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        Commissioned by American Opera Projects

        From The Wanton Sublime

        • 4va; 3vc
        • soprano
        • 8 min

        Programme Note

        The Woven Child was the first segment to be aired from a monodrama based on The Wanton Sublime, a poetry collection by Anna Rabinowitz. In the work presented this evening, the fragmentary nature of Rabinowitz's text is collated into three musical sections: slow-fast-slow. The dual nature of the mysterious 'child', represented by the solo voice and solo viola, is at once alluring and innocent, sometimes contiguously and sometimes concurrently. Whereas the poetry collection deals with the multi-faceted character of Mary, here, especially in the context of Pärt’s L’abbé Agathon, Rabinowitz’s ‘child’ has another light shed upon it. The concept of a ‘divine test’ as expressed in L’abbé recalls, of course, the Binding of Isaac, a story of great significance for Muslims, Jews and Christians. Especially in today’s climate, the urging of the ‘child’ not to ‘unravel’ takes on an unusually prescient meaning.


        Text
        From The Wanton Sublime
        by Anna Rabinowitz

        THE SKY ARRIVES

        ***

        And what if a soul
        Fall into a body…

        And if it gaze into pure light…
        And if something grow into life…

        As the spider spins its web
        she spins him of herself,

        AND LEAVES A MEMORY

        life-bestower, nurturer,

        agent of futurity

        oh, woven child
        you must not unravel

        she webs and warps with finest, strongest yarn

        Tarik O’Regan
        January 2009

        Scores

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