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Abbie Betinis
Abbie Betinis Music Company
Bar xizam (Upward I rise)
This Sufi-inspired showstopper builds to a whirling invocation to the Beloved.
SATB div. a cappella, SAT solos
A memorable program centerpiece for advanced choirs, “Bar xizam” features 8-part divisi, aleatoric sections for each choral part, three solo voices from the choir, and the aural illusion called the Shepard Scale (visual equivalent: endlessly rising stripes on a barber pole). Singers are rewarded for their efforts with an earnest, honest, heartbreaking and magical piece of music that – in the ghazal tradition of 14th century master poet Hafez – uses the final words of each poetic line (“Bar xizam”) to imply different kinds of rising up, whether to free oneself from worldly desire, to serve, to dance, or, indeed, to rise as a soul after death to unite with the Beloved. 8 minutes. Sung in Persian with IPA and transliteration provided.
“. . .superb. . .stunningly performed: the medieval Persian mixing with contemporary vocal devices in a whirling, soaring vision of the soul after death. One particular highlight was the excellent duet between the resonant mezzo and swooping, bird-like soprano soloist.”
– Rosemary Ponnekanti, The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA), July 2007
“. . .a marvelous work. . .incredible compositional techniques that we find very exciting.”
– Anton Armstrong, conductor of The St. Olaf Choir, January 2010
“A high point in the program . . . rhythmically and tonally free . . . The audience sat silently, transfixed by the beauty and creativity of the piece and granted the composer, who was in the audience, a prolonged ovation. At intermission she was besieged by admirers.”
– Joyce Tamer, Telegram (Worcester, MA), Feb 2010
Text
Waiting, where is the harmony of your voice, so that,
free from the desires of this life: I might rise?
I am a dove from paradise, but out of this worldly cage: I shall rise.
If, in your devotion, you call upon me to serve you, then I promise,
from the desires of life and this world: I will rise.
O Lord, from the cloud of your grace, let your rain fall over and over,
Before this, from the midst of it all, like a handful of dust: Let me rise.
O rise up, with sweet gesture, and show me your stature: lofty, like the cypress,
So that, free from the desires of this life and this world: I may rise.
With dancing feet: I rise. With clapping hands: I rise.
On the day that I die, in the span of a single breath, grant me but a glimpse of you,
And then, like Hafez, free from the desires of life and this world: upward, I rise!
Poem Hâfez-e Shirazi (14th century) (excerpted)
Sung in Persian
(Translated by Eric Banks and the composer, after renderings by Michael Boylan and H Wilberforce Clarke.)
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