voices & visions
An event sponsored by NAMI Hennepin
Tuesday, October 25, 7:00pm
Open Eye Theatre
TO RESERVE YOUR FREE TICKET, PLEASE VISIT:
voicesandvisions.eventbrite.com
voicesandvisions.eventbrite.com
506 E 24TH STREET
MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55404
Convenient parking is available on the street, or the nearby free parking lot on the corner of 24th Street & Portland Avenue. (Do not use the apartment lot across from the theatre).
MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55404
Convenient parking is available on the street, or the nearby free parking lot on the corner of 24th Street & Portland Avenue. (Do not use the apartment lot across from the theatre).
“Voices and Visions" is a chamber music journey with voice and string quartet that raises awareness about living with and through mental illness. Sponsored by the Minnesota Hennepin chapter of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), this FREE event highlights composers Robert Schumann, Dmitri Shostakovich, and AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa, all who live(d) with mental illness. The program includes:
- Selections from 6 Gedichte von N. Lenau und Requiem, Op. 90 by Robert Schumann (arranged by Isaacson-Zvidzwa)
- String Quartet No. 8 by Dmitri Shostakovich
- Angels Sang to Me by AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa
Meet the Musicians
Maria Jette’s eclectic career has included appearances with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston, Kansas City, San Luis Obispo, Santa Rosa, Charlotte, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Austin, San Antonio and New York Chamber Symphonies, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, and many others; and she was a regular guest over many seasons at the San Luis Obispo Mozart and Oregon Bach Festivals and the Oregon Festival of American Music. At home in MSP, she’s regularly found with VocalEssence (under the baton of longtime friend and colleague, Philip Brunelle), Chamber Music Society of Minnesota and Lyra Baroque Orchestra. She played a parade of Baroque heroines with the late, lamented Ex Machina Antique Music Theatre, and was heard regularly for 20 years on Garrison Keillorʼs A Prairie Home Companion. Her lengthy list of commissions and premieres includes song cycles by British composers Geoffrey Bush, John Gardner, Ian Kellam and Alan Bullard; and chamber works, songs and cycles by Minnesotans Dominick Argento, Carol Barnett, Randall Davidson, David Evan Thomas, Steve Heitzeg, and Janika Vandervelde. For her service to new music, she was awarded a life membership by the American Composers Forum.
Leslie Shank leads an active musical life as a soloist and chamber musician. She was a member of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for 30 years, 24 years as assistant concertmaster, and is a founding member of the Minneapolis based chamber music group, The Isles Ensemble. Shank gave her New York recital debut at Carnegie's Weill Hall as a winner of the Artists International Competition, and was twice re-engaged to perform on its Special Presentation Series. She was appointed Visiting Assistant Violin Professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison, for the year 2014-15. Shank served as concertmaster of the Music in the Mountains Festival in Colorado for 11 years, and has performed at numerous other festivals including the Aspen, Grand Teton, Mainly Mozart, Marlboro, and the Britt Festival, where she served as concertmaster of the festival orchestra. As a member of the prestigious Musicians from Marlboro, she toured the East Coast. In addition to her musical activities on violin, she frequently plays viola in chamber music and is an avid photographer.
Brenda Manuel Mickens was a long-time member of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, who continues teaching privately and freelancing as a church and chamber musician. She also plays in memory care and assisted living settings, using music for calming and healing. Ms. Mickens grew up in San Diego, California, playing in the San Diego Symphony, San Diego Opera and La Jolla Chamber Orchestra. She received Bachelor of Arts degree in music from University of Nebraska Lincoln while playing in Nebraska Chamber Orchestra and Lincoln Symphony, and Master of Music Performance from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Violist Sifei Cheng joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1995. He has served as principal viola of the Charleston Symphony, New World Symphony and Juilliard Orchestra, and led sections under Michael Tilson Thomas, Eiji Oue and Christoph Eschenbach. As a chamber musician, he has played in the Ravinia Festival, Caramoor Music Festival, Taos Chamber Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival and the New York String Seminar. Sifei has collaborated in chamber music with artists such as Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, Andrew Litton and pianist Jon Kimura Parker. He was recently appointed Principal Viola of the Minnesota Bach Ensemble and holds a degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia after studying at the Juilliard School in New York. His past teachers include Karen Tuttle and Michael Tree of the Guarneri String Quartet.
