libretto by Nancy Welliver music by Reginald Unterseher
Mezzo-Soprano and Baritone solos SATB divisi chamber chorus Percussion 1 Marimba/Percussion 2 Flute/Piccolo Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass
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PROCESSIONAL The Tempest (1610) PROLOGUE A Plutonium The Junk of the Soul (1979) Jung on Dreams (1944) J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Gita (1945) ACT 1 – Holy Land Scene 1 – The Road to Hanford Stranger than a Dream (2007) Encounter at Hanford (2006) Scene 2 – The Landscape No One Knows (2007) I Grew up in White Bluffs (2008) Scene 3 – Earthquakes Shattered (2006) Shaman (1891) ACT 2 – Working Life Scene 1 – Amazement, Anxiety, Stress I Didn’t Know They Work Here (2010) Little Boy’s Headache (2007) I Still Have Those Dreams (2008) Feeling Exposed (2001) Protecting You (1996-2001)
Scene 2 – Soul and Spirit Healing the Soul (1979) Illusions and Reality (2008) When Pigs Fly (2013) Scene 3 – War Ending the War (August 14, 1945) ACT 3 – The Sadness of Nature Scene 1 – Flowers Radioactive Roses (2006) Scene 2 – Animals Goiter (2008) Jackrabbit on a Lead Blanket (2008) Atomic Soldiers (1957) ACT 4 – Ghost Food Scene 1 – Tank Waste Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle (2008) Spoonful of Tank Waste (1996) Scene 2 – Plutonium The Spring of Paradise (2005) J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Gita (1945) (Reprise) EPILOGUE – Finding the Way Home Ashes (2017) RECESSIONAL The Tempest (1610)
Percussion: Wood Block, Triangle, Snare, Bass Drum Thunder Sheet (bass drum stick, triangle stick, superball mallet, small chain) Hi-hat (pedal), Mark Tree, Vibraslap Marimba (4.5 octave) Other: 6 Handbells, played by string and ute players Electric megaphone for Baritone soloist This score is not licensed for performance. Please visit MusicSpoke.com to purchase performance copies.
Setting Nuclear Dreams takes place at the Hanford Nuclear Site from 1895 until 2017. The oral histories included in the oratorio are mainly based on the dreams of Hanford Workers and people who lived on the land that became the Hanford Site. Some “true stories” about Hanford and nuclear weapons, as well as quotes from literature and psychology about dreams and dreaming, are also included.
Synopsis Processional and Prologue The oratorio begins with a processional based on Shakespeare’s lines from The Tempest: “We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep. The Prologue begins with an introduction to the ancient temple of the Greco-Roman god Pluto, called a Plutonium. A Plutonium is a dream oracle, where dreamers sought healing. ACT 1 – Holy Land The oratorio begins on the road to Hanford. Dreamers speak of approaching Hanford by car (one in a ying car) or bicycle. Some experience earthquakes, one nds a magical guitar, one sees American Bald Eagles in dead trees “waiting us out”. Some dance while others mourn. Several “true stories” are included in this act. One person speaks of the spookiness experienced when looking at the Hanford winter landscape. Another speaks of growing up in White Bluffs. A nineteenth century Wanapum shaman talks about the importance of dreams and the link between the spirit world and the tangible world. ACT 2 – Working Life Scene 1 – Workers share dreams about the amazement, anxiety, and stress they experience at Hanford. A Hanford building becomes a scene from a Medieval fair, with co-workers in attendance. A headache becomes a nuclear bomb. Contamination, once inhaled, can’t be coughed back out again. A dreamer feels naked when dressed in radworker protective clothing. A couple of workers chat about weird, uncomfortable experiences at an old reactor building. Scene 2 – Some scientists share their perspective. Dreams are illusions. Dreams are not remembered, and if they are, they are quickly forgotten. There is important work to be done at Hanford. Why dwell on illusions? Finally, one dreamer witnesses an enthusiastic parade of the history of Hanford and is not impressed. Scene 3 –We hear a direct quote from the diary of Col. Matthias, who was manager of Hanford Works (as it was called during World War II), in which he talks about his pleasure at the role Hanford had in ending that war.
