Sunrise on Ama Dablam
- choral fantasy
for 4-part choir , organ & 2 sets of pedal timpani
(with a piano part to substitute if necessary for the 2nd set of timpani)
Listen on YouTube…
A mountain, a monastery, and chant music from another world…
That is, apparently literally another world, probably before this solar system ever existed…
This was intended to be a shortish work that would make less demands for resources and choir size than my works for double choir and so be easier for a moderate-sized amateur choir to put on — but then the Composer goes and makes up for that by asking for a second set of timpani! What shall we do with him?!
Well, in order to make this work as easy as possible for an amateur choir to programme, I've produced a part for piano which can be used in place of that for the second timpani set. It's not quite so effective, but it does work, and indeed has its own very definite appeal. The two sets of timpani, or the timpani and piano, are meant to be antiphonally placed — i.e., on opposite sides of the performing space.
I had strongly in my mind the imposing image of the mountain Ama Dablam towering beyond the little Nepalese village of Tengpoche and its rather well known gompa (Buddhist monastery) along the main route for trekkers and mountaineers to Everest Base Camp; indeed, Lhotse and the top of Everest can be seen from Tengpoche, further up the valley. The shape of Ama Dablam from this viewpoint is rather like a skyward-pointing very squat thumb and forefinger.
In my new, 2021, rendering of the work, the much superior virtual timpani for the first time really bring out the ruggedness and drama of the scene. However, as with the old rendition, the choir is left to sing just 'Ah'. I'd rather that than a weird-sounding attempt at emulating syllables or indeed whole phrases.
The 'words' for the choir are just the mantra syllables om — ah — hung — the latter syllable elsewhere often being spelt hum, but in this case I want to keep to the usual Tibetan pronunciation, as it has gives a little more resonance and clarity to the textures (i.e., not because of any Tibetan association).
Later note — I've since distanced myself from Buddhism and indeed all esotericism, 'sacredness' and 'spirituality', pointing myself instead to pure self-actualization, which is something different, as I explain in Exit 'spirituality' — Enter clear-mindedness on my Clarity of Being site. Also, as explained in The true nature of 'the forces of darkness' and its interference and attacks, I've come to understand that mantras and other supposedly sacred things such as symbols (including the much hallowed OM) are all sourced from the garbage and not from any beneficial source.
It's thus most helpful and healthy if we all completely disregard any metaphysical, religious, mystical or 'spiritual' connotations or associations of mantras used in this or any of my works, and regard the mantras as being simply practical, down-to-earth building blocks for the respective compositions — regardless of the fact that when I composed the works I was still embracing the 'spirituality' phenomenon and didn't then understand the harmful aspect of the mantras (especially during the extended repetitions that are normal in religious use).
Although the mantra syllables are sung or chanted continually, this work isn't intended in itself to be a devotional one at all, but rather, to be a work of broader vision, which includes a portrayal of a particular type of devotion as part of a landscape. It's the whole landscape that's important — NOT the nature of the mantra itself. Any sense of one's own religious involvement in the work is for throwing out of the window!
I use no specific traditional chants, at least relating to anything in recorded human history, but the choir's lines nonetheless have the feeling of being based in various ancient sorts of chant. The hypnotic incantatory section that begins at figure H in the score (5'34" in my recording of the work) has about it a mysterious and intriguing sense of immense antiquity, as though coming from another world entirely, and it brings to me an intense, although visually vague, memory of monks chanting it somewhere, which couldn't possibly be on Earth.
As I appear to be a no-soul person, this cannot be a normal past life memory of my own, but I am aware of various sources of memories that I might possibly have got this one from, experiencing it almost as though my own. Nowadays it appears to be far the most likely that the memory has come directly from 'fundamental memory', the universal 'memory bank' of fundamental consciousness, which is effectively 'the Ultimate'. I suspect that it could be that it's this 'fundamental memory' that feeds into all the most deeply inspired music and indeed art, and then often gives the artist the impression that they're re-creating something that has been created before, because that's very likely just what they're doing, albeit usually incorporating new elements too.
With the low sun the mountains cast deep shadows in the valleys, and of course often broken clouds may cast shadows on the mountain itself and punctuate and in many ways accentuate the glory of the sunrise. And so we have it in the music, with moments of sublime radiance, mysterious shadows and rugged severity. The form of the work has been arrived at intuitively and cannot be ascribed to any traditional form.
Much use is made of low organ pedal notes in this work, so it's particularly worthwhile listening to the recording of it through hi-fi loudspeakers or headphones that have a really extended bass — audible down to 25 Hz or even lower in your listening environment. Computer speakers will thus lose some dramatic effects.
Related works
Obtain Scores from the Publisher…
| Sunrise
on Ama Dablam By Philip GODDARD. For SATB Choir, 2 sets of timpani, and organ
(performance set). Published by Musik Fabrik. (mfpg012tmps) See more info… |
|
| Sunrise
on Ama Dablam By Philip GODDARD. For SATB Choir, timpani, piano and
organ (performance set). Published by Musik Fabrik. (mfpg012pnos) See more info… |
|
| Sunrise
on Ama Dablam By Philip GODDARD. For choir (set of 6 vocal scores).
Published by Musik Fabrik. (mfpg012vs) See more info… |