Laura Sewell has performed as a cellist in Europe, Asia, Canada, and throughout the United States. Locally she has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Minnesota Opera, as well as numerous chamber ensembles. Laura was the founder of the award-winning Lark Quartet, which was the bronze medal winner in the Banff International String Quartet Competition. Later in her career, she was a member of the Artaria String Quartet. She has performance degrees from the Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and her major teachers were Leonard Rose, Alan Harris, and Jacqueline du Pré. Currently Laura is the Associate Director of the International Cello Institute and has just released a CD, called "Threescore," of works by Minnesota composers for cello and piano on the Innova label.
Meet the Composers
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was a German composer of the Romantic era. Most scholars agree that if Schumann were alive in the days of the DSM (the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals) he would have been diagnosed with some form of mental illness, most likely bipolar disorder. Alternating between states where he would “compose feverishly” with states of “virtual paralysis” he was known for being eccentric. Having attempted suicide in February 1854 at age 44, he voluntarily committed himself to an asylum where he stayed until his death in 1856.
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer who had a complex relationship with the Soviet government having his music fall in and out of good standing with the Soviet rulers. Having friends, relatives, and colleagues imprisoned or even killed, Shostakovich’s life depended on the government approving of his music. Shostakovich spent years living in fear. Described as a “neurotic” and “obsessive” man, he was obsessed with cleanliness, frequently synchronized the clocks in his apartment, and would send himself cards to test how well the postal service was working. Beginning in 1958, Shostakovich’s physical health began to decline until he died of heart failure in August 1975.
A Minnesota based, violist, composer, and music history enthusiast, AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa (1990- ) holds a Bachelor of Music degree in viola performance from Augsburg University. As a composer, her major commissions include “Angels Sang to Me” for soprano and string quartet, commissioned by the Cedar Cultural Center; "The Sun Will Rise" for vibraphone and string quartet, commissioned by the Artaria String Quartet; "Songs of Enchantment" for voice, viola, and piano, commissioned by soprano Maria Jette; “Four Dances” commissioned by the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet (in progress); and most recently AJ has received a Minnesota Music Creator Award through the American Composers Forum to write a new piece for SATB choir. In addition to composing, AJ performs on viola and violin, is writing a book, is editing an 18th century viola concerto, has published articles in two journals, has lectured at an International Viola Congress, and is presently writing the viola column for Minnesota’s “String Notes” magazine. When she isn’t composing, practicing, researching, or writing, AJ enjoys traveling, hiking, kayaking, and (yet-to-catch-a-fish) angling with her husband. AJ identifies as a female, BIPOC, composer who lives with and spreads awareness of living with mental illness.
Program Notes
6 Gedichte von N. Lenau und Requiem, Op. 90, Nos. 1, 3, 6, and 7
(6 Poems by N. Lenau and Requiem)
by Robert Schumann, arranged for soprano and string quartet by Isaacson-Zvidzwa
(6 Poems by N. Lenau and Requiem)
by Robert Schumann, arranged for soprano and string quartet by Isaacson-Zvidzwa
I. Lied Eines Schmiedes (Blacksmith’s Song) (Nikolaus Lenau)
III. Kommen und Scheiden (Coming and Parting) (Nikolaus Lenau)
VI. Der Schwere Abend (The Heavy Evening) (Nikolaus Lenau)
VII. Requiem (Requiem) (Old Catholic Poem)
III. Kommen und Scheiden (Coming and Parting) (Nikolaus Lenau)
VI. Der Schwere Abend (The Heavy Evening) (Nikolaus Lenau)
VII. Requiem (Requiem) (Old Catholic Poem)
This song cycle, written in 1850, consists of 7 songs originally for voice and piano. Four of these songs have been arranged for voice and string quartet. Schumann used texts by Nikolaus Lenau, who also lived with mental illness. Impulsive and prone to depression, Lenau had a major breakdown in 1844 and lived the rest of his life in an asylum. In 1850 Schumann heard news of the death of Lenau and started his opus 90 as a tribute to his friend. Later, Schumann learned Lenau had, in fact, not died. This welcome news was but brief as Lenau actually died three weeks later.
