CSWR: What can you tell us about the genesis of "To the Stars"?
Douglas Knehans (DK): The work was designed as the result of a commission from Anne Harley and part of her “Voices of the Pearl” project. Anne provided some overall parameters for the composition: that it be not all slow; that it included some of the more warlike or combative qualities referenced in the text; that it be for a ‘portable’ ensemble with no large percussion. Once we decided that the ensemble would include violin, bass clarinet, ‘hand’ percussion, two sopranos and electronics, I went about looking over Enheduana’s poems and hymns. I was specifically looking for sections that I could excerpt as the structure of the piece, finally settling on a five movement structure:
1. Exordium—Goddess and Sky
2. idba uš—In Its Rivers, Blood
3. ḫezu 'am—Be It Known
4. ša ku innana—Heart of the Goddess
5. Doxology—The Exalted
Movements 1 and 3 are the movements dealing with power and war and so are the liveliest of the five movements. Movement 2 is a kind of reportage of the results of her wrath. Movement 4 is intended as portrait of Inanna and the final section is a still and reverential movement in the form of an almost liturgical meditation on power and beauty.
CSWR: How did you approach the vocal performance and the rhythmic flow of the piece?
DK: Once I had decided on sections, Dr. Martin Worthington of Trinity College, Dublin [https://www.tcd.ie/nmes/staff/near--middle-eastern-studies/worthinm/] was tremendously generous in providing translations from the cuneiform as well as, for me, the centrally important spoken interpretations of these translations. Of course, there is much that is unknown about how exactly this ancient Sumerian language was spoken, but much also can be deduced and assumed about language at that time and Dr. Worthington’s recordings were invaluable with regard to pronunciation and rhythmic emphasis of the texts. I have already mentioned how the choice of instruments came about, but the aspect of vocal performance is a very different one. This is due, partly, to the fact that the pronunciation of many of these words invokes some aspects of back of the throat gutteral rolls and glottal stops when spoken. To capture this in sung music is very difficult both for composer and performer and I hope that it comes across faithfully. More important is the actual rhythmic weight that occurs and where it occurs. Accentuation. This drove my approach to text rhythmic setting in a pretty detailed way. In the actual music I draw freely on the whole history of vocal performance from late Renaissance/early Baroque (stile concitato) to jazz (vocal ‘fall offs’) and everything in between, including intoned or rhythmically spoken text mixed with sung text. All of this was elicited by the words themselves which are rich, dynamic, dramatic, and expressive.
CSWR: What emotions or thoughts are you hoping to elicit in the audience?
DK: I always wish to touch and engage my audiences emotionally. I would hope that this work would span the gamut of emotional responses from the audience through aggressive moments, thrilling and visceral moments, expressively beautiful moments, and contemplative moments. Thus, I hope the sum of the experience takes listeners on a kind of time-warp emotional ride and the performers deliver these snapshots of the spiritual and psycho-emotional viewpoints of that time in a way that is evocative and even, to a certain extent, mysterious.
CSWR: Is there anything that you would like the audience to focus/reflect on or experience while listening to the composition?
DK: I hope that through my sound painting with the ensemble and electronics that the audience can be transported, or SEEM to be transported, for we can't really know how things were then, back to that time with its sprawling history and its expansive mysticism tied to the stars and natural world and our human place within all of that.
(Douglas Knehans is an American/Australian composer. He is the Norman Dinerstein Professor of Composition Scholar at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Knehans is also the director of Ablaze Records, a company which records and produces music by living composers.)