A Far Cry Concert: Feeling New Strength

In Beethoven’s transcendent Heiliger Dankgesang (“Holy Song of Thanksgiving”), following the opening meditative chorale, he inscribes into the score the words “Neue Kraft Fühlend,” or “Feeling New Strength,” as the music erupts into an exuberant dance, representing his recovery from a serious illness. The rest of the program grapples with this theme of strength through struggle: from Josquin’s haunting depiction of Christian redemption through crucifixion, to Montgomery’s exploration of Black spirituals as the DNA undergirding the dance gestures of Alvin Ailey, the poetry of Langston Hughes, and the works of other Civil Rights-era Black artists; from Shaw’s gritty and imaginative response to contemporary displacement crises to Revueltas’ focus on Cuauhnahuác, where many of the most radical concepts powering the Mexican Revolution were championed. All these works double down on music’s power to describe those struggles we most fear or that we might be blind to, and to find strength and grace in doing so.

Musical Program:
Josquin des Prez: Ave Christe immolate, arr. A Far Cry
Jessie Montgomery | Source Code
Caroline Shaw | “Litany of the Displaced” from To the Hands, arr. A Far Cry
Silvestre Revueltas | Cuauhnahuác
Ludwig van Beethoven | Heiliger Dankgesang, from Quartet Op. 132, arr. A Far Cry