Roxana Panufnik: Three Paths to Peace for orchestra (2008)

Roxana Panufnik
born 24 April 1968

World premiere and commission
premiered at the Jerusalem Theatre, Jerusalem, in October 2008, as an orchestral prelude after the violin concerto ‘Abraham’, with Christian, Jewish and Islamic chants and music,
commissioned by the World Orchestra for Peace.


This approx. 12-minute orchestral piece was written for an existential reason in the life of the composer Roxana Panufnik. She herself said in an interview:

‘I wrote a violin concerto called ‘Abraham’ for Daniel Hope. When 9/11 happened, I was pregnant with my first child. I was completely horrified at the kind of world I was bringing her into. The violin concerto is based on the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac, and it occurs in all three faiths. I wanted to start the piece with an Islamic call to prayer. I consulted two mullahs - one Shia and one Sunni - and one said, ‘Well, go ahead,’ but the other said, ‘I don't think you should do that - why don't you listen to a lot of them and see what the common elements are and then write your own? So that's what I did... But I also think you have to be very careful with cultural appropriation - people are very sensitive about that. When I work with people of other nationalities or faiths, I work very closely with them.’

On the content of this orchestral piece, she continued: ‘It begins with a quasi-Islamic “prayer”. I took advice from various mullahs and used the rhythm of the words, the quarter tones, the beautiful, ornate embellishments and the way they move. For the Jewish music, I used a traditional prayer [Ashkenazi Jewish chant] and shofar horn calls. And for the Christian music, I used church bells, and there are also laments. So the idea is that at the last minute, when Abraham is about to kill his son [Isaac], he gets a reprieve and the angel comes down to stop him. And that leads to the last part of the piece, which brings together all these different musical elements from all three religions in a joyful and harmonious conclusion.’

Roxana Panufnik received the commission for this composition from the ad hoc World Orchestra for Peace, founded by Georg Solit. They asked me to turn the violin concerto ‘Abraham’ into a somewhat shorter orchestral prelude and to include the solo part in the orchestra. Paradoxical from today's perspective: the premiere was conducted by Valery Gergiev, a supporter of Putin and his war of aggression against Ukraine! This makes paths to peace all the more necessary.

Listen here (approx. 16 min.)!


Listening companion:

A solo viola begins with a call to prayer based on the recitative Muslim musical tradition. Short silence. A solo violin continues this call, extended with light embellishments. Bells ring out. Another solo violin takes over this call, accompanied by the sound of the bells. The call to the individual instruments is transmitted to the entire orchestral choir like a medieval plainsong. Harps and piano mingle with the bell sounds and harmonise the use of a solo cello and further orchestral choral singing with melodies that allude to the three musical traditions of sacred music in Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

The solo violin emerges from this floating overall sound, meditating to itself, followed by a viola that enters into dialogue with it. An oboe conjures up shofar calls. Slowly, an orchestral cluster builds up in ever fuller sound and sinks back into silence and individual chimes.

As if Abraham had made up his mind, the solo violin hesitantly sets off to answer the call. Drum solos - originating from the Sufi tradition according to Roxana Panufnik - provide a rhythm to be followed. Woodwinds and brass now join the orchestral choir as a new layer of sound. Bass tubas play melodies, further melodies are added dissonantly, layer by layer the orchestra is built up and heads towards the cruel climax of the human sacrifice that is supposedly to be carried out obediently: the so-called sacrifice of Isaac.

But then humanity intervenes, in the form of a shocked solo violin (an angel according to the Abraham story), then the viola of the beginning also calls out and puts a stop to it. As if in a common musical cadence, viola and violin agree, as it were, that since Abraham and Isaac, human sacrifice is no longer a path to God demanded by religions.

The orchestra joins in with the finest harmonies. Clarinets play figurations and violins begin to sing. Harps, bells and piano runs expand the sound, melodies from all musical traditions are exchanged and form a unified new overall sound. Finally, the final note a‘’ of a violin reminds us of the A for A-braham, of this common path-seeker for God. The composer wants to make it clear through her music: ‘The most important fact about Christianity, Judaism and Islam is that they all believe in the same one God.... And it's really interesting, because the songs of these three religions all come from the same place in the Middle East’ (Roxana Panufnik).

Note for music lovers:

Website: Unknown Violin Concertos

 

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