String Quartet No. 8
by Dmitri Shostakovich
by Dmitri Shostakovich
I. Largo
II. Allegro molto
III. Allegretto
IV. Largo
V. Largo
II. Allegro molto
III. Allegretto
IV. Largo
V. Largo
Shostakovich wrote a total of 15 string quartets in his lifetime. At the time he wrote his 8th string quartet, in 1960, Shostakovich had reluctantly joined the Communist party, and was suffering from depression. Some say this work was written as an epitaph and that Shostakovich had plans to commit suicide. Filled with quotations from his own previous compositions, this piece is in 5 movements, played without pauses. Shostakovich signs his own name using the DSCH (Dmitri Schostakowitsch) motive: D-E-flat-C-B (Es is E-flat and H is B natural in the German notation system). This motive makes appearances in all five movements of this quartet. This work is dense and highly emotional. When the Borodin Quartet brought this piece into Shostakovich’s home to get feedback from the composer, Shostakovich was “overwhelmed by this beautiful realisation of his most personal feelings, [he] buried his head in his hands and wept.”
Angels Sang to Me
by AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa
by AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa
I. Prelude (Instrumental)
II. While I was fearing it, it came (Emily Dickinson)
III. What I suffered (Hector Berlioz)
IV. I felt a Cleaving in my Mind (Emily Dickinson)
V. Interlude 1 (AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa)
VI. I'm Nobody! Who are you? (Emily Dickinson)
VII. Mad Genius (Ian Hamilton on Robert Lowell)
VIII. The Fly (William Blake)
IX. God (AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa)
X. Alone, I cannot be-- (Emily Dickinson)
XI. Interlude 2 (Instrumental)
XII. Pathological enthusiasm (Robert Lowell)
XIII. Interlude 3 (Instrumental)
XIV. Spirit's House (Sara Teasdale)
XV. In the night (Clara Schumann on Robert Schumann)
XVI. Hymn (Edgar Allan Poe)
XVII. Expansive force (Hector Berlioz)
XVIII. Interlude 4 (Instrumental)
XIX. If I can stop one Heart from breaking (Emily Dickinson)
II. While I was fearing it, it came (Emily Dickinson)
III. What I suffered (Hector Berlioz)
IV. I felt a Cleaving in my Mind (Emily Dickinson)
V. Interlude 1 (AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa)
VI. I'm Nobody! Who are you? (Emily Dickinson)
VII. Mad Genius (Ian Hamilton on Robert Lowell)
VIII. The Fly (William Blake)
IX. God (AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa)
X. Alone, I cannot be-- (Emily Dickinson)
XI. Interlude 2 (Instrumental)
XII. Pathological enthusiasm (Robert Lowell)
XIII. Interlude 3 (Instrumental)
XIV. Spirit's House (Sara Teasdale)
XV. In the night (Clara Schumann on Robert Schumann)
XVI. Hymn (Edgar Allan Poe)
XVII. Expansive force (Hector Berlioz)
XVIII. Interlude 4 (Instrumental)
XIX. If I can stop one Heart from breaking (Emily Dickinson)
In the song cycle, Angels Sang to Me, composer AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa reveals her experiences with mental illness through music. AJ’s story is told through poems and writings of past artists who continued to create while mentally ill, including William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe and Hector Berlioz. Instrumental interludes are interspersed throughout to illustrate the emotional highs and lows of AJ’s journey through bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, touching on fear, confusion, mania, hallucinations, levity, and concluding with a balancing and accepting awareness of one’s illness. The instrumentalists whisper and speak while accompanying the singer, as lyrics and texts draw the audience through illness towards health. In the process of this work, Angels Sang to Me spreads awareness about mental illness, shows that success with mental illness is possible, and destigmatizes what it means to live with bipolar and schizophrenia.
