TUVAYHUN
TUVAYHUN was the brainchild of Michelle Oesterle, the then-director of the Manhattan Girls Chorus. In 2017 she commissioned me and Norwegian composer Kim Arnesen to create a work that spoke hope and unity to our troubled world. She envisioned a stunning marriage of text and music, combining traditions from different cultures to portray a truly global community united in love and blessing.
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The Manhattan Girls Chorus and soloists premiered the work in April, 2018, in New York City. It was an experience I will never forget. The magnificent Grammy-nominated recording of the full work was created by 2L featuring the Nidarosdomens jentekor and Trondheimsolistene, under the direction of Anita Brevik.
Program Notes
Our world is a wondrous place; but it is also a deeply troubled place, in need of messages of inclusion, trust, kindness, compassion, humanity, and mutual respect. The texts for this work act as poetic responses to the verses in the traditional Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The poet has taken each of Jesus’ blessings (Tuvayhun in Aramaic) and crafted a text as if to say, “Yes, and…” These new texts illustrate how that blessing applies in the real world. It seems as though Jesus’ words two millennia ago still resonate, and the types of people he sought to comfort with his blessings are still in need of blessing, and the societal shortcomings he drew attention to then are still challenging us today. One might think that each of the eight verses in the Beatitudes concerns different groups of people: the poor in spirit, the meek, the peacemakers, the merciful. However, these are not eight different groups of people, but are eight moral qualities that all of us can possess. We are all in need of these blessings, and we are all called to act as the agents of blessing.
The texts range from a lullaby to a refugee narrative, from a folk dance to an anthem of universal human needs and dignity, interspersed with messages of hope and blessings, framed by Jesus’ beatitudes sung in Aramaic. It ends with an exhortation for all of us to let our light shine and be a blessing to others.
Complete Text for TUVAYHUN
1.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 5:3)
I am poor, yes;
I am poor in spirit.
In despair I weep for the world I see,
A world of poverty, of misery,
Of loneliness profound;
A world of hate, of sad division,
And of shocking cruelty,
Where trolls well-fed and liars bold
Erode our sense of shared humanity,
Setting sister against brother,
Neighbor against neighbor,
Race against race,
Faith against faith,
Nation against nation.
How long must we wait, O Lord? How long?
When will Your promised Kingdom come?
How can one NOT be poor in spirit
When lies become truth,
And Truth lies, rejected?
When saints are silenced
And villains grow mighty?
While mumbling leaders dither and look away?
Why must we wait for the coming of the Kingdom,
My sisters and my brothers?
Why must we wait, O Lord?
For when one is poor in Spirit,
One is poor indeed.
2.
Blessed are the merciful: for they will be shown mercy. (5:7)
Forty days and forty nights
The bombs rained down.
School, road, marketplace,
The world we knew
Now only dust and blood.
Who will tend the orchard, with harvest coming on?
Who will greet the sunrise on the hill?
Will we ever taste again the spices of our home?
Who can know it if we ever will?
Forty days and forty nights
We fled, frightened;
Desert, mountain, stormy sea…
Silent strangers
Passing by your door.
Will we be forgotten as we journey far from home?
Will we find a safer place to stay?
Will new neighbors welcome us as brothers and as friends?
Or will they scoff and send us on our way?
Forty days and forty nights
We’ve settled now,
Broken, worn out, waiting.
All was lost,
Except our hope.
May we sit and share with you the story of our journey,
And of our hope, and hardships overcome?
May we help you tend your orchard, when harvest’s coming on?
May we share with you the spices of our home?
3.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they will be called children of God. (5:9)
Peace is not a silent state
That comes upon us from within—
Serene, detached, oblivious.
Peace is not a force like rain
That comes, unbidden, from above—
Gentle, enfolding, natural.
Peace is fire! Peace is passion!
Peace requires strength of will,
A certain courage, a heart of iron,
A force abiding to fulfill.
Peace is not a foregone fate;
For peace, like war, must be waged—
Mindfully, deliberately,
With arms ever ready,
And eyes wide open.
The waging of peace is our highest call.
4.
Blessed are the meek: for they will inherit the earth. (5:5)
Mama, I don’t want to sleep!
So many things I want to do,
So many things I want to see,
I couldn’t ever go to sleep!
Mama, will you sing to me?
Go to sleep, my precious child,
And lay aside your worries.
Tomorrow is another day
To grow and learn, and love and play.
Tomorrow, all the world shall be
Just as it was today, you’ll see.
Mama, I don’t want to sleep!
I want to jump! I want to dance!
I want to sing the whole night through!
I couldn’t think of sleep at all.
Mama, May I sing with you?
Go to sleep, my restless one,
And still your stirring spirit
The silent stars shall dance tonight
And greet the sun in morning light.
Tomorrow all the world shall leap;
But only if you go to sleep!
(I pray to God who dwells above
To watch you closely as you sleep,
And grant you all the joys you seek.
The world is darker than you know,
But blessed, blessed are the meek!)
Tomorrow morning, when you wake,
The world will be made new again;
But you will be a little taller,
And the big, wide world just a little smaller.
Tomorrow the world is yours to keep;
But tonight, my darling, precious child,
Tonight, my sweet one, go to sleep!
5. Instrumental
6.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they will see God. (5:8)
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
But I wonder...
Will the God I see
Look at all like me?
For we have many names, many faces,
Different mothers, different races.
How can we, who are so many,
Have a God resembling any of us?
I wonder...
And when I smile at the face of God,
Will God be smiling back at me?
Am I worthy of that smile? Are we?
We need not wonder...
For God has many hands--our hands.
And God has many hearts--our hearts.
And when we look upon each other's faces
We see the face of God.
7.
Blessed are those who mourn: for they will be comforted. (5:4)
Leaving you behind
Is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
Leaving you behind,
You who were my everything.
Keep the memory of me,
And may my memory be a blessing—
The songs, the smiles, the laughter—
Every little thing that made you love me.
Love is powerful
In life as well as death;
For even as I die,
Eternal becomes my love for you.
Leaving you behind
Only makes our bonding stronger,
Vaster, longer,
Every day, in every way.
8.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they will be filled. (5:6)
In all that we are,
It is better by far
To follow our star,
And sing out our truth.
When things can’t get worse,
We hunger and thirst
For the last to be first;
And so we sing out our truth.
We sing for the poor.
We sing for the weak.
We sing for the helpless,
The hopeless, the meek.
We sing out the truth
Against hunger and hate.
We sing out for justice
Before it’s too late!
And in all that we do
For these, and for you,
The whole dark night through
We’re gonna sing out our truth!
9.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (5:10)
Brothers and sisters, gather round,
And hear the words we (I) say,
For the world can be a better place
If we hold hands today.
Hold my hand and stand with me,
And face the tide together;
And we will change the world today,
Tomorrow, and forever.
Hold my hand against injustice;
Hold my hand and stand with me.
Hold my hand against division;
Just take my hand and see.
Hold my hand to conquer hatred;
Hold my hand and stand with me.
The troubles of the world will melt,
And we will blessed be.
Brothers and sisters, gather round,
And hear the words we (I) say,
For the world can be a better place
If we hold hands today.
10.
You are the Light of the world; Let your light will shine before others.
While you have the Light, believe in the Light,
So that you may become children of Light.
You are the Light of the world; Your light will shine before others.
I am the Light of the world; My Light will shine before others.
We are the Light of the world; Our Light will shine before others.
We are the Light of the world...
Proverbs 4:18, Matthew 5:14, John 12:36, Philippians 2:15
© 2018 Charles Anthony Silvestri