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Compose Like a Girl
for the sake of your journey
Marybeth Kurnat
The longer you pause, the further on your journey you will be.
for SATB choir a cappella
There are all sorts of journeys, but perhaps the most profound one is the journey of life. Kurnat’s masterpiece “for the sake of your journey” explores the importance of reflection, of being in the “now.” Inspired by the Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of Bones) in Portugal, Kurnat composed a work that also takes the audience on a musical journey. Towering, colorful chords, swiftly changing keys, and creative meters all result in a rich and fascinating musical landscape. “for the sake of the journey” pauses life for a moment, and asks the important question, “Where are you going in such a hurry, traveler?”
Marybeth Kurnat (1987) is an emerging voice in choral music in the Chicago area. Her authentic compositional style, especially her harmonic language, is heavily influenced by her musical foundation as a jazz saxophonist. Her work, “I, Lover,” was the 2021-22 Winner of the Stephen Paulus Emerging Composer’s Competition. She was a 2023 Composition Fellow for the PREMIERE|Project Festival. Marybeth holds a B.M. in Music Education from Northern Illinois University, and serves as a music educator in DeKalb, IL. She maintains an active performance schedule as a soloist and choral singer with several Chicago-area choirs.
Composer’s Notes
Ossuaries – buildings, chests or sites where the bones of the deceased are stored – are largely rooted in Baroque-era practices, and there are roughly 40 of them scattered across Europe. The rarest and most beguiling form of ossuary is the “bone church,” in which the remains are integrated into the structure of the building. There are six “bone churches” throughout Europe. Though the origin story of each is unique, the consensus among all those who oversaw their creation is the same: life is short.
Évora, Portugal, is home to one of them: the Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of Bones). In the mid-17th century, several villages in the area were in need of additional land to build on, and the monastic cemeteries were their only option. As a result, roughly 5,000 bodies were exhumed from their resting places. In efforts to treat the remains with the utmost respect, it was decided they would be displayed by building them into a chapel, next to the Church of St. Francis.
During a choral tour with the St. Charles Singers, I visited the Capela dos Ossos in the summer of 2023. Several inscriptions can be found inside the chapel, including this poem by a parish priest, Padre António da Ascenção. Our tour guide read this poem to us before we arrived in Évora, but reading it inside the chapel, surrounded by all of what was left of these people, was a sobering experience. I knew immediately that I wanted to set this poetry, but felt I needed to live with these words for a while before I could be ready to treat them properly.
Above all else, this poem urges its readers to stop and reflect. To emulate this intentional frame of mind, the melodic lines are set with “mirrored” inversions of inner voices (internal reflection), followed by inversion of the outer voices (external reflection). Phrases are extended with measures of 5/4 time. Savor the moments of silence and stillness in the score.
The longer you pause, the further on your journey you will be.
– Marybeth Kurnat
Text
Text (in Portuguese):
Aonde vais, caminhante, acelerado?
Pára…não prossigas mais avante;
Negócio, não tens mais importante,
Do que este, à tua vista apresentado.
Recorda quantos desta vida têm passado,
Reflecte em que terás fim semelhante,
Que para meditar causa é bastante
Terem todos mais nisto parado.
Pondera, que influido d’essa sorte,
Entre negociações do mundo tantas,
Tão pouco consideras na morte;
Porém, se os olhos aqui levantas,
Pára…porque em negócio deste porte,
Quanto mais tu parares, mais adiantas.
– Padre António da Ascenção Parish priest of the village of São Pedro, 1845-1848
Translation:
Where are you going in such a hurry, traveler?
Pause… do not advance your travel.
You have no greater concern,
Than this one: that on which you focus your sight.
Recall how many have passed from this world,
Reflect on your similar end.
There is good reason to do so;
If only all did the same.
Ponder, you so influenced by fate,
Among the many concerns of the world,
So little do you reflect on death.
If by chance you glance at this place,
Stop … for the sake of your journey,
The longer you pause, the further on your journey you will be.
– translated by Carlos A. Martins
© Carlos Martins – Permissions granted.
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