Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim, is a dramatic oratorio by composer Mona Lyn Reese and librettist Delores Dufner OSB, that draws on Jewish and Christian music and scripture, as well as the writings of Holocaust survivors, to create an interfaith commemoration of the Holocaust. [1] It was composed during Reese's 1993-94 Faith Partners Residency sponsored by the American Composers' Forum and the Otto Bremer Foundation. [2] Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim, has received national acclaim. [2] [3]
Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim, is staged with costumes, scenery, and lighting; several numbers have also been choreographed for dance. [1] [4]
Many musical styles and sounds combine in the score. There are frequent musical references to Jewish tradition: The processional hymn and overture “O Holy One All-Wise”, uses the melody Leoni from the hymn “Yigdal”. The score includes the Jewish melody “Ani Ma'amin” in several places. The music of Adonai (God of Israel) and Lazar includes traditional Jewish modes and hymnody, recitative, and Klezmer music. Music in the Christian tradition such as Gregorian chant, polyphonic motets, Anglican Verse and Choral anthems also appear in the work. [4]
Music and text express bitterness, anguish, and anger with God who permits tragedy, sorrow and need for comfort, the will to overcome evil, and determination to choose life over death. The six readings, found in Siddur Sim Shalom and Gates of Prayer , are taken from memoirs, diaries, and reflections on the experience of the holocaust. [4]
Several pieces in Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim are based on the Jewish text and melody “Ani Ma'amin”, a prayer for the dying. The Angel Choir sings both text and melody during the first reading (#4). The Angel Choir sings the text in “How Could I Forget You” (#14). Lazar sings the “Ani Ma'amin” melody in “In Your Likeness” (#16). [4]
The text for “Stay With Me, God”, (#13) is from Poems from the Desert, 1944; it was written by an anonymous member of the Eighth Army (United Kingdom). [4]
The text of “How Could I Forget You”, and “Adonai” (#14 and #15) illustrates two Yom Kippur texts: [4]
“To look away from evil: Is this not the sin of all ‘good’ people?” and “Let there be no forgetfulness before the Throne of Glory; let there be remembrance within the human heart.”
The following sung texts are direct quotations or paraphrases from the Hebrew Bible: [4]
The oratorio is scored for the following orchestra and voices.
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Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim premiered at the Basilica of Saint Mary, Minneapolis (Teri Larson, Music Director) in 1994. The following year, the Otto Bremer Foundation gave Reese an additional grant to write a symphonic version which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1995. [2] The symphonic version was performed by the Billings Symphony Orchestra & Chorale (Uri Barnea, Music Director) in 1996, and was also performed by the Basilica of Saint Mary, Minneapolis (Teri Larson, Music Director), as part of the “Basilica 2000” series.
In 2011, the San José Chamber Orchestra and Chorus released Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim (album) , recorded at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, California. [1]
In 2014, the San José Chamber Orchestra and Chorus performed a suite from Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim in the San José City Hall Rotunda.
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Mona Lyn Reese is an American composer, best known for her operas and choral music. Her work is melodic and accessible with an emphasis on driving or complex rhythms, movement, and contrasting textures. Her music communicates and expresses emotions traditionally or experimentally without allowing a prevailing fashion to dictate style, form, or harmony.
Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim is a studio album of the Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim dramatic oratorio by composer Mona Lyn Reese and librettist Delores Dufner OSB, released by the San José Chamber Orchestra and Chorus in 2011.
Delores Dufner is an American sacred music composer, librettist, and organist whose works have been included in Catholic hymnals in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Dufner is a nun of the Order of Saint Benedict at Saint Benedict's Monastery in Saint Joseph, Minnesota. She is on the faculty of Saint Benedict's College and Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota. In 1994, Dufner was commissioned to write the libretto for the oratorio Choose Life, Uvacharta Bachayim. "One of the best-known hymn writers in the church today. More than twenty different publishers have included her texts in their hymnals and hymn collections. In 2017 Dufner received the Christus Rex award from the Lutheran Valparaiso University.
Gerald Cohen is an American composer and cantor. He is currently the cantor at Shaarei Tikvah in Scarsdale, New York and is based in Yonkers. Cohen serves on the faculties of Jewish Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College. Cohen's compositions are published by Oxford University Press, G. Schirmer/AMP, and Transcontinental Music Publications.
In Judaism, musical nusach refers the musical style or tradition of a community, particularly the chant used for recitative prayers such as the Amidah.