Kennedy has crafted a work of truth and beauty more lasting than
even he knows — Charleston Post and Courier, 1999
Upon hearing composer John Kennedy's chamber cantata One Body,
one's first observation is curiosity: how many people are singing? The
answer is only one voicethat of the extraordinary countertenor and
baritone Bruce Rameker.
The second observation is how eclectic a musical experience it is, blending
postmodern and soundscape evocations with beautiful melody, forging a
unique stylistic aesthetic which is difficult to classify.
One Body unites poems
and texts by several authors which consider and celebrate the interconnectedness
of all things. The composer says:
"In recent years, ecobiologists such as James Lovelock have
helped foster a view of the Earth as a single, living entity, Gaia,
'self-regulating and endowed with faculties and powers far beyond those
of its constituent parts.' This scientific point of view complements
the spiritual perspectives from many cultures and times, and offers
the possibility of reinvigorating in contemporary culture a sacramental
view of life. As one who shares this sensibility, I sought with One
Body to express not only the spiritual dimensions of this notion,
but also to address conflicting cultural conditionings, such as stereotypes
of gender, division by species, and the fallacy of 'race.' I also wanted
to unite a collection of texts by
multiple authors, a modern liturgy of secular humanism which joins spirituality
with intellectual freedom. The five movements of One Body are
connected without break. Within these movements are instrumental transitions
which serve as reflections or prayers: a viola solo (speaking to difference
and ambiguity), cello solo (to the soul, anima), percussion duo (to
the Earth), violin duo (to the great mysteries), and string quartet
(to love and the ancestors)."
Interwoven throughout all of this is the clarion voice of Bruce Rameker,
who has sung at New York City Opera and elsewhere, and who impressed Kennedy,
along with much of New York, at a performance of Handel's Messiah
in 1997.
"At the concert I attended," explains Kennedy, "Bruce filled in for an
ailing bass soloist, even though he was already singing the role of alto
soloist. He handled both parts masterfully. When I heard him switch seamlessly
from countertenor to baritone and back again, I knew I had found the vehicle
for One Body."
Rameker's voice, which ranges from the sonorous to the celestial, is
combined with a string quartet and two percussion to amplify poems and
texts by Gary Snyder, Walt Whitman, Kenneth Patchen, Joy Harjo, and Kennedy
himself.
Kennedy says this about his musical aesthetic: "In the last 100
years we have wildly developed every technical parameter of music. I am
most intersted in how those technical developments can be sublimated to
refocus ourselves on the emotional parameter of music. Values, like art,
can be created. I believe in the social function of music, and in music
whose experimental integrity, either explicitly or abstractly, is directed
to audiences of all kinds. John Cage said, 'it is the responsibility of
the artist to imitate nature in its manner of operation.' To me, nature's
generosity strives to feed many. Our art might strive to do the same."
Audio CD: SFNMCD000512
UPC Number: 809157 58922
Suggested retail price: $17.98
Available in Santa Fe at the Candyman, and also through Santa
Fe New Music.