Raven Chacon & David Lang / Williams College ensembles – Voiceless Mass and the little match girl passion

Music

Williams College ensembles perform music of transcendence in St. James Church.

Raven Chacon’s Voiceless Mass is a large ensemble work to be performed in any gathering space of worship with high ceilings and pipe organ. Though ‘mass’ is referenced in the title, the piece contains no audible singing voices, instead using the openness of the large space to intone the constricted intervals of the wind and string instruments.

In exploiting the architecture of the cathedral, Voiceless Mass considers the futility of giving voice to the voiceless, when providing space is never an option.

David Lang’s the little match girl passion sets Hans Christian Andersen’s story ‘The Little Match Girl’ in the format of Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion, interspersing Andersen’s narrative with Lang’s versions of the crowd and character responses from Bach’s Passion.

“With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize for the little match girl passion (one of the most original and moving scores of recent years), Lang, once a postminimalist enfant terrible, has solidified his standing as an American master.” –The New Yorker