate Jewish and Greek thought.' - John Tavener

Work for Solo Cello and Orchestral Cello Section. Premiered by Yo Yo Ma.Quoting Tavener: It was while pondering these traditional dicta that I began to write the opening solo melody for the cello. It is in fact a palindromebecause waking and dying are like two sides of a piece of paper. If you wake up spiritually then you will die to all that is not of God. In the middle section which is also a palindrome the orchestral cellos join in theparadoxical meditation providing a platform as it were while the cello line takes on a much more melismatic and decorative character.In fact the whole work is a series of intellectual contradictions realised by thesimplest of musical metaphysics. Dying life life dying waking up in order to die the solo cello always represents the individual mind dying and the individual mind waking up.Then of a sudden just before the end thesolo chant begins again only to be cut off by a distant sentimental memory the memory of 'the blues' reminding us of ordinary human emotion and of our fallen state. The very end suggests a waking up into a kind of peace (notsoul slumber since after death the soul becomes more intensely alive); but we know nothing of that so the music fades beyond our ears.