Utopia (pdf) for Choir and Orchestra (completed January 2000)
text by Wislawa Szymborska
Utopia
For Choir and Orchestra
By John Christian Rommereim
Text by Wyslawa Szymborska
English Translation by Adam Czerniawski
In her short poem titled Utopia the Polish Nobel Laureate Wyslawa Szymborska describes an ideal world where the ambiguities and uncertainties of human life have been swept away, and an unassailable sense of order and rationality prevails. With striking imagery and great zeal, the poet extols the virtues of this fantastic island. By the end of the poem, however, we see that these exaggerated propagandistic claims are not as alluring as they initially appeared. Visitors all find that they prefer the messiness and incomprehensibility of real life to the security and order of the island.
It would be most obvious to link this poem to the fall of communism and to the ensuing disenchantment with absolutism in political life. In setting the poem, however, I did not have this political view in mind, but instead interpreted the poem as a more general statement about the human condition.
As I started to treat this text, I often found that Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony echoed in the back of my mind, The Choral/Orchestral
genre is naturally suited to express public statements of shared
belief, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is the ultimate example
of such a work--the purest expression of idealistic beliefs in
music, an affirmation of an unshakable faith in universal brotherhood.
In "Utopia," I have aspired to express a similar exuberance
and optimism-but this exuberance is given a certain ironic twist.
Occasional oblique references to Beethoven echo in the background.
As the piece progresses, the fanfare-like material presented in
the chorus's first entrance is twisted and deformed, mimicking
the disillusionment found in the poem. In an extended fugue-like
section I attempt to capture the essential affirmation of life-not
an ideal, perfect life, but life as we find it with all its incongruities
and shortcomings--with which the poem concludes.
Utopia
An island where everything becomes clearHere one can stand on the ground of proofs.
The only road has its destination.
Shrubs are burdened with answers.
Here grows the tree of Proper Conjecture,
its branches eternally untangled.The dazzlingly straight tree of Understanding
is next to a spring called Ah So That's How It Is.The deeper you're in the wood, the wider grows
the Valley of Obviousness.Whatever the doubt, the wind blows it away.
Echo speaks uncalled
and readily solves the mysteries of worlds.On the right a cave where sense reclines.
On the left a lake of Deep Conviction.
Truth stirs from the bottom and lightly breaks the surface.
Unshakeable Certainty dominates the vale
and Essence of Things spreads from its head.Despite these attractions, the island is deserted,
and the tiny footmarks seen along the shores
all point towards the sea.As though people always went away from here
and irreversibly plunged into the deep,Into life that's inconceivable.
Wislawa Szymborska (Adam Czerniawski, trans.)