sleeper’s prayer was originally written for boy soprano and organ, and I arranged it for chamber choir in 2019.
The commissioners – the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Jacaranda – specifically asked me to write a piece that would include the spectacular and powerful organ in Walt Disney Hall. I am a little scared of concert organs – their sound can be overwhelming, and I started wondering if I could make the fear of being overwhelmed part of the piece. I thought if I had a very small and fragile voice singing along with the organ we would care about the power imbalance between the two. It might make us feel that the singer needed both support and protection from the organ, the way we all need support and protection from the world, and from life in general.
Then I remembered the prayers that religious Jews say before going to bed. The prospective sleeper might say these prayers to calm himself or herself, to give thanks, and to ask for protection in the night, when the sleeper is most vulnerable and unguarded. For my text, I rewrote a portion of these prayers, trying to focus on just how fragile peacefulness really is, and on how much we need it.
Jacaranda and the Los Angeles Philharmonic told me that sleeper’s prayer would be premiered on October 1st, 2016, and my first thought was about Steve Reich’s 80th birthday. We are accustomed to the idea that anniversary celebrations can stretch out a year before and a year after an important date, and that has certainly been the case with Steve. But his actual 80th birthday is October 3rd – the timing was almost too perfect. So sleeper’s prayer is dedicated to Steve Reich, on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Happy Birthday, Steve!
sleeper’s prayer was co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director, and Jacaranda, Patrick Scott, Artistic Director.
sleeper’s prayer was premiered 1 October 2016 in Walt Disney Hall, on the Green Umbrella series of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
The duration is approximately 7 and a half minutes.
