Libby Larsen Missa Gaia Mass for the Earth For SATB and SSA Choirs, Oboe, Percussion, String Quartet, and Four-hand Piano Texts from the Bible, Joy Harjo and Maurice Kenny, Meister Eckhart, Chinook Psalter, M.K. Dean, Wendell Berry, and Gerard Manley Hopkins Missa Gaia is published by: ECS Publishing 138 Ipswich Street Boston, MA 02215 To order this piece call 1-800-777-1919 and reference catalog number 4807.
Program Note The Missa Gaia: Mass for the Earth is a creed for our times. The form and spirit of the traditional Mass combines with words that speak of human beings relationship to the Earth. The texts are drawn from the Bible, from Native American poets Joy Harjo and Maurice Kenny, from medieval mystic Meister Eckhart, from the Chinook Psalter, and from poets M.K. Dean, Wendell Berry, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. The theme of circles permeates the entire work. The music uses the circle of fifths both as a melodic theme and as an instrumental motive. Although I have not asked the oboe to do so in this work, the oboist is one of the few instrumentalists who can breathe circularly. The string quartet traditionally sits in a semi-circle. The image of the circle is central to many of the texts of this work. The United States of America is not an old country. Most of us are really still pioneers. We are only now learning what it is to live on this land and conversely, what it is for the land to let us live here. Amidst the natural abundance of our country, I live with the blizzards and tornadoes of the Midwest. And I see the earthquakes of the West Coast, the hurricanes of the South and East Coast, and the arid lands of the Southwest. I am reminded again and again that the human notion of dominion over nature is only that, a notion. The truth is that the Earth lets us live with it. Native American Maurice Kenny's poem They tell me I am lost is a profound expression of unity and community. The poem, combined texts are drawn from the Bible and from medieval mystic Meister Eckhart, is a credo for those of us who wish to take care of the planet. Introit: Within the Circles of Our Lives Premiered by the Paul Hill Washington Singers at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, May 13, 1992 Gloria: Pled Beauty Premiered by the combined choirs the University Lutheran Church of Hope, University Baptist Church, and First Congregational Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 26, 1992 Credo: Speak to the Earth and It Shall Teach Thee Premiered by Waldorf College Choir and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, November 4, 1991, Forest City, Iowa, Peter Bay, conductor. The entire Missa Gala: Mass for the Earth Premiered by Schola Cantorum, Gregory Wait, director, Palo Alto, California, May 30, 1992. String Quartet Oboe 4-Hand Piano Percussion: Orchestration Bass drum (High and Low) Maracas Marimba Orchestra Bells Suspended Cymbal Temple Blocks Triangle (Medium) Vibraphone Woodblock (Medium) Duration: Approximately 35 minutes 2
Libretto Introit: Within the Circles of Our Lives Within the circles of our lives we dance the circles of the years, the circles of the seasons within the circles of the years, the cycles of the moon within the circles of the seasons, the circles of our reasons within the cycles of the moon. Again, again we come and go, changed, changing. Hands join, unjoin in love and fear, grief and joy. The circles turn, each giving into each, into all. Only music keeps us here, each by all the others held. In the hold of hands and eyes we turn in pairs, that joining joining each to all again. And then we turn, alone, out of the sunlight gone into the darker circles of return. Song (4) from The Wheel by Wendell Berry. Copyright 1982 by Wendell Berry. Used by arrangement with North Point Press, a division of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. All rights reserved. Kyrie: Mother, Sister, Blessed, Honored Mother, sister, blessed, honored, Life of the water, Life of the flower, Grant that we do not hurt ourselves with vanity. Help us to feel and not to feel. Teach us to act with care. Teach us to be at peace with his will. Mother, sister, blessed, honored, Life of the water, Life of the flower, Teach us to care for all we touch And let my prayer be heard by Thee. Text by M.K. Dean. Used by permission. 3
Gloria: Glory Be to God for Dappled Things Glory be to God for dappled things For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut falls; finches' wings; Landscape plotted and pieced fold, fallow, and plough; And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim. All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow, sweet, sour, adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him. Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins (Text out of copyright). Credo: Speak to the Earth and It Shall Teach Thee Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things. Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God...so full of God is every creature. my feet are elms, roots in the earth my heart is the hawk my thought the arrow that rides the wind across the valley my spirit eats with eagles on the mountain crag and clashes with the thunder Blessed are your eyes, because they see: and your ears because they hear. [Matthew 13:16 (KJB)] my grass is the breath of my flesh and the deer is the bone of my child my toes dance on the drum in the light of the eyes of the old turtle my chant is the wind my chant is the muskrat my chant is the seed my chant is the tadpole my chant is the grandfather and his many grandchildren sired in the frost of March and the summer moon of brown August The seed is the word folded fast in an honest and good heart with perseverance. [Luke 8:15 (TLB)] Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee. my chant is the field that turns with the sun and feeds the mice and the bears red berries and honey my chant is the river that quenches the thirst of the sun 4
my chant is the woman who bore me and my blood and flesh of tomorrow my chant is the herb that heals and the moon that moves the tide and the wind that cleans the earth of old bones singing in the morning dust my chant is the rabbit, skunk, heron my chant is the red willow, the clay and the great pine that bulges the woods and the axe that fells the birch and the hand that breaks the corn from the stalk and waters the squash and catches stars my chant is a blessing to the trout, beaver and a blessing to the young pheasant who warms my winters my chant is the wolf in the dark my chant is the crow flying against the sun... Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things. my chant is the sun while there is sun I cannot be lost Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee. [Job 12:8 (TLB)] They Tell Me I Am Lost, Copyright 1987. Reprinted from Between Two Rivers: Selected Poems 1956-1984, by Maurice Kenny, with permission from White Pine Press, Fredonia, N.Y. Reprinted from, Meditations with Meister Eckhart, by Matthew Fox, Copyright 1983, Bear & Co., Inc. P.O.Box 2860, Santa Fe, NM 87504. The King James Bible (Public Domain). Verses marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible Copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved. Agnus Dei/Sanctus: How Lovely are Thy Holy Groves How lovely are thy holy groves God of the heaven and earth My soul tongs and faints for the circle of thy trees. My heart and my flesh sing with joy to thee O God of life. Chinook Psalter (Public Domain). 5
Benediction: To Pray You Open Your Whole Self To pray you open your whole self To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon To one whole voice that is you. And know there is more That you can't see, can't hear Can't know except in moments Steadily growing, and in languages That aren't always sound but other Circles of motion Like eagle that Sunday morning Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky In wind, swept our hearts clean With sacred wings. We see you, see ourselves and know That we must take the utmost care And kindness in all things. Breathe in, knowing we are made of All this, and breathe, knowing We are truly blessed because we Were born, and die soon, within a True circle of motion, Like eagle rounding out the morning Inside us. We pray that it will be done In beauty. In beauty. Joy Harjo s Eagle Poem from In Mad Love and War. Copyright 1990 by Joy Harjo and Wesleyan University Press. Used by permission from the University Press of New England. 6