A collection from the operas “Steal a Pencil for Me” and “Sarah and Hagar.”

Premiere (virtual) by Anne Slovin, soprano, and Andrew Voelker, piano October 5, 2021 at Indiana University.

Program note by composer Gerald Cohen

“Lo Vashamayim Hi” (It is not in the heavens) was composed in 2021 for the Noli Me Tangere project of the Center for Religion and the Human, Indiana University, Bloomington.

The prompt for the project begins as follows:
“Noli me tangere—“touch me not” (or “Do not hold/grasp me” in the Greek). The words from John 20:17, spoken by Jesus to Mary Magdalene after her discovery of the empty tomb, take on curious resonances in the epoch of COVID-19, with its prohibitions on touching and imperatives around social distancing. We wish to ask how we might consider noli me tangere in this moment—this long moment being shaped by the pandemic.”

The project leaders then encouraged all participants to use the prompt of the text to act as a jumping-off point to explore whatever felt significant to them in the words and their resonances.

As a composer and cantor, I am quite steeped in the Hebrew Bible, and much less so in the New Testament. It has been fascinating for me to use the prompt of this project as an impetus to explore new texts. When I learned that the Greek of “noli me tangere” could perhaps be better translated as “do not cling to me,” the words suddenly resonated with me quite deeply, and also created connections in my mind with both Jewish and Christian and mystical traditions—of God being truly within each one of us—and with Buddhist ideas of non-attachment.

After an exploration of many texts, including several of the non-canonical Gnostic Gospels, and poems of Rilke and Tagore, I found myself drawn back to a favorite text from the most familiar part of my own religious tradition—the Torah. In Deuteronomy, Chap. 30, Moses instructs the people: “It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who will go up for us to the heavens and take it for us and let us hear it, that we may do it?’…. But the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” This saying is also echoed by Jesus, presumably referring directly to the text from Deuteronomy, in both the canonic and the gnostic gospels. The first two sections of the piece, relating the quest to find the divine in the heavens or beyond the sea, are heard as dramatic, energetic outpourings; these then resolve into the gentle extended meditation of “But the thing is very close to you…”.

Text

Deuteronomy 30:12-14

Lo vashamayim hi leimor:
“Mi ya’aleh lanu hashamaymah v’yikacheha lanu v’yashmi’enu otah v’na’asenah?”
V’lo me’ever layam hi leimor:
“Mi ya’avor lanu el ever hayam v’yikacheha lanu v’yashmi’enu otah v’na’asenah?”
Ki karov eilecha hadavar me’od, beficha uvilvavcha la’asoto.

It is not in the heavens, that you should say:
“Who will go up for us to the heavens and take it for us and let us hear it, that we may do it?”
And it is not beyond the sea, that you should say:
“Who will cross over for us beyond the sea and take it for us and let us hear it, that we may do it?”
But the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.

Sample Score

Countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen and pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg performed the premiere September 2022 in San Francisco.

Program note by composer Gerald Cohen
The narration of the life of King David is one of the masterpieces of narration in the Hebrew Bible, with David presented as a complex and flawed human being, and with much emotional subtlety in the development of him and those around him. This scene comes at the climax of the story in II Samuel, of his son’s Avshalom’s revolt against him. David, on hearing of the victory against the rebellion, and the death of his son, is stricken with grief, and can do nothing but cry out “Avshalom, my son, my son! Would that I had died instead of you!”

This lament has had many musical settings, both solo and choral, over several centuries. In my setting, I decided to expand upon this famous line, and to include the dramatic context of the scene leading to David’s outcry.  The aria itself, of David’s outburst, is based on the melody to which the Book of Samuel is chanted in the synagogue when it it part of a biblical reading. However, that basic melody is really used as a taking-off place for ever more wild melismas as David expresses his anguish, and then moving to a final quiet desolate lament.

The composition was composed for countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen and pianist Ronny Michael Greeenberg, and given its premiere in San Francisco in September 2022.

Text and Translation:

SCENE:
V’David yoshev bein sh’nei hash’arim, vayelech hatzofe el gag hashaar el hachoma, vayisa et einav vayar, v’hine ish ratz l’vado.
Vayikra hatzofe vayaged lamelech, vayomer hamelech: “Im l’vado b’sora b’fiv.”
V’hine hakushi ba vayomer hakushi: “Yitbaser adoni hamelech ki sh’fatcha Adonai hayom miyad kol hakamim alecha.”
Vayomer hamelech el hakushi: “Hashalom lanaar l’Avshalom?” Vayomer hakushi: “Yihyu chanaar oyvey adoni hamelech, v’chol asher kamu alecha l’ra-ah.”
Vayirgaz hamelech, vayaal al aliyot hashaar vayevk, v’cho amar b’lechto:

ARIA:
“B’ni Avshalom, b’ni v’ni Avshalom! Mi yiten muti ani tachtecha, Avshalom, b’ni v’ni!”
V’hamelech laat et panav, vayizak hamelech kol gadol: B’ni Avshalom, Avshalom, b’ni v’ni!”

SCENE:
And David was sitting between the gates, and the lookout went up on the roof of the gate on the wall, and he raised his eyes and saw, and, look, a man was running alone.
And the lookout called and told the king, and the king said, “If he’s alone, there are tidings in his mouth.”
And, look, the Cushite had come and the Cushite said, “Let my lord the king receive these tidings—that the Lord has done for you justice against all who rose against you.”
And the king said to the Cushite, “Is it well with the lad Avshalom?” And the Cushite said, “May the enemies of my lord the king be like the lad, and all who have risen against you for evil!”
And the king was shaken.  And he went up to the upper room over the gate and he wept, and thus he said as he went:

ARIA:
“My son, Avshalom! My son, my son, Avshalom! Would that I had died instead of you! Avshalom, my son, my son!”
And the king covered his face, and the king cried out in a loud voice, “My son, Avshalom! Avshalom, my son, my son!”

Text by E. Louise Beach

Program Note

Amid the Alien Corn (Ruth and Naomi) is the setting of a poetic canticle by E. Louise Beach, based on the first chapter of the biblical Book of Ruth. Naomi is returning to the land of Judah after living in Moab, having left Judah 10 years before because of a famine there. In that time she has seen her two sons marry Moabite women, and then experienced the death of her husband and both sons. She plans to return to Judah alone, but her daughter-in-law Ruth expresses her love and loyalty for Naomi and her people, and persists in her requests to leave her native land and accompany Naomi to Judah.

E. Louise Beach, in her poem, expands on the spare biblical text, deepening the emotional relationship between the two women as they experience this crucial moment in their lives. As a composer, I cherished the opportunity to create, in this short dramatic and lyrical scene, vocal characters for these two strong and empathetic women.

Amid the Alien Corn (Ruth and Naomi) was commissioned by E. Louise Beach, and dedicated to her mother, and to her daughters.

—Gerald Cohen

Perusal Score