Program note:
In 1999, David Lang, Julia Wolfe and I were approached to write an oratorio together by a German-based consortium made up of the Dresden Festival, RIAS-Kammerchor and Concerto Koln. Something must have been in the air, because we hadn't yet finished The Carbon Copy Building, and here we were on our second collaborative project.
The principal musical force in the consortium was Concerto Koln, a baroque orchestra. When we met them in Cologne, we spent a considerable amount of time discussing the instruments they used, many of which had been salvaged from flea markets and junk stores. This led us to thinking about lost things in general, some which, like the instruments, are miraculously resurrected.
We asked Deborah Artman to write the libretto for us. We had met Deborah at the MacDowell Colony in the Winter of 1988. Actually, we met her sooner, because she called us up asking if she could get a ride to MacDowell from New York City, and we had all squeezed ourselves into a car along with many keyboards, word processors and books. Over the years, Deborah had been instrumental in helping us, as Bang on a Can, verbalize our message. She wrote the program notes to our first records on Sony Classical and many of our early concerts and marathons. Deborah was a fiction writer and poet, not a musicologist, and we naturally thought of asking her to join this project.
Preparing the libretto involved research and lots of it. Deborah presented us with a huge palette of “lost” objects, too many to include, so many interesting topics and ideas. Julia, David and I each picked the topics that interested us and worked with Deborah individually. Many of the subjects that were not used for the libretto in Lost Objects were eventually included as projection interludes in the live Francois Gerard production at BAM's Next Wave Festival in the Fall of 2005.
––Michael Gordon
Libretto:
Lost Objects
libretto by Deborah Artman
music by Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe
1. I Lost a Sock
I lost a sock.
I lost an umbrella.
I lost a sock.
I lost a tooth.
I lost my teeth.
I lost a leg.
I lost my dog.
I lost an earring.
I lost my father.
I lost my voice.
I lost my ticket.
I lost the keys.
I lost the map.
I lost my wits.
I lost my way.
I lost my tongue.
I lost my heart.
I lost faith.
I lost weight.
I lost my hair.
I lost my hand.
I lost my eye.
I lost my house.
I lost my tongue.
I lost my name.
I lost my book.
I lost my glasses.
I lost my ring.
I lost the store.
I lost the farm.
I lost a sock.
I lost the eggs.
I lost my cow.
I lost my memory.
I lost my teeth.
I lost my color.
I lost my hair.
I lost my sight.
I lost my way.
I lost my balance.
I lost my mother.
I lost my shoe.
I lost the business.
I lost my carpet.
I lost my language.
I lost my god.
I lost my pants.
I lost my tan.
I lost his number.
I lost my desire.
I lost weight.
I lost my body.
I lost water.
I lost the water.
I lost the tree.
I lost the directions.
I lost the car.
I lost the combination.
I lost the wood and the matches.
I lost the candles.
I lost my knife.
I lost my gun.
I lost my boots.
I lost my daughter.
I lost my nerve.
I lost my son.
I lost my edge.
I lost my wife.
I lost my blanket.
I lost my man.
I lost my toy.
I lost my anger.
I lost my joy.
I lost my cynicism.
I lost my fear.
I lost my land.
I lost my resistance.
2. Acoustic Aphasia
I hear the sound coming from your mouth,
but I do not understand the words.
Can you repeat after me: A B C D E F G.
3. Passenger Pigeon
Passenger pigeon
was once one of
the most numerous
birds on earth
Thousands of pigeons
carrying messages of blood
carrying messages of sport
carrying messages of loss
carrying messages of life
No matter how long it is gone
No matter how far it has flown
the bird
will always come home.
4. When Any Man
When any man of you brings an offering to the Lord,
you shall bring your offering of cattle from the herd or from the flock.
If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd,
he shall offer a male without blemish.
He shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offering,
and it shall be accepted for him.
Then he shall kill the bull
before the Lord.
And Aaron's sons the priests shall present the blood,
and throw the blood round about against the altar.
And he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces.
And Aaron's sons the priests shall lay the pieces,
the head and the fat
in order upon the wood that is on the fire upon the altar,
but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water.
And the priest shall burn the whole on the altar
as a burnt offering,
an offering by fire,
a pleasing odor to
the Lord.
If the whole congregation of Israel commits a sin,
when the sin which they have committed becomes known,
the assembly shall offer a young bull
for a sin offering
and bring it before the tent of meeting.
Then the bull shall be killed
before the Lord,
and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood
and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord
in front of the veil.
And he shall put some of the blood on the horns
of the altar which is in the tent of meeting,
and the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar
and all its fat he shall take from it and burn upon the altar.
Thus shall he do with the bull
and they shall be forgiven.
The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it.
It shall not go out.
It shall not go out.
5. I Found My Enemy’s Ox
I found my enemy’s ox
I found my brother's ox
I found my neighbor’s ox
on my property.
It had run away.
I could not hide from it
or pretend it wasn’t there.
I took it back to my enemy.
Again it ran away
and again I returned it.
Again it ran,
and when my neighbor moved away
and the ox still came,
I took the ox to my home
until my brother enemy came.
I do this with his ox
and any lost thing of my brother’s.
I cannot withhold my help.
I cannot hide myself.
6. Fw:Fw: Please Look
Missing child.
Please look, then forward on.
I am asking you, begging.
Please forward this email to everyone.
I have a daughter named Chelsea.
She has been missing since 4 PM.
If you know anything
If you see anything
If you hear anything, please.
All prayers are appreciated.
7. Lost Thing
Lost thing
These things must be proclaimed:
Fruit in a vessel, a vessel by itself
Money in a purse, a purse by itself
Heaps of fruit
Heaps of coins
Homemade loaves of bread
Fleeces of wool from a craftsman
Jars of wine
Jars of oil
These things must be proclaimed
for the owner has not lost hope.
8. Two Are Holding
Two are holding onto a garment.
This one says: I found it.
This one says: It is mine.
This one says
This one swears that no less than half is his.
This one says
And they will divide it.
9. Not Our Darkness (Loss of Meaning)
It’s not our darkness that we fear
not our darkness that we fear
but our light
our darkness that we fear
our light
our darkness we fear
light
darkness fear
light
fear
light
10. We Were Enveloped
We were enveloped
by a thin mist
that obscured the view
and made one world
of snow and sky––
a scorching mist,
if you can imagine
such a thing,
more burning than bright sunshine...
A working torch
Emergency flares
A working torch
Emergency flares
An ice ax was found later
11. Amelia, Flying
Amelia
Where are you?
Amelia
Somewhere flying
Somewhere in the heavens
Where are you?
Amelia
Somewhere
