PROGRAM NOTES
SUPPLICATIONS was composed in response to a commission made in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel of a work for chorus and orchestra that would center around texts from the Book of Psalms.
To me, one of the striking elements in the Psalms (Tehillim), in addition to their great poetic beauty and moral depth, is the all-encompassing diversity of attitudes, sentiments, and affects with which the Divine is approached. In considering texts, my intent was to create a narrative which may be likened to a one-way conversation with God that, ultimately, is also a journey of self-revelation. Indeed, as has often been commented upon, it is one of the extraordinary things about the Jewish religion that confronting God, even to the point of challenging God’s actions and judgment, is acceptable.
Interspersed with fragments extracted from three different Psalms (Nos. 23, 22, and 115) is the Sh’ma (Sh’ma Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad—“Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God the Lord is One”), the verse from Deuteronomy that functions as the central article of the Jewish faith. The juxtaposition of the Sh’ma with Tehillim (Psalms) seemed natural on many levels. The Sh’ma as a prayer is part of the observant Jew’s daily ritual, said in the morning and evening, every day of the year. It is also a statement of faith and affirmation, uttered on innumerable occasions throughout the generations, publicly and privately, ecstatically but also at the depth of despair. The Tehillim, too, accompany the Jewish person as s/he goes through life. To their many readers and admirers of all faiths, they resonate with meaning, universal and personal.
SUPPLICATIONS opens with the universally beloved Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want” (Adonai roi lo echsar) being gently intoned. From the supreme security of God’s benevolence, and after the Sh’ma is first heard though, it is Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Eili, eili, lama azavtani) that surfaces, questioning, pleading, becoming progressively more confrontational. Following a second, more extended Sh’ma, Psalm 115, “Not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory, for thy truth, and for thy truth’s sake” (Lo lanu, Adonai) is expressive of a quest for a higher meaning, a transcendence of one’s personal trials. This leads finally to the serene acceptance (from Psalm 22 again) in “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (Ve-ata kadosh).
I chose to set my music to the beautiful original Hebrew text, but also, often simultaneously, to English. The translation appears in the Friedlander Bible, first published in England in 1884. The bi-lingual volume I consulted was given to me, just before I first came to the U.S. from Israel, by the late General Haim Laskov, the fifth Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, a person who was a great admirer and eternal student of the Bible, and a true music lover whose support of my music in my early youth will always be remembered. His words to me, when he gave me this volume, were: “Take care of it, and it will take care of you.”
—Shulamit Ran
Supplications texts in English
PSALMS
XXIII, 1: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
XXII, 2: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
CXV, 1: Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.
XXII, 4: But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
From Hebrew liturgy, DEUTERONOMY VI
Hear O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.
INFORMATION
Commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra
Premiere: November 3, 2002
Carnegie Hall, NYC
American Composers Orchestra
New York Virtuoso Singers
Stephen Sloan, conductor
Harold Rosenbaum, Chorus director
Duration: c. 10′
SHEET MUSIC
Available from your favorite sheet music seller, or directly from Theodore Presser.