Abandon - Z. Randall Stroope

Z. RANDALL STROOPE - SSATBB unacc.; J.W.Pepper EDITOR'S CHOICE; poet Maria Rainer Rilke; U.S. publisher, Walton Music WW1955; duration 5:30.
COMPOSER'S NOTES (www.zrstroope.com)
[Recording by THE NEW AMERICAN VOICES, ZRS conductor]
I so love the deep expressive longing of this text by Maria Rainer Rilke (in translation below.) The Parisian sculptor, Auguste Rodin - who sculpted "The Thinker," "The Burghers of Calais," among others, stands as one of the greatest artists of all time. In 1884, twenty-year-old Camille Claudel, a French sculptor and graphic artist began working in Rodin's studio. (Her surviving work is of the highest order, and genius in its own right.) Rodin's and Camille's mutual passion for art and eventually for each other was remarkable. Their unrestrained love and deep emotional connection was was the impetus for this present musical work - "Abandon."
"In the softness of the evening, it's you she receives. With each
disclosure, you encompass more and she stretches beyond what
limits her, to hold you. You are the partner of her loneliness, the
unspeaking center of her monologues." (translated)
The text is by Rainer Maria Rilke who travelled to Paris and became moved by Rodin's work, and for a time, was his secretary. Rodin's view of art greatly affected Rilke's literary works.
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