Atara

At the beginning of 2020, right before Covid hit, I had a clear concept for the orchestra piece, as follows: Crude: large blocks of orchestral mass, drifting into and apart from each other moved by momentous forceful, and unpredictable energies. This piece was to be a lament to the hubris of humans thinking that we can control the forces around us and a reminder of these unknown forces which move us and our environment. Little did I know that in March 2020 our world will stop and indeed our loss of control vis a vis nature would be so staggering.

During the 2020 Covid-19 crisis, I came upon a poem written by Zohar Eitan. The poem was new and was written during the lockdown. It describes the atmosphere and feelings of the lockdown and death. Zohar is an Israeli poet/musicologist/composer, a long-term friend with whom I collaborated extensively. I read the text and instantly knew: it belongs in this piece. In Atara, the orchestra moves slowly and forcefully in huge independent blocks. As opposed to this the singers and their chamber instrumental formation are fragile, lost in the huge sudden spaces opened by the orchestra. Chaya Czernowin