The ACDA Southwestern Division Conference will include a performance of “Angel of the East.” The work sets part of John Donne’s poem Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward, explaining the spiritual context: the poet rides out on business on a Good Friday, neglecting his meditations on Christ’s death. He journeys away from Jerusalem and the crucifi xion, which lies due east, moving in the opposite direction to which his mind automatically turns. Donne argues against his guilt that by travelling westwards he will eventually reach the east. Thus, the earth is a sphere where east and west become one. The work is scored for solo soprano, SSA voices, bass instruments, plucked instruments, organ, virginals, harmonium, two percussionists, violins.
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