A Far Cry | Feeling New Strength

In Beethoven’s transcendent Heiliger Dankgesang (“Holy Song of Thanksgiving”), following the opening meditative chorale, he inscribes into the score the words “Neue Kraft Fühlend,” or “Feeling New Strength,” as the music erupts into an exuberant dance, representing his recovery from a serious illness. The rest of the program grapples with this theme of strength through struggle, from Josquin’s haunting depiction of Christian redemption through crucifixion; to Montgomery’s exploration of Black spirituals as the DNA undergirding the dance gestures of Alvin Ailey, the poetry of Langston Hughes, and the works of other Civil Rights-era Black artists; as well as Roberts’s and Shaw’s gritty and imaginative responses to contemporary displacement crises. All these works double down on music’s power to describe those struggles we most fear or that we might be blind to, and to find strength and grace in doing so.

Musical Program

Josquin des Prez: Ave Christe immolate, arr. A Far Cry 

Jessie Montgomery | Source Code

Matana Roberts | Borderlands

Caroline Shaw | “Litany of the Displaced” from To the Hands, arr. A Far Cry

Ludwig van Beethoven | Heiliger Dankgesang, from Quartet Op. 132, arr. A Far Cry