Itaipu is a large-scale work for chorus and orchestra set to a Guarani text. Itaipu is the world's largest dam located on the border between Paraguay and Brazil. The piece is cast in four movements: Mato Grosso, The Lake, The Dam, To the Sea. The piece is part of the composer's interest Brazil, but also in indigenous cultures of the Americas which continues to this day. Commissioned and written for the Quebec Festival 1534-1984, Three Songs for Chorus a Cappella presents three pieces set to poems by three different North American poets. The first song, There are Some Men, is by singer-songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen (whose poetry was later the basis of an evening length song-cycle by Glass titled Book of Longing.) The second song, Quand les Hommes vivront d'Amour, by singer-songwriter/poet/artist Raymond Levesque is a wish for peace and happiness through love. The third song, Pierre de Soleil, by poet Octavio Paz is mediation on existential selflessness ("les autres qui me donnent l'existence.") |
