RNY 1065 - David Lang - If I am silent

DAVID LANG

IF I AM SILENT

FOR CHAMBER CHOIR OR 12 SOLO VOICES

SCORE

UniversalMusicPublishing Classical

Administered worldwide by Universal Music Corp. (ASCAP)

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note

if I am silent is a setting of a text I made out of a single moment in the Book of Esther, from the Hebrew Bible. At this point in the story, the Persian king Ahasuerus has made Esther his queen. Ahasuerus is persuaded to order the deaths of all the Jews in his kingdom, but he doesn’t realize that Queen Esther is, herself, a Jew. At that moment Esther has a decision to make – does she keep quiet and save herself? Or does she risk her life and comfort to help her people? The text in the story – in words that are very close to the words I set to music – gives us an opportunity to follow her thoughts, as she decides.

if I am silent is dedicated to Jeremy Geffen

if I am silent was co-commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation and the Nederlands Kamerkoor, Tido Visser, Director, and was premiered on 20 March 2019 in Zankel Hall, NY, by the combined forces of Theatre of Voices and the Yale Voxtet, Paul Hillier conducting.

if I am silent should be around 8 minutes long.

if I am silent

words and music by david lang

If I am silent I cannot think that I will be saved if I am silent

If I am silent help will come from somewhere else but not for me if I am silent

CopyrightbyRedPoppyMusicadministeredby UniversalMusicPublishing Classical

everything I have everything I am everything I know everything I feel

maybe everything I have I have for such a time as this

wordsandmusic bydavidlang

UniversalMusicPublishing

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