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Songs of bridges between three faiths
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Newsday, Songs of bridges between three faiths >>
BY MARION LIGNANA ROSENBERG
October 20, 2005
Muslims, Christians and Jews all claim descent from the patriarch Abraham, the "father of many nations" revered for the loving kindness he showed to all who approached his tent. All three faiths teach that human beings are sisters and brothers.
Yet whether in the Crusades or in modern-day Bosnia and Manhattan, the children of Abraham have wrought hideous violence on one another in the name of religion. The Sept. 11 atrocities have given rise to a flurry of activities exploring common threads among the Abrahamic faiths. In coming weeks, New York reaps the musical fruits of this collective soul-searching. "Sacred Bridges," Sunday's concert at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, unites the King's Singers, the English a cappella vocal sextet, with Sarband, an instrumental group specializing in the shared heritage of Muslims, Christians and Jews, and two whirling dervishes, Sufi Muslims who worship through ecstatic dancing. They perform meditative improvisations and 16th and 17th century psalm settings by Jewish, Christian and Muslim composers.
"One impetus for our tour is, I suppose, the current world situation," King's Singer Robin Tyson wrote by e-mail, citing ongoing violence in Iraq, Gaza and London. "I wouldn't be so bold as to say we are preaching tolerance and peace, but it's clear in the shows we've done so far that audiences have been affected by the message."
Drawing from many sources
"Sacred Bridges" features works by Salamone Rossi, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and Ali Ufki. Rossi, an Italian Jew, melded Hebrew prayer (traditionally sung to a single melodic line) with luminous Renaissance polyphony. Dutchman Sweelinck set vernacular translations of the psalms, most likely for private worship. Ali Ufki, born in Poland, was sold as a slave in Constantinople, where he converted to Islam and worked at the sultan's court as a writer and musician. His psalm settings combine Turkish texts with Protestant hymn melodies.
As heard on the King's Singers World Village CD of the same title, "Sacred Bridges" offers mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic perspectives on prayer - at once particular in expression, motley in origin and universal in aspiration.
This fall brings other events and recordings on interfaith themes. The 92nd Street Y's "Music of the Mystics" series examines "shared sacred space." It opens Nov. 17 with a concert by the Turkish ensemble Bezmara of Jewish and Muslim music from the Ottoman Empire. Walter Zev Feldman, the series' artistic director, reflected on the common concerns of Muslim, Christian and Jewish mystics: "To distinguish between inner substance and outer shell, and to avoid the extremes of transcendence and immanence."
"Ayre," soprano Dawn Upshaw's new Deutsche Grammophon CD, takes its title from Osvaldo Golijov's 2004 song cycle based on Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) poetry from across the Mediterranean.
It's all in the sound
"I see 'Ayre' as showing how little it takes to go from Arab to Christian to Jewish," Golijov said by phone. "In the sixth song, Dawn sings exactly the same melody twice. It's the way she sings that makes the first sound 'Christian' and the second sound 'Arab.' It's a reflection of how we are all the same - how little it takes to change from one to another."
Al-Zubaidi, tutor to a 10th century caliph of Islamic Spain, wrote, "All lands in their diversity are one, and men are all neighbors and brothers." In these days of a supposed clash of civilizations, his words can be a prick to bigoted consciences - just as the music of the King's Singers and kindred artists can be a balm for those who long for fellowship and peace.
Marion Lignana Rosenberg
is a freelance writer.
WHEN&WHEREThe King's Singers perform "Sacred Bridges" at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, 980 Park Ave., Manhattan. For information, visit www.lincolncenter.org or call 212-721-6500. For information on "Music of the Mystics," visit www.92y.org or call 212-415-5500. 10/20/05
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