Ruminations
Item
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Score title
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Ruminations
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Composer
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Jennifer Higdon
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Program note
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“Ruminations” is like a small book of meditative thoughts on the relationship of music to life. Like Rumi’s poems, they are short and to the point, hopefully maintaining the beautiful poetic qualities so aptly captured by translator Coleman Barks. These are like tiny musical snapshots; declarations of harmony, beat, and melody.
I’ve designed the flow of this piece to be like a book of Rumi’s poems: moving quickly and succinctly from one to the next, without elaboration…getting to the point immediately. There are 7 poems, and the “inner poems” (numbers 2, 4, and 6) feature soloists from the choir. The last two poems (Flowers & In Your Light) use very similar chord progressions to represent how, in truth, these poems are all linked in the same way that music is a shared experience amongst us all.
“Ruminations” was commissioned by The Washington Master Chorale (through the NEA and a private gift in memory of Denny Clark) and The Rhodes College Endowment (through a bequest from John Murray Springfield ’51).
Texts used with the kind permission of Coleman Barks.
-Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon