是对某个时刻的回应, “黑暗的事情” is a new seven-minute work for choir and piano by commissioned poet Samiya巴希尔 和作曲家 乔尔·汤普森. 威尼斯人平台’s Chapel Choir and Choral Union will perform the collaborative project on April 29, 2023, 晚上7:30.m. 在米斯大厅. The concert, which will also feature a performance by guest artist 凯伦松弛，免费向公众开放. Both Bashir and 汤普森 will be in attendance.
“’黑暗的事情’ really came together through the depths of the pandemic,巴希尔说。. “The whole piece is written from an ‘I’ space, but I write from an ‘I’ that’s always a ‘we.’ I don’t necessarily believe in singularity and individuality, especially knowing that there could be 20 people singing at one given time along with who knows how many people hearing and then engaging with it. There’s something about that collective ‘I’ that really breaks down walls, breaks apart aloneness. 文化上，我认为我们是非常孤立的. A lot of us are seeking connection in a way that’s different.”
一个诗人, 作家, 歌词作者, 以及“用语言创造魔法的人”,” Bashir is a theatre kid at heart who thrives in a world of community and collaboration. She worked with 汤普森 on a previous piece before coming together for “黑暗的事情.”
“One thing I love about working with composers is the way a whole new magic happens. 就像这样的翻译. There’s this ekphrastic process where I write a thing that I hear musically, and then someone else writes it musically in a way that I never would have imagined it. The two pieces become a different piece and there’s something very beautiful about that,巴希尔说。.
由琳达·哈斯勒(linda Hasseler)领导.M.A., professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities for 资本’s 音乐学院, 该合作项目于2020年7月开始, 就在乔治·弗洛伊德被谋杀后不久.
“The choral and instrumental communities were beginning to recognize and own their role in white-centering concert programs that were exclusive and limited in the representation of artists,哈塞勒说. “为了回应我们日益提高的意识, the 威尼斯人平台 音乐学院 began developing an Inclusive Programming Policy. Wanting to go beyond diversifying our concert programs, 我开始探索新作品的创作. This led to the commissioning of Samiya and Joel. 有层次的意义, the text and music of ‘黑暗的事情’ go straight to the core of a message we deeply need as we seek to make a better world.”
Bashir expressed her excitement about hearing the singers.
“有音乐, 这就是语言, but it becomes a whole other thing in the body when you bring the voices into it. 当你有很多尸体和呼吸的时候, 它改变了振动, 这真的很令人兴奋,”她说。. “One of the first things that vanished with the shutdowns in 2020 was singing. There really is something about being in the space when those bodies are doing that work that changes the air.”
汤普森, 一个作曲家, 导体, 钢琴家, 和教育家, worked with Bashir to create the musical elements of “黑暗的事情.” He is the composer-in-residence at the Houston Grand Opera until 2027 as he pursues his D.M.A. 在耶鲁音乐学院学习作曲.
“A lot of my work prior to this has been in response to the world around me, 像许多艺术家一样, and specifically as it relates to my identity as a black man in the United States. I turn to the text of Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou, 他也, 以他们自己的方式, translated these emotions that Black America has felt for decades into words that I then use to respond to my present moment,汤普森说。. “I was feeling fatigued leading up to this collaboration, my music only being in response to the world around me as it relates to my identity. I wanted my imagination to be used to facilitate a better world not just for me but for everyone.”
“黑暗的事情” focuses on a specific turbulent moment in time and creates an optimistic and hopeful view of the future.
“We understood that 资本 didn’t necessarily have a lot of singers that look like us in the choir. 我们必须考虑, 作为两位黑人创作者, what would we want a predominantly white choir to speak about on our behalf. Dr. Hasseler gave us the charge of responding to all the chaos that’s going on around us,汤普森说。. “We talked about it a little bit, but we essentially left room for each other’s artistry.”
Creatively inspired and yet emotionally spent at times, 汤普森 worked with Bashir’s poetry to push his creative boundaries in a different way.
“I found myself working on the piece in short doses, 在短时间内, because there was a spiritual fatigue that came with dwelling on Samiya’s text. I think that’s a testament to her skills as an artist to put words, to put voices to these amorphous feelings that we’ve been struggling with. It was sort of difficult to work on how accurate the text was in describing the emotional state that I think a lot of marginalized individuals were feeling in the last three years,汤普森说。. “然而，仍然有一种追求快乐的动力. There’s still a push towards hope in Samiya’s text and also in my music.”