Light from the Cross is based on Armenian liturgical hymns of the Holy Week and it is dedicated to Isabel Bayrakdarian, the singer for whom it was written. Rather than a set of arrangements of existing hymns, the composer has created an oratorio-like composition based on the Lord's Passion, focusing on the themes touched upon by the hymn texts and developing these themes within the orchestral context.
When conductor Mario Bernardi gave me printed arrangements of some of these hymns as well as a CD of similar hymns recorded by Isabel, I realized that there were quite a few discrepancies between Isabel's renderings and the actual notation of these melodies. Hers was a "liquid", flowing rendering with a myriad of small vocal modulations and ornamentations that defied notation. Knowing that she grew up with these hymns – and therefore with the oral tradition that has preserved them to this day - I preferred to follow her far richer renditions rather than the notated versions of the same hymns. I had Isabel record the hymns for me unaccompanied at the Walter Hall of the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and then used these recordings as the basis of my own composition, creating an orchestral "presence" around her actual pre-recorded voice. I composed the work using a computer and it was a great inspiration to hear her voice constantly as I was sculpting the music around the minutest inflections of her recorded rendering.
From the outset I had decided that I wanted to create an oratorio-like composition based on the Lord's Passion and not a set of arrangements of existing hymns. Hence I focused a great deal on the themes touched upon by the texts and on developing these themes within the orchestral context, but I also used the texts and the pre-existing melodies as a vehicle for meditation on the subject of the Lord's crucifixion. Part of the spring and the entire summer of 2002 were spent in a splendid state of thinking about (but primarily "feeling") this most profound of mysteries and trying to convert my poor intimations on this subject to music. It was one of the most spiritually fulfilling periods of my creative life so far. The mystery did not confine itself to the religious dimension only. Working with a language that I do not understand, although fully equipped with all the necessary material for the task at hand, meant that the sound of the Armenian language, beyond the actual semantics of the texts, acquired a life of its own after daily exposure to it for several weeks. The sonic quality – the music – of the language began to "mean" something beyond the meaning of the individual words. I believe that this "meaning", which I have not successfully managed to define in a more concrete manner being fully happy instead to just sense its inner resonance, was unconsciously embedded into the music itself.
My inspiration for Light from the Cross came from various sources: first and foremost from the hymns themselves, beautiful and timeless as they are; then from Isabel's voice that was ever-present during the composition of this work. But the greatest inspiration was the subject matter itself: Christ's self-sacrifice and what it means for the present and future of our world, a subject that has become prominent in my thinking and my meditations and is increasingly having an all-consuming effect on me. The external influences can be traced to various sources: Byzantine icons, in the company of which I have existed since childhood, other religious art and literature, but also Hollywood, the various filmic renderings of Christ's life, particularly King of Kings which I have watched repeatedly since it first came out. These are not as strong an influence as my own personal meditations on the subject, but I believe that one could sense their presence in this work non-the-less.
The stylistic eclecticism of Light from the Cross is pervasive in my work in general. It is not the result of any desire to be "fashionably postmodernist", but rather of my desire to walk, however imperfectly and embarrassingly, in the footsteps of a Master who was "All things to All people". I believe that, if one's music can make a deep difference even to only one other human being, then that music is worthwhile for that reason alone. I hope and pray that Light from the Cross may have the opportunity to do just that at some point in its life as a piece of music.
