The piece will premier April 22nd in Orchestra Hall Minneapolis with 300 musicians from St. Olaf College. You can hear a sneak peak here or get tickets here. Just yesterday Bhantes Mudita, Sathi, Kalama, and Dhammadeva spent time with the St. Olaf College choirs working on Pali pronunciation.
Wow! Thank you for sharing this. What is the background on this piece?
ADD
Just realized you are the composer. Congratulations 
2 Likes
And I second that wow, and those congratulations!
It sounds like an amazing work, and i hope you let us know how things go.
I loved the bone-sounding percussion, and the groaning trombones, all very apt for the passage.
3 Likes
And what is the libretto/text?
The sample sounds rather samsara oriented, and shades of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana”.
1 Like
For the short passage there, it’s the 32 parts of the body: “kesā, lomā …”
3 Likes
You nailed it exactly! All the groans, moans, thumps, and sounds of the body. This is more like my first time trying this meditation than a master meditators millionth time. It was otherworldly to feel that embodied.
2 Likes
It is 28 sections short sections or excerpts from the Pali canon. About 3/5ths in Pali and the rest in my English translation.
It might sound like Orff because of the large orchestra, choir, and lots of percussion! But other sections are lovely or dramatic. There is samsara but a bit of Nibbana as well.
I’m especially pleased with the Therigatha and Theragatha sections like Ambapali and Sappadasa. You can see the full text (and part of the score) here. If you are interested, I can share more of the score. I will certainly share a recording when it becomes available.
And if you know of any Buddhists monastics in the area that want free tickets, let me know. I’ve reached out and some have taken me up on the offer, but mostly on the ones I know personally.
4 Likes
I love what you made here!
2 Likes
Wow! 
I am a Minnesotan (and Augsburg alumnus) and truly impressed/ shocked at such wonderful dhamma-art springing from the Norwegian Lutheran milieu!
3 Likes
I don’t mean this in a critical way - but, is it not explicitly against vinaya rules to go to a musical performance?
I was worried about this very thing and have tried to be sensitive to the idea that different monastics might read this rule differently. The “ruling” I got from Bhante Sathi is that a concert that is a telling of texts from the canon is not what is meant in the Vinaya by “musical shows,” and that he is in favor of monastics attending (although he is out of town at that time). When he and other monks came to help the choirs with pronunciation, they were scrupulous to avoid rehearsals of music that was not a part of The Path.
I mentioned free tickets for monastics because of the issue of money.
5 Likes
wow! I love your concern for correct pali, and for monastics. The sample sounds educational, inviting more education. Is there a program, with notes? if so, i would love to read it.
3 Likes
Thanks so much for the kind words! You can read the program notes here. Unfortunately, it has to be short to fit in the program.
3 Likes
Thank you very much. May your practice flourish, may all beings be liberated, may the effect of your remarkable dana benefit many beings.
2 Likes