Texts - Schumann
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I. Lied Eines Schmiedes
Fein Rößlein, ich Beschlage dich, Sei frisch und fromm, Und wieder komm! Trag deinen Herrn Stets treu dem Stern, Der seiner Bahn Hell glänzt voran. Trag auf dem Ritt Mit jedem Tritt Den Reiter du Dem Himmel zu! Nun Rößlein, ich Beschlage dich, Sei frisch und fromm, Und wieder komm! |
I. Blacksmith’s Song
Fine little horse, I’m shoeing you. Be bright and good, And come back! Carry your master, Always true to the star Which over his path Shines brightly! Carry on the ride, With each step, The rider To Heaven! Now, little horse, I’ve shod you. Be bright and good, And come back! |
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III. Kommen und Scheiden
So oft sie kam, erschien mir die Gestalt So lieblich wie das erste Grün im Wald. Und was sie sprach, drang mir zum Herzen ein Süß wie des Frühlings erstes Lied im Hain Und als Lebwohl sie winkte mit der Hand, War’s, ob der letzte Jugendtraum mir schwand. |
III. Coming and Parting
So often she came; To me, her form seemed As lovely as the first green in the wood. And what she said Pierced me to the heart Sweet as Spring’s first song. And in farewell, She waved with her hand, It was as if my last youth-dream faded away. |
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VI. Der Schwere Abend
Die dunklen Wolken hingen Herab so bang und schwer, Wir beide traurig gingen Im Garten hin and her. So heiß und stumm, so trübe Und sternlos war die Nacht, So ganz, wie unsre Liebe, Zu Tränen nur gemacht. Und als ich mußte scheiden Und gute Nacht dir bot, Wünscht' ich bekümmert beiden Im Herzen uns den Tod. |
VI. The Heavy Evening
The dark clouds hung down so gloomy and heavy We both sadly walked in the garden here and there. So hot and still, so dull and starless was the night, Just like our love, made only for tears. And when I had to depart, and bid you goodnight, I wishes sorrowfully in my heart that we both were dead. |
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VII. Requiem
Ruh’ von schmerzenreichen Mühen Aus und heißem Liebesglühen; Der nach seligem Verein Trug Verlangen, Ist gegangen Zu des Heilands Wohnung ein. Dem Gerechten Leuchten helle Sterne in des Grabes Zelle, Ihm, der selbst asl Stern der Nacht Wird erscheinen, Wenn er seinen Herrn erschaut im Himmelstracht. Seid Fürsprecher, heil’ge Seelen, Heil’ger Geist, laß Trost night fehlen; Hörst du? Jubelsang erklingt, Feiertöne, Drein die schöne Engelsharfe. |
VII. Requiem
Rest from the pain-rich toil and the hot glow of love; He who longed for the company of the Holy Ones Has gone to the Savior’s dwelling-place. For the righteous, bright stars shine in the grave’s cell, He, who himself as a stay in the night will appear, When he beholds his Lord in Heaven’s splendor. Intercede for him, holy souls! Holy Spirit, let not your comfort fail! Do you hear it? Jubilant song rings out, celebration sounds In which the beautiful angels’ harps sing. |
Texts - Angels Sang to Me
I. Prelude
Instrumental
II.
While I was fearing it, it came,
But came with less of fear,
Because that fearing it so long
Had almost made it dear.
There is a fitting a dismay,
A fitting a despair.
‘T is harder knowing it is due,
Than knowing it is here.
The trying on the utmost,
The morning it is new,
Is terribler than wearing it
A whole existence through.
-- Emily Dickinson
III. What I suffered
“It is difficult to put into words what I suffered-- the longing that seemed to be tearing my heart out by the roots, the dreadful sense of being alone in an empty universe, the agonies that thrilled through me as if the blood were running ice-cold in my veins, the disgust with living, the impossibility of dying… I had stopped composing; my mind seemed to become feebler as my feelings grew more intense. I did nothing. One power was left to me-- to suffer.”
-- Hector Berlioz*
IV.
I felt a Cleaving in my Mind --
As if my Brain had split --
I tried to match it — Seam by Seam --
But could not make them fit.
The thought behind, I strove to join
Unto the thought before --
But Sequence ravelled out of Sound
Like Balls — upon a Floor.
-- Emily Dickinson
Instrumental
II.
While I was fearing it, it came,
But came with less of fear,
Because that fearing it so long
Had almost made it dear.
There is a fitting a dismay,
A fitting a despair.
‘T is harder knowing it is due,
Than knowing it is here.
The trying on the utmost,
The morning it is new,
Is terribler than wearing it
A whole existence through.
