THE WAY CHILDREN SLEEP
to Pro Coro Canada and Michael Zaugg, conductor
with the generous support from IMANTA, the Edmonton Latvian Society
Lyrics by Māris Čaklais (1940 – 2003)
/English translation by Ruth Speirs (1913 - 2000)/
THE WAY CHILDREN SLEEP
Look in the night,
accidentally look in the night:
the way children sleep -
it makes a world war impossible.
Arms clasped about
their timorous bunnies and valiant bears
or, equally treasured,
the pillow's corner,
legs, little feet sprawling any which way,
in attitudes quite inconceivable, children
sleep.
Is it a smile from
the day that is gone,
or a dawning pain from the one yet to come -
how can anyone tell,
but the tiny bird
sitting tucked in the nook of those lips
has the silky wings of sweet sleep.
Children sleep
with such artless trust,
such implicit faith,
it makes a world war impossible.
And any war of whatever kind.
And this is precisely
what makes it more terribly still
to envisage its being possible.
/~1969/
Written in 2017
(c) 2017 Ugis Praulins [PRS/MCPS]
Pro Coro Canada. Michael Zaugg, conductor.
All Saints' Anglican Cathedral, Edmonton.
10035 - 103 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 0X5, Canada.
https://www.facebook.com/events/327321224330924
The 2016- 2017 season of Pro Coro Canada is coming to a close with the 1st Edition of the Edmonton International Choral Festival June 1 to June 4. Michael will direct Pro Coro in Childhood Memories, featuring music by Thomas LaVoy, Veljo Tormis, Eric Whitacre, and Canadians Cy Giacomin, Cecilia Livingston and Stuart Beatch. Also on the program is a The Way Children Sleep, a new work written for Pro Coro by Grammy-nominated Latvian Ugis Praulins. http://www.michaelzaugg.info/
Pro Coro Canada performing the
world-premiere of The Way Children Sleep by composer Ugis Praulins,
June 4, 2017, at McDougall Church, Edmonton. Michael Zaugg, conductor.
Rachel
Anderson at 11:43:
Thank you for sharing this impressive piece on soundcloud. My friend
has told me much about the piece and the composer. The
Way Children Sleep is eloquent
testament to all that is merciful and monstrous in our shared
humanity.
"Maestro, thank you for a wonderful new work for Pro Coro Canada. So many people commented to me last night on how much they enjoyed it at its world premiere. It was an honour and a privilege to be a part of it. Hope Michael Zaugg can get you a recording very soon!" Oliver Munar via Facebook.
24 Feb 2018 Banff Creative Centre. Pro Coro Canada. Michel Zaugg, conductor
25 Feb 2018 Edmonton. Pro Coro Canada. Michael Zaugg, conductor
11 Oct 2018 Sweden. Lone Larsen, conductor.
A Pro Coro Canada New Year’s Eve
Monday, Dec. 31 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
All Saints’ Anglican Cathedral 10035 – 103 St. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Michael Zaugg selected 10 wide-ranging masterpieces with works from acclaimed composers Gustav Mahler, Ugis Praulins, Joby Talbot, Jason Noble and Morten Lauridsen to name a few.
St. Albert sopranos Carol Kube and Catherine Kubash as well as bass Michael Kurschat are longtime Pro Coro vocalists.
One of the evening’s highlights is composer-in-residence Ugis Praulins The Way Children Sleep, a call for peace in a world loudly pounding war drums.
Kurschat notes the Latvian composer is quite eccentric.
“But he’s very organic in how he composes. He writes big block chords and independent lines. Written in nine individual voice parts, the singers have to be very responsive. There’s a lot of fast phrases and word repetition. It has a mantra-like quality. It has a certain groove with a lush texture and rhythmical sections. His music is unique and familiar at the same. It’s quite stunning.”
https://www.stalberttoday.ca/entertainment-news/pro-coro-heralds-the-new-year-with-song-1300543
Vokalensemblen VoNo. Lone Larsen, conductor. (2019 Apr?)
Eindrücklich manifestiert sich die Variationsbreite der Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten dieses Chores von der Fortissimo-Klanggewalt des Tutti bis zur subtilsten Untermalung einzelner Stimmen in The Way Children Sleep" des lettischen Komponisten Ugis Praulins. Auf der einen Seite steht hier der insistierende, immer dichter werdende Aufruf "look in the night", von der Intensität des wiederholten "Children sleep" sogar noch übertroffen. In absoluter Meisterschaft dynamischer Artikulation wird dieses "Children sleep" vom Fortissimo abrupt zum hauchzarten Pianissimo, um dem größtmöglichen Kontrast in Form einer sanft grundierten einzelnen hohen Männerstimme Platz zu machen. Von tonlosem Flüstern schwillt der Chor erneut zum Fortissimo an, um am Ende weich auszuklingen.
http://www.vocesnordicae.se/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/program-fmsp-181005-final-1_utan-beskärning.pdf
http://www.vocesnordicae.se/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/program-fmsp-181005-final-1_utan-beskärning.pdf
