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- Judith Weir
We are shadows (1999)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by the CBSO and the Southbank Centre
Received the South Bank Show Award 2000
- 3(pic)232+cbn/4.3.2+btbn.1/4perc.timp/hp/str
- unison children’s choir + SSATB
- 24 min
- Emily Dickinson, Chuang Tzu (4thC BC)
Programme Note
We are Shadows is a series of reflections on the impermanence of life. Although the text refers to death many times, I have tried to avoid the familiar mood and shape of the Christian Requiem; nevertheless, the opening poem (movement 1) with its metaphor of a graveyard described as a deserted inn, has a touch of the Dies Irae about it. Two further movements (2 and 5) take their texts from Scottish graveyard inscriptions; but these are sardonic and dry- eyed, rather than devout.
The bulk of the text (movement 3 and 4) comes from the Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu (Zhuang-zi, in modern transliteration) who lived three centuries before Christ. Chuang Tzu takes a sceptical view of the division between life and death, and is ecstatic about the possibilities of life lived in other dimensions than the earthly one we know.
While composing the score, I kept in mind the example of Buddhist funeral music, which is often cheerful and lively. On completing the piece, one other influence seemed evident to me; that of J.S.Bach's cantatas, particularly in the movements for children's chorus (2 and 5), and in the final movement (6) where for the first time, all the performers are heard together.
We are shadows was written for the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, Junior Youth Chorus and Symphony Orchestra. It was first performed by them, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, in Symphony Hall Birmingham on 15 March 2000, as part of the final 'Towards the Millennium' season.
© Judith Weir
London, 2011
Texts
1.Preface [ Emily Dickinson]
What Inn is this
Where for the night
Peculiar Traveller comes?
Who is the Landlord?
Where the maids?
Behold, what curious rooms!
No ruddy fires on the hearth-
No brimming Tankards flow-
Necromancer! Landlord!
Who are these below?
2.Inscription I [ Gravestone - Elgin, Scotland]
This world is a citie
Full of streets
Death Ye mercat
That a' men meets
If life were a thing
that monie could buy
The puir could not live
And ye rich wold not die
3. The Changer [ Chuang-Tzu]
Great are the works of the Changer
What will he make of you?
What will he use you for?
Perhaps a rat's liver;
perhaps a beetle's claw!
When we are children,
when our parents call us,
then we must go north and south,
east and west.
How much more,
when the Parents of Nature command us
we must go where they will.
They have asked me to die,
and if I do not obey them,
shall I cry out, as an unruly child?
How do you know
that hating to die
is not like thinking
you have lost your way
when you were on the path
that leads to home?
4.The Frontier Guardsman's Daughter [Chuang Tzu]
Li Chi was the daughter
of the Frontier Guardsman.
When first she was captured
and taken to China
she wept till her dress
was soaked with tears.
But when she came
to the King's Palace,
sat with him on his couch
and shared with him
the riches of the royal table,
she started to wonder
why she had wept.
How do I know?
Do the dead not wonder
why they ever should
have prayed for long life?
It is said that those
who dream of drinking wine
will weep when next day comes
and that those who dream of weeping
will next day go hunting.
But while a man is dreaming
he knows nothing but his dream,
nor can he know its meaning
until it is done.
Only when he wakes
does he know it was a dream.
Chang Chou dreamt
he was a butterfly.
He did not know he had been
anything but a butterfly
and was content to hover
from flower to flower.
Suddenly he woke
and with astonishment he found
that he was Chang Chou.
It was hard to be sure;
was he really Chou,
and had only dreamt
he was a butterfly ?
Or was he really
a butterfly,
and was only dreaming
that he was Chou?
5. Inscription II [Gravestone - Dundee,Scotland]
Man tak hed to me
Hov thov sal be
Quhan thov art dead.
Drei as a trei
Vermes sal eat ye,
They great boote
Sal be like lead.
