Muhly STRANGER

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Nico Muhly

STRANGER

for tenor and string quartet

St Rose Music Publishing Co. / Chester Music Ltd.

Commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society with support from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. The World Premiere was given by Nick Phan (tenor) and Brooklyn Rider at the Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia on January 24, 2020.

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Duration: c. 15 minutes

TEXT

I.

Here is the challenge: how do we as scholars give voice to the voiceless? How do we understand lived experience if we have nothing from the actors themselves? Is it possible to recover and interpret the past?

Gordon H. Chang and Shelley Fisher Fishkin “Fragments of the Past: Archaeology, History, and the Chinese Railroad Workers of North America” Historical Archaeology 4 No. 9 (2015): 1-3

II.

And then when you got inside of the building, Ellis Island, we were one in after another. And at the end of the line there was a doctor. And he examined your eyes. If your eyes was good, pass. They ask you who you're going to see, where you're going. How much you have and who's gonna take care of you. They asked my mother, ‘Who are you going to see?’ ‘My husband, of course.’ Everybody is nervous when you go through that doctor. Because it's the fear that you don't know what you have in your eyes. You know what I mean? What they could find. And it was fear. But after you pass, it's a great joy and a great relief in your mind and heart.

The food was the same because we always cooked the same no matter if we were there or even now. Food is the same. We do our own cooking. We know what we want.

Rose Breci

Transcript of an oral history conducted October 21, 1985 by Dr. Willa Appel The Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation Oral History Project III.

In your Declaration of Independence it is asserted that all men are born free and equal; it is understood by the civilized world that the United States of America is a free country, but I fear there is a backward step being taken by the government.

The Honorable Senator calls us heathens, but I should judge from the tone of his letter that he was somewhat lacking in Christian charity. Let him look at the fire in Chicago and yellow fever in New Orleans, and he will find Chinamen giving as much, according to their means, as any other people.

You go against the principles of George Washington, you go against the American flag, and you act in conflict with Christian charity and principle.

I ask you, where is your golden rule, your Christian charity, and the fruits of your Bible teachings, when you talk about doing unto others as you would have them do to you?

Letter from Wong Ar Chong to William Lloyd Garrison, February 28, 1879 IV.

The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Leviticus 19:34

V.

These threats and intimidations and riotous and bloody acts, committed under the light of nineteenth century civilization, in this nation which claims to be a leading nation in intelligence, morality, and culture, shock our sense of national pride as well as our sense of justice, honor, and right.

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The Scripture injunction in regard to the ‘stranger sojourning among us’ has been sanctioned and reasserted by all modern civilization, and it is abhorrent that such violations of the laws of hospitality and humanity should be repeated in one community after another on our Coast.

“To the president of the United States, and to the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled Protest against ill-treatment of the Chinese” (s. l. 1885)

VI.

Everyone cries and wails. Women with little babies, who’ve come to their husbands, are being detained. Who can stand this suffering? When a man wants to ask his wife something, or when a father wants to see his child, they don’t let him. Children get sick, they are taken to a hospital and it often happens that they never come back. We wear the same shirts for three or four weeks, because we don’t have our baggage with us.

Isaac Metzker

A Bintel Brief: Sixty Years of Letters from the Lower East Side to the Jewish Daily Forward (New York: Schocken Books, 1971)

VII.

My Love: Can you feel the brilliant sunshine on this page? And the peace? And hear the splashings of the summer? And the laughter of the children? And the hardness of this seat in this anchored row boat? And see the trees and the clouds reflected in this lake of fresh water?

My thoughts tonight are far-reaching. I know my thoughts of you are very tender ones. Perhaps it is the classical music on the radio, or perhaps it’s just because it is Saturday night that has prompted me to write tonight. Whatever the reason, I know I love you and miss you so terribly tonight.

Judy Barrett Litoff and David C. Smith (ed.) Since You Went Away: World War II Letters from American Women on the Home Front (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991)

With thanks to Leonard Bopp for research on the texts.

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COMPOSER’S NOTE

National character as expressed through art and music is a particularly thorny subject. Within moments, it can veer wildly from a rational conversation about what defines the cultural borders of a nation to terrifying xenophobic and racist statements. (As when President Trump, in a 2017 speech in Warsaw seemingly designed to reinforce the idea of Western cultural superiority, used the statement “We write symphonies.” As if somehow that mode of cultural production is a powerful weapon against some imagined onslaught by the winnowing-song, the ghazal, or the cantor’s psalm.)

The sentiment that America is a “nation of immigrants,” and the metaphor of the melting-pot can be interpreted in many ways, and too often it only practically applies to people who are perceived as white, and relates only to whatever the definition of whiteness is at the time. When I think about my own ancestors (Belorussian Jews, French, Irish, German, most arriving in the late 19th and early 20th centuries), their history over the last hundred years has mapped a kind of assimilation and clarification absolutely unavailable to people whose relatives arrived in the United States – no matter when – from China, Benin, Jamaica or the traditional Kwakiutl land in British Columbia. These others will always face some variation of the question, “No, but where do you really come from?" even if they were born in Dubuque, Providence, or Rancho Cucamonga.

For my piece Stranger, I’ve chosen four texts: an academic introduction to a project about the history of Chinese railroad workers; an interview with Rosa Breci, a Sicilian woman who arrived at Ellis Island in 1911; an extraordinary letter from a Chinese-American about the racism he experienced and how it was legally codified and reinforced; and finally, a letter from a woman to her husband, serving in the U.S. Army in 1945.

