Proverbs for Four at Fifty

Proverbs for Four at Fifty got started when my friend, Bill Gross, asked me to set a verse from Mishle (the Book of Proverbs) as a present to his wife, Cheryl, on her fiftieth birthday. As I worked on the piece, it struck me how very apt it was to pick a Biblical quotation for this kind of celebration, especially considering the Biblical exhortation – in Vayyiqra (Leviticus), Chapter 25 – to make a jubilee of the fiftieth year.

These pieces are meant for general audiences. The texts carry a universal message. The texts are all in Hebrew, since I wanted to convey their message in the language that would best convey their meaning to the people for whom these pieces were composed. Hebrew is also authentic for these texts; perhaps this is why they sound so glorious in Hebrew. Hebrew is remarkably compact: compare Uvkhal kinyankha kineyh vinah with “Therefore use all of your means to acquire understanding”; the English has half again as many syllables, more than twice the words, and four times as many letters. And the Sephardic pronunciation (the way Hebrew is spoken today in Israel and therefore the way Jewish liturgy is pronounced in houses of Jewish worship around the world) has an extraordinary rhythmic vitality, suggestive of syncopation, asymmetrical meters, and the like: stuff that energizes a composer.

…firm and hearty, alternating broad rich harmonies with canonical entrances and stark monophony. (David Bratman, San Francisco Classical Voice)