Wake Up! Concerto for Orchestra
This concerto for orchestra is inspired by the poem, Awake, Asleep, written by the Nepali poet, Rajendra Bhandari. In this profound poetic offering, Bhandari warns of the danger of being obliviously sleep in a social world, but yet how collective wakefulness provides “a bountiful harvest of thoughts.” My goal in writing this work was not only wake a sleeping hall with the sound of the orchestra, but to leave those who hear the piece with the question: Am I asleep? For these reasons, I chose to compose a two-note rhythmic motif that acts as a “wake up call” throughout the composition— as if the orchestra is speaking to the hall and the audience, “WAKE UP!”
Awake, asleep
To slumber amongst the awakened
is more difficult
than staying awake amongst the slumbering.
slumbering can be contagious,
one slumber leading to another,
another, ..... and another
till an epidemic of slumber explodes.
During the pandemic of sleep
the despot sings of peace.
The slumbering public is innocent,
like a slumbering child,
smiling in its sleep.
Asleep, it does not know when it bedwets,
asleep, it is photogenic,
asleep, it does not cast stones at the mirror
does not ask for aeroplanes and guns,-
Things, a despot knows better
than a poet.
Like sleep, wakefulness too is contagious,
One rubs his eyes as he awakes,
sighs and coughs...
another coughs, another sits up, talks.
all talk to each other,
the talking growing into a din...
Like a sprouting shoot of thought
One thought sprouts, and another... and another.
becoming a bountiful harvest of thoughts.
Things, a poet knows better
than a despot.
© Rajendra Bhandari
Translated from the Nepali by Pankaj Thapa
Perusal Score
Simon’s musical imagination and cultural intelligence — to say nothing of his talent for deft orchestration — were on thrilling display in this 20-minute offering, whose title, Wake Up!, works on many levels.
But one of the reasons [Shostakovich's Symphony] No. 5 made such a thoughtful bookend to Simon’s wake-up call is that both composers share a sense of bothness — an ability to say two things at once, thread angst through merriment, smiles through tears. [...] There’s a bit of a cinematographer and choreographer to this composer, and “Wake Up!” put his many sides into thrilling simultaneous motion.
Wake Up! Concerto for Orchestra
20 minutes
for Orchestra
San Diego Symphony Orchestra
San Diego Symphony Orchestra (lead commissioner) and National Symphony Orchestra
This concerto for orchestra is inspired by the poem, Awake, Asleep, written by the Nepali poet, Rajendra Bhandari. In this profound poetic offering, Bhandari warns of the danger of being obliviously sleep in a social world, but yet how collective wakefulness provides “a bountiful harvest of thoughts.” My goal in writing this work was not only wake a sleeping hall with the sound of the orchestra, but to leave those who hear the piece with the question: Am I asleep? For these reasons, I chose to compose a two-note rhythmic motif that acts as a “wake up call” throughout the composition— as if the orchestra is speaking to the hall and the audience, “WAKE UP!”
Awake, asleep
To slumber amongst the awakened
is more difficult
than staying awake amongst the slumbering.
slumbering can be contagious,
one slumber leading to another,
another, ..... and another
till an epidemic of slumber explodes.
During the pandemic of sleep
the despot sings of peace.
The slumbering public is innocent,
like a slumbering child,
smiling in its sleep.
Asleep, it does not know when it bedwets,
asleep, it is photogenic,
asleep, it does not cast stones at the mirror
does not ask for aeroplanes and guns,-
Things, a despot knows better
than a poet.
Like sleep, wakefulness too is contagious,
One rubs his eyes as he awakes,
sighs and coughs...
another coughs, another sits up, talks.
all talk to each other,
the talking growing into a din...
Like a sprouting shoot of thought
One thought sprouts, and another... and another.
becoming a bountiful harvest of thoughts.
Things, a poet knows better
than a despot.
© Rajendra Bhandari
Translated from the Nepali by Pankaj Thapa
Perusal Score
Simon’s musical imagination and cultural intelligence — to say nothing of his talent for deft orchestration — were on thrilling display in this 20-minute offering, whose title, Wake Up!, works on many levels.
But one of the reasons [Shostakovich's Symphony] No. 5 made such a thoughtful bookend to Simon’s wake-up call is that both composers share a sense of bothness — an ability to say two things at once, thread angst through merriment, smiles through tears. [...] There’s a bit of a cinematographer and choreographer to this composer, and “Wake Up!” put his many sides into thrilling simultaneous motion.