Perhaps you are familiar with Michelangelo’s quote about sculpture:

Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. ”
– Michelangelo

Peter Hallock once told us that it is the same with music and poetry. It’s the poetry which dictates what the music will sound like, and it is up to the composer to bring it out. If I had to categorize the music of Peter Hallock, I would say that it is the perfect marriage of music and text; the poetry is the basis of the music and one does not exist without the other.

I have been in Seattle for the past weekend to attend two identical Hallock at 100 concerts, and although the live concerts are over, I believe that you can still purchase tickets to watch the concert video at the following link. The video will be available from March 2 to 23, 2024 only.

Here is a list of the music performed. (I sat on the other side of the Cathedral for this afternoon’s concerts and got a different perspective! If you look closely, you can see Scott Fikse in the middle of the Compline Choir.)

The Compline Choir
Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah (Peter Hallock, 1924-2014)
Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah, no. VIII (Costanzo Festa, 1485/1490-1545)
What Hand Divine (Erin Aas, b. 1974)

José Luis Muñoz, countertenor
The Lover in Winter (Thomas Adès, b. 1971)
Old Bones (Nico Muhly, b. 1981)
Two Sonnets for Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Michael Nyman, b. 1944)

Byrd Ensemble
Libera nos, salva nos I (John Sheppard, c. 1515-1558)
I saw a new heaven and a new Earth (Peter Hallock, 1979)
Te lucis ante terminum (Thomas Tallis, 1505-1585)
Draw on sweet night (Peter Hallock, 2012)
Libera nos, salva nos II (John Sheppard)

My favorite piece of the concert was Old Bones, for countertenor and lute. I wanted to share the text with you, as it was the basis for a simple, yet powerful and totally unforgettable experience.

It is the academic conclusion that beyond reasonable doubt, the individual exhumed at Greyfriars in September Two thousand and twelve is indeed Richard the Third, the last Plantagenet King of England.

They dug in that spot, and the leg bones were revealed.
Yes,
I was overcome with emotion;
Yes,
I was overcome with emotion;
I was overcome with emotion:
Everyone else was looking at old bones,
I was looking at the real man And I was seeing the man.
Everyone else was looking at old bones,
I was looking at the real man.
Now a young man has come to protect us from violence,
The Saint is a roofbeam over the three counties,
Over lands, of Elidir’s lineage.
All his factions are flowers for us.
Sir Rhys himself is a rose.
He is a man, too, in war.
He was a fearless young man.
There was a battle, like that of Peredur The Ravens of
Urien prepared it.
King Henry won the day through the strength of our master;
He killed Englishmen, capable hand,
He killed the boar.
He chopped off his head Sir Rhys like the stars of a
shield with the spear in their midst on a great steed.
I have loved the dubbed knight of Carmarthen,
The hawk of the fortress of gold and wine is loved by all.
When you’re writing a screenplay, you walk a thousand miles
in their shoes every day.
I wasn’t interested in Richard’s death; but in his life.
I thought: “I should go to Leicester” The first time
I stood in that car park The strangest feeling just
washed over me.
I thought: “I am standing on Richard’s grave.” Richard
wanted to be found.
We know that he was working through the pain barrier
every day just to do his job.
That tells me about his character.
I think the time is right.
I think the time is right.
I think the time is right.
With our science, with our knowledge, with the time
of the Paralympics;
I think he was saying: “now you can understand me.
I’m ready.
I’m ready I’m ready to be reburied, and I’m ready to
be found.”

Everyone else was looking at old bones, and I was
Seeing the man.
—Richard Buckley, Philippa Langley, Gut’r Glyn

Wow, right, such a powerful text, yet the dramatic vocal solo only had a simple lute accompaniment to express all the emotions which made it all the more powerful.

Guess who I saw at the concert: Carol Rohrscheib Gregory, who was a chorister in the Lutheran Church of Honolulu Choir in the 1990s. She left Hawaii in 1994.

After the concert, there was a light reception in Bloedel Hall, and I got to say goodbye and thank you to Jason Anderson, the director of the Compline Choir and the Hallock Institute.

Home tomorrow; I leave for the airport at 6:30 am!