| Better Angels takes as its generative idea the intersection of eras embodied by two political texts central to American history: excerpts from Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address and Barack Obama's victory speech, which references the former. The correlation of oratory, symbolizing an ideal's promise and its fulfillment, is represented in the work by various musical and formal means. The shared exhortation toward national unity, and the implicit extension of the entreaty to encompass the global community, lies at the heart of the work.;Better Angels is conceived in five movements: Prelude; movements I, II, and III; and Postlude. The Prelude serves to set up the musical landscape in which the piece resides, while the Postlude explores the lingering resonances of previous movements. Movement I, which sets Obama's speech to music, conveys vitality and buoyancy; Movement III is conflicted and somber, and sometimes wistful, reflecting the struggles of Lincoln's time, and throughout the subsequent century-and-a-half, toward the ideal prescribed in his text. Movement II uses text from Genesis 11:1: And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.;The above text, translated into Esperanto, coalesces from non-semantic fragments, the percussion acting as a partner to the soprano in a mimicking game, to demonstrate that language is, in its essence, sound. The reverse process occurs in the electronics, in which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is recited in different languages, by breaking the languages down into pure sound.;The ensemble consists of 1 flute, 1 B-flat clarinet (doubling on bass clarinet), 1 French horn, percussion, 1 harp, 1 piano, soprano, 3 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello, and electronics. The soprano and electronics are absent from the Prelude and Postlude, placing them outside the "arena of action," as though to proffer the middle movements in a frame.;Better Angels ends with all the performers singing a 3-part hymn from The Sacred Harp: Mercy's Free, which is introduced as an instrumental version in the Prelude. The "putting away of differences" by the performers---that is, of their disparate instruments---and joining together to sing directly illustrates the ideal of unity. |