-- Emily Dickinson
III. What I suffered
“It is difficult to put into words what I suffered-- the longing that seemed to be tearing my heart out by the roots, the dreadful sense of being alone in an empty universe, the agonies that thrilled through me as if the blood were running ice-cold in my veins, the disgust with living, the impossibility of dying… I had stopped composing; my mind seemed to become feebler as my feelings grew more intense. I did nothing. One power was left to me-- to suffer.”
-- Hector Berlioz*
IV.
I felt a Cleaving in my Mind --
As if my Brain had split --
I tried to match it — Seam by Seam --
But could not make them fit.
The thought behind, I strove to join
Unto the thought before --
But Sequence ravelled out of Sound
Like Balls — upon a Floor.
-- Emily Dickinson
V. Interlude 1
-- AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa
VI.
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!
They 'd banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
-- Emily Dickinson
VII. Mad Genius
on poet Robert Lowell
“Some… found him excitable and talkative during this period, but since the talk was always brilliant and very often flattering to them, they could see no reason to think of Lowell as “ill,” indeed, he was behaving just as some of them hoped a famous poet would behave…when [Lowell’s wife] became convinced that Lowell was indeed sick… Her version of Lowell was not theirs, even when they were discussing the same symptoms; what to her was “mad” was to them another mark of Lowell’s genius.”
-- Ian Hamilton*
VIII. The Fly
Little Fly
Thy summers play,
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.
Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
For I dance
And drink & sing:
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life
And strength & breath:
And the want
Of thought is death;
Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.
-- William Blake
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!
They 'd banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
-- Emily Dickinson
VII. Mad Genius
on poet Robert Lowell
“Some… found him excitable and talkative during this period, but since the talk was always brilliant and very often flattering to them, they could see no reason to think of Lowell as “ill,” indeed, he was behaving just as some of them hoped a famous poet would behave…when [Lowell’s wife] became convinced that Lowell was indeed sick… Her version of Lowell was not theirs, even when they were discussing the same symptoms; what to her was “mad” was to them another mark of Lowell’s genius.”
-- Ian Hamilton*
VIII. The Fly
Little Fly
Thy summers play,
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.
Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
For I dance
And drink & sing:
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life
And strength & breath:
And the want
Of thought is death;
Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.
-- William Blake
IX. God
Damn fly.
What fly?
Don’t you hear it?
“Dear Diary, I’ve been having hallucinations
and am feeling really scared and alone…”
BE STILL
God, is that you?
YES, MY CHILD
I need help.
Excuse me, who are you talking to?
BE STILL MY CHILD
Don’t you hear that?
I don’t hear anything.
Don’t you hear God’s voice?
God is speaking to me!!
I HEAR GOD!!!
die die die die DIE DIE...
What? God, is that you?
God, where are you? Make this stop!
LEAVE ME ALONE!
-- AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa
Damn fly.
What fly?
Don’t you hear it?
“Dear Diary, I’ve been having hallucinations
and am feeling really scared and alone…”
BE STILL
God, is that you?
YES, MY CHILD
I need help.
Excuse me, who are you talking to?
BE STILL MY CHILD
Don’t you hear that?
I don’t hear anything.
Don’t you hear God’s voice?
God is speaking to me!!
I HEAR GOD!!!
die die die die DIE DIE...
What? God, is that you?
God, where are you? Make this stop!
LEAVE ME ALONE!
-- AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa
X.
Alone, I cannot be --
For Hosts — do visit me --
Recordless Company --
Who baffle Key --
They have no Robes, nor Names --
No Almanacs — nor Climes --
But gen’ral Homes, Like Gnomes --
Their Coming, may be known
By Couriers within --
Their going — is not —
For they've Never gone --
-- Emily Dickinson
XI. Interlude 2
Instrumental
XII. Pathological enthusiasm
“...I had an attack of pathological enthusiasm. The night before... I ran about the streets... crying out against devils... I believed I could stop cars and paralyse their forces by merely standing in the middle of the highway with my arms spread... I suspected I was a reincarnation of the Holy Ghost, and had become homicidally hallucinated.”
-- Robert Lowell*
XIII. Interlude 3
Instrumental
XIV. Spirit’s House
From naked stones of agony
I will build a house for me;
As a mason all alone
I will raise it, stone by stone,
And every stone where I have bled
Will show a sign of dusky red.
