The Line Between (2011)

from Addressing Wonder: The music of Ed Jacobs by Ed Jacobs

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about

The Line Between grew from soprano Louise Toppin’s request for music related to the evils evidenced in humanity’s history of genocide. Long before writing music, I found the search for text remarkable in many ways, leading to many works of excruciating beauty and terror; revealing strategies for coping with tragedy both personal and global. I turned to the work of E.E. Cummings, which has been regular reading for me for decades; his work is endlessly fascinating and expressive, each reading revealing additional range and depth; a benefit of simply living and aging. Ultimately Cummings’ poems “Now all the fingers of this tree,” and “When God decided to invent” seemed most appropriate, and are used with permission of Liveright Publishing. The setting here finds these poems intertwined, rather than presented in succession.

The work’s title, though, alludes to another source, from Part II of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago”:
Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes,
nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil.

The Line Between was written with enormous rhythmic flexibility in mind; rather than constant strict synchronicity between voice and tape within phrases. The music allows the singer to be free within the bounds of sounds which are, by necessity, fixed. The lack of strict rhythmic correlation creates a sense of “communal prayer” which is heard very clearly at several points—perhaps most notably in the final minute.

lyrics

NOW ALL THE FINGERS OF THIS TREE
now all the fingers of this tree(darling)have
hands,and all the hands have people;and
more each particular person is(my love)
alive than every world can understand
and now you are and i am now and we’re
a mystery which will never happen again,
a miracle which has never happened before--
and shining this our now must come to then
our then shall be some darkness during which
fingers are without hands;and i have no
you:and all trees are(any more than each
leafless)its silent in forevering snow
--but never fear(my own,my beautiful
my blossoming)for also then’s until


WHEN GOD DECIDED TO INVENT
when god decided to invent
everything he took one
breath bigger than a circustent
and everything began
when man determined to destroy
himself he picked the was
of shall and finding only why
smashed it into because

—E.E. Cummings (1894-1962)

credits

from Addressing Wonder: The music of Ed Jacobs, released March 19, 2021
Amanda Gregory, soprano


“when god decided to invent” from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962, by E. E. Cummings, Edited by George J. Firmage, are used with permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. Copyright 1944, 1972, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust.

“now all the fingers of this tree(darling)have” from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962, by E. E. Cummings, Edited by George J. Firmage, is used with permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. Copyright 1949, 1977, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright 1979 by George James Firmage.

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Open G Records New York, New York

Open G Records is an independent classical record label based in New York City. We strive to assist the exceptional artists on our roster in making records that tell their stories on their terms. Our artists enjoy unprecedented freedom in the production of their art, and co-own the resulting product in a profit-sharing structure. We hope you enjoy this wonderful music and thank you for listening! ... more

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