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Joshua Shank

The music of Boston-based composer, Joshua Shank (b. 1980), has been called “jubilant…ethereal” (Santa Barbara News-Press), “evocative and atmospheric” (Gramophone), and “emotionally charged” (Boston Classical Review). He has been commissioned by organizations such as the Lorelei Ensemble, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, the Choral Project, the American Choral Directors Association, and the Association for Music...

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Joshua Shank (B&F Music)

Rest In Power

Name: Rest In Power
SKU: BF-026
Availability: InStock

Joshua Shank

A call to join together in forgiveness.

Choral

mixed choir

a cappella

Difficulty: 4

Duration: 5-10 min.

BF-026

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SATB, a cappella

Based on a text by a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr., this work is steeped in the concept of passive resistance, forgiveness, and the notion that we are all in this together.

Composer’s Notes

Thích Nhất Hạnh is a Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, scholar, poet, and peace activist who promotes nonviolent solutions to conflict. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 by Martin Luther King Jr. and, with the exception of the Dalai Lama, is one of the most well-known Buddhist teachers in the world. His poem, Recommendation, reminds us that, in his words, “Our enemy is anger, hatred, greed, fanaticism, and discrimination. Even if you are dying in oppression, shame, and violence, if you can smile with forgiveness, you have great power.” In setting the text, I tried to stay out of the way and create a piece of music that sounded as if the choir were just reading the poem itself, with the music manifesting in the air between them and the listener.

– Joshua Shank

Text

Promise me,
promise me this day,
promise me now,
while the sun is overhead
exactly at the zenith,
promise me:

Even as they
strike you down
with a mountain of hatred and violence;
even as they step on you and crush you
like a worm,
remember, brother,
remember:
man is not our enemy.

The only thing worthy of you is compassion
invincible, limitless, unconditional.
Hatred will never let you face
the beast in man.

One day, when you face this beast alone,
with your courage intact, your eyes kind,
untroubled
(even as no one sees them),
out of your smile
will bloom a flower.
And those who love you
will behold you
across ten thousand worlds of birth and dying.

Alone again
I will go on with bent head,
knowing that love has become eternal.
On the long, rough road,
the sun and the moon
will continue to shine.

-Thích Nhất Hạnh (b. 1926)

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