SOUNDTRACK: MISSY MAZZOLI-Vespers For A New Dark Age (2015).
Missy Mazzoli’s Vespers for a New Dark Age, is a 30-minute suite for singers, chamber ensemble and electronics. The piece was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the 2014 Ecstatic Music Festival.
It’s a fascinating mix of traditional and contemporary instruments. And there’s a surprise musician as well: Martha Cluver and Virginia Warnken Kelsey from Roomful of Teeth, provide operatic soprano voices. Mazzoli’s own ensemble Victoire, provides the music while Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche adds percussion and thunderous pounding.
As the suite opens, electronic chimes sound before the beautifully soaring voices come in (I don’t know who is who). The instrumentation is complex and the vocals are often in English (but operatic and not always obvious to hear). There’s some great rising and falling notes from various instruments.
The first piece is called “Wayward Free Radical Dreams” and I like the surprise of the simple English phrase “Come on, come on come on” A bell ringing is the segue into part 2, “Hello Lord.” Over a lonely flute and some synths, the vocalist sings a poem by Matthew Zapruder for lines like: “hello lord / sorry I woke you / because my plans / are important to me / and I need things / no one can buy / and don’t even know / what they are / I know I belong / in this new dark age.”
I love the rising and falling notes of “Interlude 1″ over the fast violin moments. “Come On All You” opens with some ticking hi-hats and squeaky violins. There’s a lot of drums in this song—some punctuate the melody until the soprano voice takes over and then around 4 minutes into the section, the drums burst to life. “New Dark Age” has some moody synths under the soaring voices and “Interlude 2” opens with the sound of big deep bells.
“Machine” has a mechanical staccato feel in both strings and voices. When it returns to “Come on Come on” refrain (this time with two voices), it’s very cool. The “Postlude” ends the piece with moody strings and distorted mechanical sounds that overwhelm the voices at times. The piece ends on an up note but not in an overwhelmingly happy feeling.
The final piece on the disc is not part of the suite, although it fits in sonically. It is called “A Thousand Tongues (Lorna Dune Remix)” and it has echoing pianos and overlapping synths. While this piece is pretty it is probably the least interesting of the disc. Perhaps because there are fewer voices and more synth melodies. Perhaps because it is a remix. The song feels fine, but not as compelling as the suite.
I was happy to discover his disc, which really explores different classical motifs.
[READ: March 15, 2015] All My Puny Sorrows
As with many books, but especially those published by McSweeney’s, which I always read, I didn’t really know what this was about. I can pretty much guarantee it would not have been high on my list had anyone told me it was about dealing with a suicidal sibling.
But what’s great about the McSweeney’s imprint is that they gather such a wide variety of books and most of them are of such good quality that I know I won’t be disappointed. And this book not only didn’t disappoint, I found it really fantastic.
The story is fairly simple, although from my perspective it was also fairly exotic. The main action of the book takes place in present day Winnipeg. But there are flashbacks to the main characters’ childhood in 1979. And the way it opens–with the family watching as the house that their father built is put on the back of a truck and driven away is one of the more memorable opening passages of a book that I’ve read.
The family consists of the narrator Yolandi, her older sister Elfrieda and their parents. And, perhaps most exotic to me they are Mennonites. Their family is not entirely pious in the tradition in their town–they are seen as somewhat less than observant. Things were made even worse by the deliberately provocative nature of Elf. She was creative, she loved to read and she had a real sense of outrage. The church pastor once accused her of “luxuriating in the afflictions of he own wanton emotions.” She embraced poetry, particularly the line “all my puny sorrows” and decided it would be her slogan. So she began spray paining AMPS all over the town.
But Elf also had a great mastery of the piano–music was very much frowned upon in the community and the family tried to hide their piano. But she planned to go to college to study music (which was deemed “an indiscreet longing to leave the community”) and her parents stopped trying to hide her gift.