These texts are not meant to address some generic sense of the American immigrant experience, but rather serve as an attempt to navigate different kinds of shared American stories, from the confrontational (forced assimilation) to the practical (eye exams at the border), and make the connection between oppressive 19th-century immigration policies and those being advocated in the U.S. even now.

I almost always prefer to set prose than poetry. I find that poetry already contains its own music in such a way that I feel like I’m competing with the poet in trying to set it. Prose, for me, offers a more oblique entry-point into the text, particularly as the “voice” of the narrator – the recipient of a letter, the writer, the interviewee, or the diarist – can be divided between instruments and the singer.

When the tenor sings the line “How do we as scholars give voice to the voiceless?” is he the scholar or the voiceless? When he sings “I ask you, where is your golden rule, your Christian charity, and the fruits of your Bible teachings, when you talk about doing unto others as you would have them do to you?” is he the author or the reader of the Chinese immigrant's letter? Are we, as the audience, meant to hear this sentence in the current political climate, or are we to imagine ourselves back in 1879? What does the string quartet have to do with any of this? Are they witnesses, antagonists, observers, or some new character imagined by each listener?

While I've found that my writing for voice works best within the flexibility of prose, I find a similar ease setting translations. The wonderful thing about these texts is that they are all examples of a different kind of translation, one more related to the etymologically radical sense of the word, in which translation means to be carried across. The implications of translation are numerous and moving; one archaic usage is the idea of moving the bones of a saint from one place to another (such as the translation of St. Mark’s body from Alexandria to Venice).

In her interview 75 years after arriving in America from Sicily, Rosa Breci says: “Well, the food was the same because we always cooked the same no matter if we were there or even now. Food is the same. We do our own cooking. We know what we want.” Her experience has been translated and carried over, just as she was herself carried across the ocean from Sicily. She retains elements of her Old World self and her very assimilation is flavored by her original tongue.

Setting text to music can have the same effect, albeit with its own problems and complexities, wherein we hear the words simply, but we learn something new in the carrying-over from the singer to the audience.

NICO MUHLY

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moltosultastountil19semprelegatiss. Chang,Fishkin,FragmentsofthePast

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And Quickly,matter-of-fact ,anxious thenyougotinside - ofthebuilding, - Ellis - Island,Wewereone inafter - anoth - -er. Attheendoftheline,

whoyou'regoing - tosee, whereyou'regoing. - Howmuchyou

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# 3 & ord. & ord.

careofyou. eyaskedmymother. -

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pp pp pp p p

freely,asyouwouldspeakthetext

'Who areyougoing - tosee?' q=10452 p p p

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knowwhatyouhaveinyoureyes.YouknowwhatImean? YouknowwhatImean?

Whattheycouldfind. pposs.,floated Anditwasfear.Butafter - youpass, Freely

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it's dolciss. agreat joy andagreatrelief - inyour

p semprelegatiss. p semprelegatiss. p semprelegatiss.

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Foodisthesame.

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LetterfromWongArChongtoWilliamLloyd Garrison,1879

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country. - butIfearthereisabackward - stepbeing - taken - bythe

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'Heathens,'

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butIshouldjudgefromthetoneofhisletter

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Slightlyslower(q=72),butquitetaut 135

Yougoagainst - theprinci --ples ofGeorge Washing - -ton, yougoagainst - the _ A-

Bible - teachings, - whenyoutalkabout - doing - unto - others - asyouwouldhave

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Leviticus19:34 & drone; alternatebetweenIIandIII;asmooth, unbrokensoundwithsomevariationbetweensultastoandsulpont. U & drone; alternatebetweenIIIandIV;asmooth, unbrokensoundwithsomevariationbetweensultastoandsulpont.

e pstranger - thatdwelleth - withyou,thestranger - thatdwelleth - withyou, q=78-86,conversationalandquitefree

drone; alternatebetweenIandanaturalharmoniconII;asmooth, unbrokensoundwithsomevariationbetweensultastoandsulpont.

thestranger - thatdwelleth - withyou shallbe

unto - you asonebornamong - you,

drone; alternatebetweenIIandIII,asmooth,unbrokensoundwithsomevariationbetweensultastoandsulpont.

foryouwerestrangers - inthelandofEgypt. -

n semprelegatiss. pn

semprelegatiss. pn semprelegatiss.

"ProtestAgainstill-treatmentoftheChinese",1885

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ord. onthestring,quitesevere

ord. onthestring,quitesevere

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ord.onthestring,quitesevere

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32 issuu version for perusal only

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manwantstoaskhiswife something - orwhenafather - wants

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toseehischild, theydon'tlethim.

Children - getsick, theyaretaken - to a

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ppp ppp

hospi - -tal, anditoften - happens - thattheynever - come

pizz., chitarra

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because - wedon't have ourbaggage - withus.

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- sunshine - onthispage? Andthepeace? Andhearthesplashings - ofthe

summer? - Andthelaughter - ofthechildren? - Andthehardness - ofthisseatinthisanchored -

rowboat? Andseethetrees andthecloudsreflect - -edinthislake

offreshwater? - Mythoughtstonight - arefarreaching. - I sempre

poss. knowmythoughtsof

you areverry - tender - ones.

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Perhaps - it'stheclassi - -calmusic - ontherad --io, orperhaps - it's

justbecause - it'sSatur - -daynightthathasprompted - metowritetonight. -

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lontano

Whatev --erthereason, - IknowIloveyou andmissyouso pocorit.

terri

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