Roger Reynolds WISDOM's Sources

	PROGRAM NOTE Last modified 24 June 2024 WISDOM's Sources (2022-2024) (Violin, Viola) by Roger Reynolds On one of those too frequent occasions when unnecessary force is used on those unable to defend themselves, the media cited Robert Kennedy’s reference to Aeschylus, when he was speaking on the night that Martin Luther King was assassinated. “Wisdom comes alone through suffering.” The thought that there could be only a singular source that could serve to bring about a consoling and empowering perspective on the human condition – both that of the individual and also of their societies – struck me forcibly. I thought, This cannot be the case. I sought alternative instances. Circumstances led me first to Buddhist philosophy as transmitted through writings such as the Thirukkral [500 AD], where the path to an enlightened life resides not in grappling with the impregnable and inscrutable power of gods but within the particular individual’s thought and behavior; it is to be found in the effort to achieve a purity in thought and deed that is devoid of desire or contamination. I had also been reading W.E.B. Du Boise, specifically his seminal, 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folk. Here, he portrays a cyclical alternation of hope and disappointment that people of color had had to endure. It is moving, replete with a wondrous articulateness, authority and also equanimity. In an effort to deepen and interrelate these perspectives, I decided to collaboratively compose an extended duo for violin and viola with two performer friends, Irvine Arditti and Ralf Ehlers. This work has no text, though it involves vocalization. There are three sections that arose out of my thinking, reading, and long discussions with valued informants who are closer to their subjects than I could be. Each is dedicated to a specific source: Aeschylus’s Agamemnon; the Thirukkral, (as translated by Gil Fronsdal), and The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois. — Roger Reynolds

PROGRAM NOTE

Last modified 24 June 2024

WISDOM's Sources (2022-2024)
(Violin, Viola)

by Roger Reynolds

On one of those too frequent occasions when unnecessary force is used on those unable to defend themselves, the media cited Robert Kennedy’s reference to Aeschylus, when he was speaking on the night that Martin Luther King was assassinated. “Wisdom comes alone through suffering.” The thought that there could be only a singular source that could serve to bring about a consoling and empowering perspective on the human condition – both that of the individual and also of their societies – struck me forcibly. I thought, This cannot be the case.

I sought alternative instances. Circumstances led me first to Buddhist philosophy as transmitted through writings such as the Thirukkral [500 AD], where the path to an enlightened life resides not in grappling with the impregnable and inscrutable power of gods but within the particular individual’s thought and behavior; it is to be found in the effort to achieve a purity in thought and deed that is devoid of desire or contamination.

I had also been reading W.E.B. Du Boise, specifically his seminal, 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folk. Here, he portrays a cyclical alternation of hope and disappointment that people of color had had to endure. It is moving, replete with a wondrous articulateness, authority and also equanimity. In an effort to deepen and interrelate these perspectives, I decided to collaboratively compose an extended duo for violin and viola with two performer friends, Irvine Arditti and Ralf Ehlers.

This work has no text, though it involves vocalization. There are three sections that arose out of my thinking, reading, and long discussions with valued informants who are closer to their subjects than I could be. Each is dedicated to a specific source: Aeschylus’s Agamemnon; the Thirukkral, (as translated by Gil Fronsdal), and The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois.

— Roger Reynolds