One day that the elders came to pay her father a visit to discuss Elf. As Yoli put it, “Public enemy number one for these men was a girl with a book.” Elf knowingly or unknowingly began to play Rachmaninoff’s “Prelude in G minor, Opus 23” in the next room. She had been practicing and practicing, reveling in its emotional us and downs. He played the entirely thing while the men sat mutely in the main room. Eventually the elders just walked out.
Elf became a famous, internationally renowned pianist. And while Yoli looked up to her, she had nothing Elf’s talent. But Elf was also moody like their father. He once refused to speak for an entire year. Elf also goes quiet from time to time.
In the present, Elf is currently n the hospital. She has not been eating and is clearly suicidal. Her boyfriend Nic is super understanding and very supportive. He loves her and only wants the best for er. And of course Yoli is devastated that he sister is so depressed–especially since she is so successful and seems to have her life together in ways that Yoli doesn’t.
Yoli, by the way, is not having a great life. She has two kids to two different fathers and is likely getting divorced from her current husband. She has no real emotional ties to anyone and thinks o herself as slutty. Her ids are pretty good but they are older and growing more independent.
Comparing their lives, Yoli says
Listen! I want to shout at [Elf]. If anyone’s gonna kill themselves it should be me. I’m a terrible mother for leaving my kids’ father and other father. I’m a terrible wife for sleeping with another man. Men. I’m floundering in a drowning non-career. Look at this beautiful home that you have and this loving man loving you in it! Every major city in the world happily throws thousands of dollars at you to play the piano and every man who ever meets you falls hard in love with you and becomes obsessed with you for life. Maybe it’s because you’ve perfected life that you are now ready to leave it behind. What else is there left to do? (109).
There are dozens of ancillary characters, like Julie, Yoli’s best friend from when they were growing up (her exploits as a delivery person for Canada Post are wonderful–especially the time she rescues Yoli when she is trapped in a ravine), Julie gets a lot of book time and all of it is good. There’s the men whom Yoli hooks up with–one of whom might actually be more in love with Elf. And there is Yoli’s Aunt Tina (her mom’s sister) who is a fun, tough character and who goes nowhere without a Sudoku puzzle or a book.
Despite Elf’s current situation, she has a new concert series lined up in Europe. Her promoter–an interesting guy who flies in and out of the book seemingly with nothing but good news–is unflagging in his devotion to Elf and her talents.
Much of the book is spent in the hospital with Yoli and her mother visiting and trying to rationalize Elf’s behavior both to themselves and to Elf. They are also indignant with the nurses who feel that Elf is not cooperating and are therefore less than happy about helping her.
Their mother has survived a lot of this. The depression that Elf suffers is the same that Elf’s father had. Indeed, depression and suicide is fairly common in their family history. But their mother “emancipated” herself by taking classes and becoming social worker and eventually a therapist. She is a strong woman who provides some of the happier moments in the story.
About a third of the way through the book, the fog lifts for Elf. She wants out of the hospital, and is excited about the tour. The family and doctors are pleased, and everyone gets back to their lives. But nobody recovers so quickly and Elf has other plans. She still speaks of assisted suicide in Switzerland and demands that Yoli take her. But as all of this is going on, Tina has to go into the hospital for heart surgery–routine and caught early enough but it still means more hospital time.
With so many sorrows, puny or otherwise in their lives, it is up to Yoli to somehow keep everything together. Or maybe she just needs to go somewhere new, away from everything that has dogged her life. The book can’t possibly have a sweet and happy ending, but Yoli and her mom fight for what’s good in life.
What was so wonderful about the book was Toews’ writing. She takes a sad story–one with inevitability written all over it–and makes it musical and beautiful. The prose simply sings and the feelings it evokes are real and complex. It is a really masterful piece of writing. I didn’t know Toews’ work before and but I will definitely keep an eye out for her earlier books.
I just love a story that is well written and personal and impactful.
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