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Ellen Gilson Voth
Graphite Publishing
Across the empty square
A monument to current times, the themes are universal and timeless.
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Across the empty square
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Across the empty square
SATB, piano
“Across the empty square” is a monument to current times, and the themes are universal and timeless. The text transcends the global pandemic and explores how we can make progress against hate, fear, and isolation. Voth embeds traditional melodies into the piece with a seamless and integral nature. Fragments of the traditional hymn and tune, “How Can I Keep from Singing” gradually emerge from the piano.
Composer’s Notes
When I first discovered the poetry of Fr. Richard Hendrick, I was struck deeply by how his words speak not only to a global pandemic, but to so much that separates us from others, and how our singing can cross those boundaries, if we are willing to “open the windows” within us. My thanks again to him for responding so quickly to my inquiry, and granting permission for me to set excerpts of his poem, to create this piece.
In both text and music, this piece suggests a palindrome. The first and fifth sections refer to scenes of Italians singing “across the empty squares” and the soundscape implied by their singing – moments of echo and delay, for example. Fragments of Italy’s national anthem are juxtaposed with a recitative-like vocal line; at the end of the piece, singers repeat motives independently to create a “wash” of sound. The second and fourth sections refer to the birds of Wuhan, first against a backdrop of dissonance mingled with a phrase from a Chinese folk song, and later in the harmonic openness and hopefulness suggested by a clearing sky.
The middle section functions as a turning point, balanced by two forces that stand in contrast. Musically this section follows a descending bass line and, in a more obscured
manner, a circle of fifths altered by dissonance. These harmonic progressions, so natural and common in our musical vocabulary, are juxtaposed with a text that speaks
to our power to work against, to rise above, progressions of human behavior. Hate does not need to be the product of fear; loneliness does not need to grow out of isolation.
Even in our sickness, we can halt “disease of the soul.”
Woven throughout the accompaniment are phrases from the hymn tune, “How can I keep from singing?”, which are often hidden by surrounding musical material, then set free more clearly at the end.
While rooted in the sound concept of live performance, this piece is designed to be compatible with virtual performance, if need be. In either setting, “Across the empty square” suggests layers of time and how all of us experience time differently, yet the power and beauty of music are undiminished by the limits of time.
– Ellen Gilson Voth
Text
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
Across the empty squares,
Keeping their windows open
So that those who are alone, are not alone.
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again…
The sky is no longer thick,
But blue and grey and clear.
Yes, there is fear,
But there need not be hate.
In our isolation
We need not pass on loneliness.
In our sickness, we can halt disease of the soul.
Listen, the birds are singing again,
The sky is clearing,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul.
And though you may not be able
To touch across the empty square,
Sing.
– Fr. Richard Hendrick
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