'A TIME FOR LIFE'

Conspirare sings a green song

Robert Kyr's "A Time for Life" bears a universal message of enviornment reconciliation

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, October 08, 2009

The text for "A Time for Life," a choral piece by Robert Kyr that will get its regional premiere this week by Conspirare, is adapted from the following sources: a Sioux prayer; an Eskimo song; the Chinook Psalter; an Ojibway prayer; a Pawnee/Osage/Omaha Indian song; a Navajo chant; the Orthodox "Service for the Environment"; a 1934 hymn of praise written by a Greek Orthodox priest titled "An Akathist in Praise of God's Creation"; the United Nations Environmental Sabbath Service said in honor of Earth Rest Day; the Old Testament books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ecclesiastes; and lines from Psalm 8.

Kyr found something similar in all the culturally disparate texts: "our mutual concern about the critical condition of the environment."

"The text (of "A Time for Life") is very multicultural and intended to be so," says the Eugene, Ore.-based composer. "You wouldn't normally connect (all these different cultural traditions), but they share the opinion that humanity should be a steward of and having a right relationship with creation and the planet."

A prolific and much-lauded composer, the 57-year-old Kyr has written 12 symphonies, three chamber symphonies, three violin concerti and numerous works for vocal ensembles of all kinds. Much of what he's written has concerned topical, contemporary concerns. "Ah Nagasaki: Ashes into Light," Kyr's 10th symphony, was commissioned by the Nagasaki Peace Museum in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki. The piece is currently the subject of a forthcoming documentary film.

"A Time for Life" was commissioned by Cappella Romana, an Oregon-based vocal ensemble that generally specializes in the musical traditions born out of the Eastern Orthodox Church. So when Kyr started his research for the piece, he looked at the various Orthodox prayers, sermons and hymns and found many expressing a profound interest in the environment. His research led him to consider the beliefs of Native American cultures. What Kyr discovered is that both Orthodox and Native American cultures expressed a shared belief in humankind's relationship to nature: that is, that rather than try to dominate and control the natural world, humankind should, Kyr notes, try to find a harmonious way to live in step with nature.

A Time for Life "looks at the connections, not the differences, of these traditions," says Kyr. "And what we see is that there is a very human theme with a broad meaning across time and across cultures. And that (shared) idea is that we need to be in collaboration and in harmony with nature. Everyone needs to come together and work together to heal the planet."

Familiar with Kyr's music, artistic director Craig Hella Johnson of Grammy-nominated Conspirare decided "A Time for Life" would be a good fit for an Austin audience. "He has a great concern about the world and the environment, and I was really touched by the level of his engagement with both issues," says Johnson. "So many composers are afraid to go places in direct ways. Not Robert."

Kyr recalls a moment from his youth in Cleveland that kick-started his lifelong interest in the environment. In 1969 the Cuyahoga River, chock-full with chemical pollution from decades of industrial discharge, caught fire — and caught the nation's attention when the national media broadcast the story.

"You can't turn away from a burning river," says Kyr.

And indeed, the country didn't. The Cuyahoga River fire spurred a spike in environmental action that led to the Clean Water Act of 1972. In Cleveland, city officials made a concerted effort to clean the Cuyahoga as well as Lake Erie, where the river empties. Parts of the river that were once devoid of fish and aquatic life are now healthy aquamarine habitats.

Kyr says that the improvement of the Cuyahoga and Lake Erie is an example of how with "the proper commitment to action, and with real effort, we can heal the planet."

That journey from the destruction of natural beauty and back again acts as something of the core of "A Time for Life." Kyr calls his choral piece "a musical play," and while it is not a staged opera with specific characters, the piece does use eight singers as separate voices.

Structured in three parts, "A Time for Life" starts with a section featuring texts that rejoice in the creation of the planet. Singers generally sing as soloists, each establishing his or her own voice. In the second part, "Forgetting," voices join together in duos and trios and sing laments about humankind's current inability to live in harmony with nature. The final "Remembering" segment brings the voices together for a call-and-response song that, Kyr says, reminds us "how important it is for everyone to come together and work together to heal the planet. The journey is a spiritual one."

Kyr conceived of something of a theatrical presentation for "A Time for Life." The audience members are in the middle of the performance, with singers starting out the piece in different places around them. As the libretto sings of bringing people and nations together to save the planet, so do the performers come together in front of the audience.

Stylistically, Kyr has made his mark on contemporary classical music with compositions that are harmonically and rhythmically complex, but are nevertheless tonal in their emphasis. Critics have noted his ability to blend lyrical influences from both Western and Asian traditions, and both contemporary and almost medieval eras.

"(Kyr's music) balances an antique spaciousness with a modern sensibility," says Johnson.

For Kyr, that balancing of ancient and modern sounds and that blend of Eastern, Western and Native American cultures bear a lesson.

"There's a lot of wisdom (in these cultures) that we could benefit from," he says.

jvanryzin@statesman.com; 445-3699

'A Time for Life'

When/where:

7:30 Thursday, Oct. 8. St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 6000-A FM 3237, Wimberley

8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. St. Louis Catholic Church, 7601 Burnet Road

2:30 p.m. Sunday. St. Martin's Lutheran Church, 606 W. 15th St.

Cost: $38-$42

Information:www.conspirare.org