How to pray

Synopsis

At Carnegie Hall on today’s date in 2002, the American Composers Orchestra presented new works inspired by the Hebrew Psalms. The program included the premiere of a new work by American composer David Lang, How to Pray.

In his program note, Lang wrote: “[The] Psalms are so central to religious experience [because] they are a comprehensive catalogue of how to talk to the Almighty. ... Of course, it's like reading one side of a correspondence. ... I am not a religious person. I don't know how to pray. I do, however, know some of the times and places and formulas that are supposed to help make prayer possible. Sometimes I find myself sending those messages out. And then I wait, secretly hoping that I will recognize the response.”

The minimalist-style, patterned repetition in Lang’s How to Pray, reminded some listeners of a “mandala” — those intricate graphic patterns intended to be an aid to meditation for Hindu or Buddhist believers.

Stravinsky fans with sharp ears might also recognize the running piano line from the beginning of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, which Lang borrows and weaves into the pattern of How to Pray as both a tribute and inspiration.

Music Played in Today's Program

David Lang (b. 1957): How to Pray; Real Quiet ensemble; Gil Rose, conductor; Naxos 8.559615

On This Day

Births

• 1587 - Baptism of German composer and organist Samuel Scheidt, in Halle-on-Saale

• 1801 - Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, in Catania, Sicily

• 1911 - Russian-American composer Vladimir Ussachevsky, in Hailar, Manchuria

Deaths

• 1939 - French composer and organist Charles Tournemire, 69, in Arcachon, France

• 1993 - Russian inventor Lev Sergeivitch Termen (anglicized to Leon Theremin), 97, in Moscow. He invented the theremin, an electronic instrument whose sound was either used or imitated (by specially constructed and easier to play electronic instruments) in any number of film scores (Spellbound, The Day the Earth Stood Still, etc.) and even in the Beach Boys’ song Good Vibrations.

Premieres

• 1726 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 49 (Ich gehe und suche mit Verlangen) performed on the 20th Sunday after Trinity as part of Bach's third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27)

• 1844 - Verdi: opera I due Foscari (The Two Foscari), in Rome at the Teatro Argentina

• 1888 - Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, in St. Petersburg (see Julian date: Oct. 22)

• 1898 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera The Tsar’s Bride, at the Solodovnikov Theatre in Moscow, with Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov conducting (see Julian date: Oct. 22)

• 1900 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, at the Solodovnikov Theatre in Moscow, with Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov conducting (see Julian date: Oct. 21)

• 1927 - Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 2, in Berlin at the Kroll Opera, with Otto Klemperer conducting and the composer the viola soloist

• 1943 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8, at the Moscow Conservatory by the USSR State Symphony conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky, for an invited audience of musicians, artists, critics, and journalists. The first public performance took place the following evening.

• 1945 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9, by the Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeny ravinsky conducting

• 1946 - Prokofiev: opera Betrothal in a Monastery (or The Duenna) in Leningrad

• 1950 - David Diamond: Symphony No. 3, by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting

• 1958 - Per Norgaard: Constellations for 12 solo strings, in Copenhagen

• 2002 - Milton Babbitt: “From the Psalter,” David Lang: “how to pray,” and Shulamit Ran: “Supplications,” at Carnegie Hall in New York by soloists, the New York Virtuoso Singers and the American Composers Orchestra, Steven Sloane conducting;

Others

• 1783 - Mozart completes his Linz Symphony (No. 36) the day before its first performance in that Austrian town