A B B I E B E T I N I S C HANT FOR G REAT C OMPASSION SSAA div., a cappella Commissioned by the Cornell University Chorus Scott Tucker, conductor Premiered October 25, 2008 Ithaca, New York The Music of Abbie Betinis web: www.abbiebetinis.com ♦ phone: 612-590-3998 ♦ email: [email protected]Chant for Great Compassion / Abbie Betinis SSAA div., a cappella $2.50 AB-057-01
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Chant for Great Compassion / Abbie Betinis SSAA div., a ... · 3. po lu je di sho bo la ye 9. su da nu da sia ... The Great Compassion Mantra is an 84-line chant first translated
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Chant for Great Compassion / Abbie Betinis SSAA div., a cappella $2.50 AB-057-01
From the composer: This piece is for anyone in any need or trouble. It is about calling out for strength and courage – as individuals and also on behalf of our generation. The opening melody is inspired by the traditional chant to the goddess Guan Yin, known in Buddhism as the Chinese Bodhisattva of Compassion. Guan Yin, whose name means “she who hears the cries of the world,” is revered in China, Japan, and Taiwan, and her spiritual ancestor, Avalokiteśvara, in Malaysia, Tibet, and Thailand. Guan Yin vowed never to rest until she had freed all sentient beings from reincarnation. To comprehend the needs of so many, her head split into eleven pieces (hence the 11-part chords on page 8). Suddenly able to hear the myriad cries, she attempted to reach out to everyone who was suffering, but her arms shattered into pieces. She was then given one thousand arms with which to provide aid and relief to those in need. This piece was written in response to the earthquake which took the lives of nearly 70,000 people
in Sichuan Province in May 2008. But it is said that every recitation of the Great Compassion Mantra generates karma. I encourage singers to envision their own karma recipient(s) as they recite these ancient and beautiful syllables. The three texts in the piece are detailed below:
Reviewed as “most audacious… edgy and thrilling,” the music of Abbie Betinis (b. 1980) has been commissioned by over 40 music organizations including the American Suzuki Foundation, Cantus, and the Dale Warland Singers, and has won awards from the American Composers Forum, ASCAP, Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota Music Educators Association. A graduate of St. Olaf College and the University of Minnesota, Abbie has also studied harmony and counterpoint in Paris, France through scholarships from the European American Musical Alliance. Since 2005, Abbie has served as Composer-in-Residence for The Schubert Club in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has also held residencies with The Singers—Minnesota Choral Artists and The Rose Ensemble.
LINES WRITTEN WHILE TRAVELING BY BOAT IN THE YELLOW SEA By Qiu Jin (1905) I ride the clouds ten thousand leagues, I left and now return; My self alone in the eastern sea, spring thunder at my side. I cannot bear to see his map, and so my face grows pale; How can I let these rivers and hills return to kalpa ash? Cheap wine can never melt away, the sorrow for my nation; To save this age, we must rely on talent beyond the common. For we will risk this blood that flows from one hundred thousand skulls – And thus exert the strength to turn the cosmos back in place.
- trans. Paul Rouzer (used by kind permission)
Qiu Jin was a Chinese revolutionary, feminist, and writer. An eloquent orator, Qiu Jin spoke out for women's rights: the freedom to marry, freedom of education, and abolishment of bound feet. She was tortured and publicly executed in 1907, at the age of 31.
MIRROR By Wang Erbei A precious mirror is shattered Please don’t grieve, there’ll be as many honest eyes As there are shattered pieces.
- trans. Julia C. Lin Wang Erbei was born in 1927 in Yanting County, Sichuan province, where she was journalist and editor for the Sichuan newspaper until her retirement. Yanting County was one of the counties seriously affected in the May 2008 earthquake.
GREAT COMPASSION MANTRA (Dàbēi Zhòu) Traditional (7th c.) 1. na mo ho la da nu do la ye ye 7. an 2. na mo o li ye 8. sa bo la fa yi 3. po lu je di sho bo la ye 9. su da nu da sia 4. pu ti sa do po ye 10. na mo si ji li do yi mung o li ye 5. mo ho sa do po ye 11. po lu ji di, sho fo la ling to po 6. mo ho jia lu ni jia ye 12. na mo nu la jin cho...
(continues for 84 lines) The Great Compassion Mantra is an 84-line chant first translated from Sanskrit to Chinese in the seventh century. It is used for protection, purification, and healing. Because the Chinese version has been translated so many times and is spread widely through oral tradition, today the individual words have shed their original meanings. It now exists in many variations in East Asia and around the world, and is said to generate karma – even to the dead – upon its recitation.