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ACT 3 – The Sadness of Nature Scene 1 – A dreamer nds roses in Mother’s garden whose roots reach far back into the radioactive contamination at Hanford. The dreamer is at rst afraid they are radioactive roses, then decides they are soul-roses and embraces them. Scene 2 – Animals seek out the dreamer at Hanford. The animals approach during an inbetween-time, either at dusk or in the fog. They demand the dreamer’s attention. Then we hear the story of the Atomic Soldiers, veterans of test shots simulating combat conditions of atomic war in the 1950s, in their own words. ACT 4 – Ghost Food Scene 1 – Tank Waste A dreamer nds strangers in the basement of the house, pouring high level waste into an empty bottle marked with a genie. Another dreamer hears instructions to eat high level waste and learns that all the waste will disappear if “everyone” eats just one spoonful. Scene 2 – Plutonium A dreamer describes plutonium as the fruit of the Tree of Life – it has cast us out of Paradise by poisoning the earth and making it possible for us to destroy each other. Epilogue A dreamer enters the B-Reactor looking for a gift for her long-dead father. Someone in the reactor is singing, and the songs become owers. She wants to bring the owers back to her father for his gift, but it starts to rain and the wet owers turn to ashes and disappear, all but the owers she holds in her own hands. She weaves them into her father’s gift.
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Chorus/Piano score
Nuclear Dreams
Nancy Welliver
Reginald Unterseher
18. Atomic Soldiers
Excerpted from Knibbe, Morgan, The Atomic Soldiers. New York Times Ops-Docs: Season 6. Web. 16 Mar 2019 used by permission of Morgan Knibbe and the New York Times
Simply = c. 64–68
Soprano
Alto
Tenor
Bass
Piano Reduction (rehearsal only)
(piano version, playable as stand-alone accompaniment, 27 August, 2019)
On the morn - ing of Ju - ly
words © 2019 Nancy Welliver, music © 2019 Reginald Unterseher
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6
18. Atomic Soldiers
6 S.
A.
T.
B. Pno.
ve,
in
It was a mile from ground ze - ro, or less.
they
the morn - ing
A
a trench.
four
put us in
a - bout
B. Pno.
T.
nine - teen - f - ty sev - en,
8 S.
A.
I was in
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a pla -
7
18. Atomic Soldiers
11 S. T.
B.
- toon
with for - ty oth - er
14 S. T.
Pno.
peo - ple
u - til - i - ty jack - ets
and for pro - tec
-
tion,
we just had our
B.
A.
A.
Pno.
our weap - ons,
hel - mets,
and a gas mask
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8
18. Atomic Soldiers
17 S.
A.
T.
B.
Pno.
B
A.
B.
Pno.
backs towards the shot,
We fol - lowed the in - struc - tions,
19 S. T.
which were
bow
to crouch
our
and
down
put our
co - ver
our eyes.
heads
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9
18. Atomic Soldiers
S.
C
21
A.
T.
T.
B.
Pno.
- sev
down.
I got my
-
en,
It
f - ty - nine,
23 S.
A.
They start - ed a count - down...
B. Pno.
f - ty - eight,
got
down
to
gas mask on.
nine
and
I
-
ty -
start
f
I had trou - ble cinch - ing it
They
-
ed
grabbed my
This score is not licensed for performance. Please visit MusicSpoke.com to purchase performance copies.
a
hel - met,
10
18. Atomic Soldiers
24 S.
A.
T.
count - down...
B. Pno.
T.
day - light at mid - night
put it up to my head and the bomb went off
B. Pno.
27 S.
A.
you ev - er saw.
It was com - plete - ly
Bright - er than the bright - est day
D
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I
11
18. Atomic Soldiers
30 S.
A.
T.
B.
Pno.
E
can - not
be - gin
Pno.
to - tal - ly blind - ed
the light that
came
in - to
and
I was
It was com - plete - ly
when I came out of the blind - ness
my eyes.
B.
T.
de - scribe
32 S.
A.
to
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12
18. Atomic Soldiers
34 S.
F
A.
T.
B.
Pno.
day - light
T.
Pno.
front of you
at
mid - night
sempre
in
my
Ev - en the guy’s bones and back that was in
It was com - plete - ly
and the bones
arm.
B.
I saw the blood ves - sels in my hands
36 S.
A.
day - light
at
mid - night
Peo - ple scream - ing
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and
13
18. Atomic Soldiers
38 S.
A.
T.
B.
Pno.
40 S.
A.
T.
mid - night
scream - ing
B. Pno.
run - ning
G
I
mean there was
a
few
guys
It was com - plete - ly day - light
pan - ic
be - cause of the heat.
sempre
at
and peo - ple
were hav - ing
a
lit - tle trou - ble
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14
18. Atomic Soldiers
42 S.
A.
T.
B.
Pno.
Peo - ple scream
-
ing
T.
Pno.
big.
