It is a sad irony of art being life that the work opening MoM1 is based on a book written over 1000 years ago in what is now Ukraine. A book that was an act of defiance against an authoritarian overlord who attempted to steal another land, and annihilate its people and its culture.
Aaron Helgeson’s The Book of Never is perfect to the task of opening this year's Month of Moderns, capturing in fragmented chant and complex (often devastating) harmonies the thoughts of a panoply of 20th-century writers – Oscar Wilde, Pablo Neruda, Gertrude Stein, Angela Davis, Thanhha Lai, The Rolling Stones – whose words overlay the Novgorod Codex, a wooden book of psalms from 999 CE which was an attempt to preserve a faith and life.
The Month of Moderns 2022 arrives this Saturday.
Aaron’s world premiere is just one of three on MoM 1.
Marcos Balter’s The Book of Colors is, well, colorful!
Infused with Marcos’ signature driving rhythms and kaleidoscopic
timbres and textures, The Book of Colors is a joyful reflection on the hues of nature and our relationships to those things we associate with them.
Finally, a new work from Gabriel Jackson,
who celebrates our long-time collaborative relationship with
Darest thou now O Soul, a Whitman setting,
written as a birthday gift to Donald; It draws on ‘everything we’ve got’ –
virtuosic, insightful, acrobatic, and a hell of a lot of fun.
A fitting, rowdy, triumphal close for our return to The Month of Moderns.
