Words of Beginning (2013)

It was my first collaboration with poet Kai Hoffmann Krull, who wrote the words for my cantata “Words of Beginning” for the 175th anniversary of First Lutheran church of Boston. Kai’s text reflects the light and dark imagery in J. S. Bach’s great Reformation cantata BWV 79 “Gott, der Herr ist Sonn und Schild” and is expanded to a narrative on Genesis the star of Bethlehem and Luther’s enlightenment. I used almost the same orchestration as Bach in his Reformation Cantata. In 2018 I re-orchestrated the soprano aria for period instruments for a performance at Saint Peter’s NYC for the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation.

Program Booklet-Words of Beginning

1. Opening Chorus

In the beginning was the word
and the word was with him and in him and him

What story does the sun tell of the Holy
as lumen spilled from pen to page of day
words capturing each crest of wave
each crease of current, each ripple, each fragile break
of water upon water
upon water upon water
as wind formed crescents on the surface
the day when light was made

What of the stars that day when day was shaped

what of their questions as they were molded like clay
by hands of words and words of light
what did they think as their glow moved away
into darkness that was beginning before it began
what did they see when seeing became sight?

2. Aria (S)

Before he followed the star
the shepherd followed whiteness,
woolen backs entering fields
of long grass filled with the long sun,
the moist dew of dawn.
With wind from the east each blade
bowed as though giving themselves
to the unseen. Soon he too will bow
in the words of light,
for the sight of wings
feathers of a whiteness more than white,
a brightness more than bright.

3 Aria (B)

Before he wrote he prayed
and the feather flew across the page
between ink and each impression of grain
words speaking back to him
Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven

4 Chorale

“Now thank we all our God”