Today marks the 3rd Anniversary of the premiere of Laude!, my collaboration with my friend Garth Bardsley, by Crane Chorus and Orchestra under the baton of Jeffrey Francom.
About 2 years ago, I wrote a blog about the 2nd movement, Sovrana sì ne’ sembianti, as a message of Hope primarily directed toward the issue of gun violence in the United States, and the inaction of the United States Government to effectively address this issue.
Much more has happened in the United States and around the World in the two short years since then. The message of Garth’s words for the 2nd Movement illustrates faith in the rising generation (and their Mothers) as more than symbols of Hope, but as the solution to all of the current dilemmas around the world. Regardless of faith, this last month of the year is for most of us, a time of reflection.
I Hope you might take the time to listen to this movement of Laude!, and reflect without prejudice on the current state of the world and your true Hope of the future of the world.
Garth’s beautiful and moving words are below the recording.
Sovrana sì ne’ sembianti thesor pien di pietança.
(A sovereign she appears, a treasure full of mercy)
Beneath my feet, the sun-scorched earth,
Liquescent in the heavy haze,
Lay still.
The empty land, so cracked, so parched,
Denied all hope that Hope may still
Be born.
Such sorrow seized my heart and filled
My eyes with tears which fell upon
The earth
And slaked its thirst that, underneath
The sterile dust, new life began
To stir.
Emerging from this nothingness
A bud began to coil towards
The light
And where there once was nought, now stands
A beautiful rose – imminent –
Divine
For thus amidst the barren ground
The beautiful and good may still be found
Sovrana sì ne’ sembianti thesor pien di pietança.