The
col - ors were beau - ti - ful.
nor - mal thing, I guess
I
hate to
It was so
ma dolce
and that’s a
and run - ning
B.
they were throw - ing up
44 S.
A.
scream - ing and
say that.
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H
S. 46
Beau - ti - ful pur - ples
A.
run - ning
T.
Pno.
T.
lav - en - ders
Peo - ple
col - ors were beau - ti - ful.
scream - ing
Or - an - ges and reds.
B. Pno.
48 S.
A.
and
B.
15
18. Atomic Soldiers
It
-
ning
they were throw - ing up
big.
The
and run
was so
and that’s a nor - mal thing, I guess
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16
18. Atomic Soldiers
50 S. T.
B. Pno.
52 S.
A.
B. Pno.
I
did - n’t
sleep
mid - night
T.
A.
I
I
for a long time
af - ter - ward.
would al - ways
Not
have this bright light
ver - y
It was com - plete - ly day - light
sempre
It
that would
at
well
was com - plete - ly
ash
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17
18. Atomic Soldiers
54
S.
A.
day - light
B. T.
Pno.
on
T.
B.
Pno.
Time to get up!
and
at
No,
no, it is - n’t.
lav - en - ders
Or - an - ges
It was com - plete - ly day - light
Beau - ti - ful pur - ples
56 S.
A.
mid - night
and reds.
HEL - LO!
at mid - night
There’s no light - bulb out
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there.
18
18. Atomic Soldiers
58 S.
J
A.
T.
B. Pno.
There’s just
60 S. T.
this dream
in
your
There’s just this dream
head.
in your
head.
a
count - down...
K
They start - ed
B. Pno.
A.
If
it was on - ly done for the
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19
18. Atomic Soldiers
63 S.
A.
T.
B. Pno.
rest of
T.
B. Pno.
hu
-
They
to know
that
we
don’t need
it.
If
you could
It’s
way
too
a count - down...
start - ed
de - va - stat - ing
man race
65 S.
A.
the
just
see
the
col - ors
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if
20
18. Atomic Soldiers
67 S.
A.
T.
B. Pno.
T.
hear
sempre
it,
not on the
tel - e - vi - sion
They start - ed a count - down...
I
think you would a - gree with me.
but the
L
or in a mo - vie,
ac - tu - al thing,
stay full
B.
you could just
A.
69 S.
Pno.
Who - ev - er is
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21
18. Atomic Soldiers
71 S.
A.
T.
B. Pno.
list’ - ning to this
T.
Pno.
Who
list’n - ing
B.
to
Who - ev - er
73 S.
A.
ev
this
-
Who - ev - er
er
Who
list’n
-
Who - ev - er
is
is
is list’n - ing
is list’n - ing to this
list’n - ing to this
Who - ev - er
is
ev
-
-
er
ing
Who
is
-
ev
list’n
-
er
-
This score is not licensed for performance. Please visit MusicSpoke.com to purchase performance copies.
ing
is
22
18. Atomic Soldiers
74 S.
A.
T.
Pno.
S.
A.
this
T.
-
Pno.
head.
Beau - ti - ful pur
is
-
ples
day
-
light
list’
-
ning
this
just
er
-
an - ges and reds.
beau - ti - ful.
B.
com - plete - ly
to
was
- ev
mid - night
Or
It
There’s
75
Who -
list’n - ing
B.
and
col - ors were beau - ti - ful.
There’s just
this
The
col
dream
at
-
ors
in
dream
The
Who - ev
in
-
er
is list’n - ing
your
were
your
lav - en - ders
we
This score is not licensed for performance. Please visit MusicSpoke.com to purchase performance copies.
don’t need it.
head.
23
18. Atomic Soldiers
77 S.
A.
T.
B. Pno.
S.
A.
Pno.
79
mid - night
Who - ev - er
is list’n - ing
at
There’s just this
in
your
is list’n - ing
Who - ev - er
Who - ev - er
at
Who - ev - er is
head.
dream
mid - night
Who - ev - er is list’n - ing
dream
day - light
this
list’n - ing to this
Who - ev - er is list’n - ing There’s
T.
B.
It was com - plete - ly
Who - ev - er is list’n - ing
This score is not licensed for performance. Please visit MusicSpoke.com to purchase performance copies.
is
24
18. Atomic Soldiers
81 S.
A.
T.
Who - ev - er
Pno.
S.
A.
T.
B.
Pno.
83
mid - night
is list’n - ing
list’n - ing to this
B.
M
There’s just
this
dream
Bright - er
than the
It was com - plete - ly day - light
poco allarg.
day
you
ev - er
saw.
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at
bright - est