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Hannah Lash's From the Depths I Cry Out Debuts with Yale Choral Artists

Jun. 04, 2014

Hannah Lash's <em>From the Depths I Cry Out</em> Debuts with Yale Choral Artists

The Yale Choral Artists present the world premiere of Hannah Lash’s From the Depths I Cry Out on June 20 as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, Connecticut. Jeffrey Douma conducts the ensemble in a program that juxtaposes early choral music by Thomas Tallis, J.S. Bach and Josquin des Prez, with newly commissioned works for the occasion.

Scored for a cappella chorus, From the Depths I Cry Out is inspired by Josquin des Prez’s late motet, De Profundis Clamavi. Lash elaborates:

By nature a canon is something of a musical straight-jacket… And yet Josquin was able to achieve a music that seems transcendent, heartrendingly expressive: infinitely flexible in horizontal and vertical realms as well as in rhythm and pacing. Rather than taking and repurposing one ore more of the surface features of Josquin’s music, I set out to write a piece that responded to the demands of dissonance treatment, rhythmic organization, and most importantly, canonic disposition, in the same way Josquin’s motet does.

[From the Depths I Cry Out] is about facing the inevitability of death. I wanted to illuminate the close relationship between fear and hope—an intersection where faith is often born out of necessity.

An additional performance takes place on June 21 as part of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

For information on the premiere, visit artidea.org and yale.edu.

More about Hannah Lash and her music can be found at www.schott-music.com.

Hannah Lash
From the Depths I Cry Out (2014)
text (Eng) adapted from Psalm 130 by Hannah Lash
for SATB chorus, a cappella
10’

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