I have not gone the way in vain,
For I have good of all my pain;
My spirit’s quiet house will be
Built on naked stones I trod
On roads where I lost sight of God.
-- Sara Teasdale
XV. In the night
on composer Robert Schumann
"In the night, not long after we had gone to bed, Robert got up and wrote down a melody which, he said, the angels had sung to him. Then he lay down again and talked deliriously the whole night, staring at the ceiling all the time. When morning came, the angel's transformed themselves into devils and sang horrible music, telling him he was a sinner and that they were going to cast him into hell. He became hysterical, screaming in agony that they were pouncing on him like tigers and hyenas, and seizing him in their claws."
-- Clara Schumann*
XVI. Hymn
At morn—at noon—at twilight dim--
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!
In joy and wo—in good and ill--
Mother of God, be with me still!
When the Hours flew brightly by
And not a cloud obscured the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be,
Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;
Now, when storms of Fate o’ercast
Darkly my Present and my Past,
Let my Future radiant shine
With sweet hopes of thee and thine!
-- Edgar Allan Poe
XVII. Expansive force
"I could well believe there is a violent ‘expansive force’ within me. I see that wide horizon and the sun, and I suffer so much, so much, that if I did not take a grip of myself I should shout and roll on the ground. I have found only one way of completely satisfying this immense appetite for emotion, and that is music. Without it I am certain I could not go on living."
-- Hector Berlioz*
XVIII. Interlude 4
Instrumental
XIX.
If I can stop one Heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching,
Or cool one Pain,
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again,
I shall not live in vain
-- Emily Dickinson
*Quoted in Touched with Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison
Alone, I cannot be --
For Hosts — do visit me --
Recordless Company --
Who baffle Key --
They have no Robes, nor Names --
No Almanacs — nor Climes --
But gen’ral Homes, Like Gnomes --
Their Coming, may be known
By Couriers within --
Their going — is not —
For they've Never gone --
-- Emily Dickinson
XI. Interlude 2
Instrumental
XII. Pathological enthusiasm
“...I had an attack of pathological enthusiasm. The night before... I ran about the streets... crying out against devils... I believed I could stop cars and paralyse their forces by merely standing in the middle of the highway with my arms spread... I suspected I was a reincarnation of the Holy Ghost, and had become homicidally hallucinated.”
-- Robert Lowell*
XIII. Interlude 3
Instrumental
XIV. Spirit’s House
From naked stones of agony
I will build a house for me;
As a mason all alone
I will raise it, stone by stone,
And every stone where I have bled
Will show a sign of dusky red.
I have not gone the way in vain,
For I have good of all my pain;
My spirit’s quiet house will be
Built on naked stones I trod
On roads where I lost sight of God.
-- Sara Teasdale
XV. In the night
on composer Robert Schumann
"In the night, not long after we had gone to bed, Robert got up and wrote down a melody which, he said, the angels had sung to him. Then he lay down again and talked deliriously the whole night, staring at the ceiling all the time. When morning came, the angel's transformed themselves into devils and sang horrible music, telling him he was a sinner and that they were going to cast him into hell. He became hysterical, screaming in agony that they were pouncing on him like tigers and hyenas, and seizing him in their claws."
-- Clara Schumann*
XVI. Hymn
At morn—at noon—at twilight dim--
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!
In joy and wo—in good and ill--
Mother of God, be with me still!
When the Hours flew brightly by
And not a cloud obscured the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be,
Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;
Now, when storms of Fate o’ercast
Darkly my Present and my Past,
Let my Future radiant shine
With sweet hopes of thee and thine!
-- Edgar Allan Poe
XVII. Expansive force
"I could well believe there is a violent ‘expansive force’ within me. I see that wide horizon and the sun, and I suffer so much, so much, that if I did not take a grip of myself I should shout and roll on the ground. I have found only one way of completely satisfying this immense appetite for emotion, and that is music. Without it I am certain I could not go on living."
-- Hector Berlioz*
XVIII. Interlude 4
Instrumental
XIX.
If I can stop one Heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching,
Or cool one Pain,
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again,
I shall not live in vain
-- Emily Dickinson
*Quoted in Touched with Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison
More on Mental Illness
(taken from nami.org/mhstats)
