Synopsis
As to why IN MEMORIAM: a celebration… As a Jew, I can’t avoid the weight of our history. Our resilience as a people has been strengthened through the millennia with every adversarial contact. Yet, in spite of the negative aggression, we survived. And, in the process, created a legacy of knowledge and community, which has lasted for almost six thousand years. Jerry Jacobs, who this work is dedicated to, miraculously survived a six-year hysteria when the world proved how inhuman the human race can be. From the age of ten to sixteen, starting in the Lodz, Poland ghetto, he subsequently found himself in such camps as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald and Rehmsdorf. When you first meet Jerry, you would never know he was someone survived such an irrational horror. He embodies someone who celebrates life with deep conviction for the arts and humanities. A successful textile merchant and grandfather, he established the Interfaith Concert of Holocaust Remembrance and commissioned me to write this choral orchestra work for the fourth annual concert, which had its world premiere at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in front of four thousand people on November 13, 1993. As we became friends, we inevitably began talking about his past. Instead of getting a better understanding of this insanity that we call the Holocaust, I found myself dealing with even greater incongruities of logic to such an extent as to almost believe that what he had witnessed was not possible. But, unfortunately for the so many who died, it was very possible! And, this loss of brothers and sisters, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters was our greatest tragedy. How could one keep his/her belief in G-d after such a horrendous event? Why would G-d allow this to happen to his chosen? It became clear to me, this was the final coup de grace for us, and that now, in fact, we would always intervene and prevent such a thing from ever happening again. This ultimate sacrifice guaranteed us the where-with-all for our survival as a people, and never again will we passively accept injustices that are thwarted at us. And, we will celebrate our survival so that those who died will not have died in vein! We will celebrate our oneness as our aspirations for knowledge and humanity reaches for G-d. Our belief in G-d is unshaken. Our belief in ourselves is unrelenting. And, our future is guaranteed because of this resolve. I wanted to write a work that embraced the flood of emotions that filled me culminating with the blowing of the shofar, our oldest traditional ritual that brings in the New Year. Then I thought about Jericho and the trumpeting that brought the walls tumbling down. Why not have twelve shofars representing the twelve tribes of Israel? Why not reenact and possibly trigger our genetic memory with such a triumphant sound? But to my amazement, upon hearing the first performance, the six of the twelve shofars we were able to find did not evoke a memory of history, but the voices of the dead. ORCHESTRATION 1 Flute 1 Oboe 1 Bb Clarinet 1 Horn in F 1 Bb Trumpet 8-1st Violins 6-2nd Violins 4-Violas 4-Celli 2-Basses (when expanding the string section, keep in mind the woodwind quintet should be doubled in size so that during the forte sections, they will be heard. The strings should never be smaller than 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, the chorus never smaller than 3, 3, 3, 3) Chorus: Sopranos Altos (div.) Tenors Basses (with incidental Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass solos) 12 Shofars running time: (15:42)
About the Author
Hayden Wayne (born 3/2/49) (composer/librettist) began playing piano at the age of four and played tenor drum in the orchestra pit of The King And I at the age of five, performed his first composition in concert at the age of eleven, won 2nd Prize medal for piano solo from the New York State Music Awards at fifteen, performed with major-label backed bands as Man (CBS Records) and Jobriath (Elektra Records), and toured with Sly Stone, the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page, Billy Joel, The Chamber Brothers, Gordon Lightfoot, Richie Havens, Richie Havens, Gladys Knight, The Fifth Dimension. As a composer, in 1983 Mr. Wayne opened a new theater for the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles with his metaphorical circus Wire, won $10,000 USD as national first place in 1987 from the National Institute for Music Theater with NEON (A Street Opera) . In 2002, NEON won a 25,000 DM prize in the International Prague Opera Competition. He was commissioned to write IN MEMORIAM: A CELEBRATION, by the Interfaith Concert of Holocaust Remembrance, which premiered at Saint John the Divine in New York in 1993. Subsequently linked with SINFONIETTA #1: The Klezmer and AN ELEGY INTO MADNESS, specifically commissioned for the Fiftieth Anniversary of Israel, and titled A TRIPTYCH, had its world première at Mandel Hall, the University of Chicago in January 1998. In February 1995, his SYMPHONY #4-FUNK had its world premiere at the Janacek Theatre in Brno, The Czech Republic. It sold out in one week seven months in advance. Mr. Wayne also has several film scores and award-winning commercials for television to his credit. To date, Mr. Wayne has written over four hundred compositions including: THE SYMPHONY OF FRIENDS, the ballet CIRQUE DE LA LUNE, DRACULA (Opera Erotica), PIANO CONCERTO #1-The Rock "n' Roll and CELLO CONCERTO #1 which are paired as a diptych: SINFONIETTA #2 (It's a Boy) and #3-The Emerald; VIOLIN/PIANO SONATA-The "Kraft"; The Symphonic Trilogy: #2-REGGAE, #3-HEAVY METAL, #4-FUNK; and SYMPHONY #5-AFRICA [A Tone Poem] (all recorded by the State Philharmonic of Brno, on New Millennium Records); the choral symphony SYMPHONY #6-THE GIFT; SYMPHONY #7-CELESTIAL DANCES and SYMPHONY #8-1421; THE NUZEROV STRING QUARTETS: #1-THE ROSENBERGER VARIATIONS, #2 THE ROMANTIC, # 3, 4 and 5, # 6,7 & 8, and # 9 & 10 performed by the Wallinger String Quartet; FIVE DANCES FOR CELLO AND PIANO and PIANO QUINTET #1 (all available on New Millennium Records) and hundreds of songs in various eclectic styles.
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