Ye time hath bene
In my sooth grene
That I was clene
Of bodie as ze ar
Bot for my eyen
Nov tvo holes bene
Of me is sene
But benes bare
Ve pas from deithe to lyfe
From that ve vas
Ve hope again
Vith Christ to raigne
6 We are shadows [Inscription - Brick Lane Mosque, London]
UMBRA SUMUS
[Notes on the text; Nos.2 and 5 come from the collections of Scottish Gravestones compiled and published by Betty Willsher and Doreen Hunter. They have been anglicised for the sung version. Nos. 3 and 4 are extracted from 'Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China' by Arthur Waley.The translations from Chuang Tzu are by Waley.]
© Judith Weir
The bulk of the text (movement 3 and 4) comes from the Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu (Zhuang-zi, in modern transliteration) who lived three centuries before Christ. Chuang Tzu takes a sceptical view of the division between life and death, and is ecstatic about the possibilities of life lived in other dimensions than the earthly one we know.
While composing the score, I kept in mind the example of Buddhist funeral music, which is often cheerful and lively. On completing the piece, one other influence seemed evident to me; that of J.S.Bach's cantatas, particularly in the movements for children's chorus (2 and 5), and in the final movement (6) where for the first time, all the performers are heard together.
We are shadows was written for the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, Junior Youth Chorus and Symphony Orchestra. It was first performed by them, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, in Symphony Hall Birmingham on 15 March 2000, as part of the final 'Towards the Millennium' season.
© Judith Weir
London, 2011
Texts
1.Preface [ Emily Dickinson]
What Inn is this
Where for the night
Peculiar Traveller comes?
Who is the Landlord?
Where the maids?
Behold, what curious rooms!
No ruddy fires on the hearth-
No brimming Tankards flow-
Necromancer! Landlord!
Who are these below?
2.Inscription I [ Gravestone - Elgin, Scotland]
This world is a citie
Full of streets
Death Ye mercat
That a' men meets
If life were a thing
that monie could buy
The puir could not live
And ye rich wold not die
3. The Changer [ Chuang-Tzu]
Great are the works of the Changer
What will he make of you?
What will he use you for?
Perhaps a rat's liver;
perhaps a beetle's claw!
When we are children,
when our parents call us,
then we must go north and south,
east and west.
How much more,
when the Parents of Nature command us
we must go where they will.
They have asked me to die,
and if I do not obey them,
shall I cry out, as an unruly child?
How do you know
that hating to die
is not like thinking
you have lost your way
when you were on the path
that leads to home?
4.The Frontier Guardsman's Daughter [Chuang Tzu]
Li Chi was the daughter
of the Frontier Guardsman.
When first she was captured
and taken to China
she wept till her dress
was soaked with tears.
But when she came
to the King's Palace,
sat with him on his couch
and shared with him
the riches of the royal table,
she started to wonder
why she had wept.
How do I know?
Do the dead not wonder
why they ever should
have prayed for long life?
It is said that those
who dream of drinking wine
will weep when next day comes
and that those who dream of weeping
will next day go hunting.
But while a man is dreaming
he knows nothing but his dream,
nor can he know its meaning
until it is done.
Only when he wakes
does he know it was a dream.
Chang Chou dreamt
he was a butterfly.
He did not know he had been
anything but a butterfly
and was content to hover
from flower to flower.
Suddenly he woke
and with astonishment he found
that he was Chang Chou.
It was hard to be sure;
was he really Chou,
and had only dreamt
he was a butterfly ?
Or was he really
a butterfly,
and was only dreaming
that he was Chou?
5. Inscription II [Gravestone - Dundee,Scotland]
Man tak hed to me
Hov thov sal be
Quhan thov art dead.
Drei as a trei
Vermes sal eat ye,
They great boote
Sal be like lead.
Ye time hath bene
In my sooth grene
That I was clene
Of bodie as ze ar
Bot for my eyen
Nov tvo holes bene
Of me is sene
But benes bare
Ve pas from deithe to lyfe
From that ve vas
Ve hope again
Vith Christ to raigne
6 We are shadows [Inscription - Brick Lane Mosque, London]
UMBRA SUMUS
[Notes on the text; Nos.2 and 5 come from the collections of Scottish Gravestones compiled and published by Betty Willsher and Doreen Hunter. They have been anglicised for the sung version. Nos. 3 and 4 are extracted from 'Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China' by Arthur Waley.The translations from Chuang Tzu are by Waley.]
© Judith Weir
Scores
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