Cloths of Heaven • 2'40"
A cappella choral version in 2016; arranged for carillon in 2020
The original a cappella choral version was commissioned by Boston Choral Ensemble, Boston Massachusetts, Andrew Shenton, Artistic Director.
Inkjar Publishing Company
Cloths of Heaven is a poem written by W.B. Yeats in which he tells his love that he wished he possessed the richness of the heavens to give to her:
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
In 2016, I set the text for a cappella choir as part of my work Celestial Canticles. During the pandemic of 2020, I reworked the music for Cloths of Heaven for carillon.
Vivos Voco • 6'
The commissioner has exclusive performance rights until December 1, 2022 and exclusive commercial recording rights until June 1, 2023.
Clemson University for carillonneur Linda Dzuris
Bronze bells have a long and rich history, beginning with their invention during the Bronze Age (around 3000 BCE). By the Middle Ages, bells were regularly commissioned and employed by churches. Bells served many purposes; for instance, they were used as calls to prayer, in religious services and celebrations, in commemoration for the dead, to warn of danger, and to mark the hours of the day.
In my research into carillon bells, I was intrigued to discover that in the Middle Ages, bells were imbued with human qualities: they underwent baptisms after being cast; they were given names; and when they rang, they were considered to be "speaking." Each bell bore inscriptions on its surface that defined their function. One such inscription is the Latin phrase Vivos voco, mortuos plango, fulgura frango which translates to I call the living, I mourn the dead, I repel lightning. This phrase was memorialized by German poet Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), who found the inscription on a large bell that had been cast in 1486 and placed in a cathedral in Schaffhausen, Switzerland; he used the phrase as the motto for his poem "Das Lied von der Glocke" ("The Song of the Bell").
In Vivos Voco, I pay tribute to these bells, which are the carillon's direct predecessors. My piece consists of three sections: first, we hear celebratory music, followed by a contemplative call to prayer, and a third section in which the bells solemnly toll for the deceased. The funeral music is followed by a return to the call to prayer, and the piece ends with the celebratory music once more. In essence, I constructed the piece to represent the symmetrical shape of a bell (A-B-C-B-A), with the outermost sections containing the most exciting music, where the clappers strike the bell's edge and sets the bell ringing.