Ravinia 2023 Issue 3

ROXANNA PANUFNIK (b.1968) Across the Line of Dreams Scored for two flutes and piccolo, three oboes, three clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, two tenor trombones and bass trombone, tuba, timpani, bass drum, double bell strike, kidi (small Ewe drum, the “blacksmith’s drum”), marimba, harp, piano, strings, and chorus Anglo-Polish composer Roxanna Panufnik creates music influenced by spirituality, cul- tural and religious acceptance, and a mission to build musical bridges. Growing up in an artistic and nurturing family, Roxanna was surrounded by creative expression and ex- ploration. Her father, Polish composer An- drzej Panufnik (1914–1999), fled communist Poland in 1954 and received political asylum in Britain, where he lived for the remainder of his life and was knighted by Queen Eliza- beth II in 1991. Her English mother, Camilla Jessel Panufnik, is a photographer and author. Roxanna attended Bedales boarding school in Petersfield, Hampshire, where she devel- oped a love of choral music and acceptance of all faiths (her father was raised Catholic, and her mother comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family). She studied composition and harp at the Royal Academy of Music but experienced a disconnect between the experimental music of her professors and the lyrical nature of her own writing: “My music leans towards the emotional rather than the intellectual.” Fol- lowing graduation, Panufnik worked for three years as a music program researcher for BBC Music and Arts. Skills developed in this position later benefitted her own composi- tions, whose narrative and historical qualities require extensive research. Having already received several commissions from musician friends and professional col- leagues, Panufnik left the BBC and dedicated herself to a full-time career as a composer. In the years since, she has built a sizeable cata- log of works for chorus, orchestra, chamber ensemble, solo instruments and voice, and Roxanna Panufnik opera. Panufnik was one of 12 composers commissioned to provide music for the cor- onation of Charles III and Camilla on May 6, 2023. Her Coronation Sanctus was performed by the congregated choirs and organist Peter Holder under the direction of Andrew Neths- ingha during the Eucharistic Prayer. Panufnik’s choral-orchestral score Across the Line of Dreams was commissioned by the Bal- timore Symphony Orchestra and University of Maryland Concert Choir, who gave the first performance on March 14, 2019, under the direction of Marin Alsop and Valentina Peleggi. This work celebrates the brave strug- gles for freedom led by Harriet Tubman and Rani Lakshmibai. Panufnik collaborated with classical music journalist, biographer, novel- ist, and librettist Jessica Duchen in creating a three-section narrative with monologues for Tubman and Lakshmibai followed by an imagined dialogue between the two. Reinforcing the individuality of the two her- oines, Panufnik wrote for separate orchestral ensembles, choruses, and conductors—the first representing Tubman (woodwinds, brass, percussion) and the second Lakshmib- ai (harp, piano, strings)—and further distin- guished the women in the dialogue section by composing Tubman’s music in four beats per measure and Lakshmibai’s in five. Panufnik and Duchen introduced these hero- ic women and their musical portrayals in their preface to the score: “Harriet Tubman and Rani Lakshmibai came from opposite sides of the world and, of course, never met—but they had more in common than you might think. Both were born in the 1820s. Each de- cided to fight for her people’s freedom. Each underwent a change of name, symbolizing a new, altered state of being. Each held fast to her faith. And each risked her life for a cause greater than herself. Both have passed into the realms of legend. “Born Araminta (‘Minty’) Ross in Dorchester County, MD, around 1822, Harriet Tubman fled slavery in 1849 and became active in the Underground Railroad, a network that aided the escape of enslaved people from the Deep South of the US, via which she helped to res- cue dozens. Having taken her husband John Tubman’s surname, she adopted her mother’s first name to reinvent herself. She was nick- named ‘Moses’ for leading her people to free- dom. She died in 1913 aged about 90. “Harriet was fervently Christian, so some of her music has a hymn-like quality with a drone figuration often heard in spirituals. Not much is known about her ancestry, but it is believed that her maternal grandmother, Modesty, was brought to the US on a slave ship from West Africa and was thought to be of the Asante (a.k.a. Ashanti) tribe, who came from Ghana. Therefore, I’ve used Ghanaian drum patterns to drive her music. While researching Asante music, I came across Joseph S. Kaminski’s excellent book Asante Ntabera Trumpets in Ghana —in it, he transcribes a signature motif from Asantehene’s mmentia musicians Ato- to wore sane (meaning ‘we are removing the knot’). This refers to the legendary knot that could only be untied by the true ruler, yet can also describe Harriet’s brave missions. “Rani Lakshmibai was born Manikarnika Tambe in Varanasi, by the Ganges, in 1828. Married off to the Rani of the princely state of Jhansi, she took the crown after her hus- band’s death. Their only child died in infancy, after which she adopted a young boy, Damo- dar, intending him to inherit her throne. The controlling British East India Company re- fused to recognize him as heir and attempted to exile Lakshmibai. When a major rebellion took place against the British in 1857 and was horribly crushed, she led her forces into battle herself. She died of her wounds, aged only 29.’ “There is a famous lament Babul Mora about Lakshmibai, written by the Nawab of Luc- know, after the battle in which she lost her life. It mourns her leaving her family and all she knows behind as she is taken away to be married to Gangadhar Rao, and it now ex- ists in many versions. It was originally in the Bhairavi mode, with which I have created my own lament. I have also composed my own Powada—a popular heroic or military ballad, which was used to eulogize heroic leaders. Again, there are many examples of this form, but a common musical thread is a declamato- ry delivery of repeated single notes, followed by a descending scale (for which I’ve used the Bhairav, Purvi and Ãsãvan modes). We finish, at the end of Lakshmibai’s life, with a return to the Bhairavi lament.” Part I. Harriet Tubman Araminta, Minty, Araminta, Minty … Ignorant of freedom, neglected as a weed, Araminta, Minty, finds her creed. The Lord, my Lord, You never failed me, Through liberty or death, I will never fail Thee. I don’t know where to go, I don’t know what to do, Guide me, O Lord, You’ll see me through. Lord, my Lord, I hold steady onto You, For the taste of freedom, You’ll see me through. My home, after all, was the old cabin quarter My home with the old folks, my sisters, my brothers. But one resolution I came to and held: I shall be free now, they shall as well. Araminta, Minty, hiding in the night, Araminta, Minty, undercover flight. Run, Araminta, don’t turn back, Hearing the dogs, Minty, don’t turn back. Torches in the woods, keep going, keep going. Shouting in the woods, keep going, keep going. Lord, my Lord, I hold steady onto You, For the taste of freedom, You’ll see me through. We saw the lightning and that was the guns, Then we heard the thunder, bug guns ahead, Then we heard the rain falling, that was the blood falling When we reaped the harvest, that was the dead. Araminta freed from the old days, Harriet, mother’s name, mine for the new ways. Harriet rising, rising we grow, Moses they call me—Let my people go! Atoto wore sane … How many thousands more could I save, How many thousands, broken as slaves, Go, then, my people, hold steady and true, For the taste of freedom, the Lord will see you through. Atoto wore sane Part II. Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi Manikarnika, Manu, Manikarnika, Manu … Waters of Mother Ganges, Manikarnika growing. Scent of jasmine mid gleaming Mosaic mirrors—they’re weaving Pearls in my hair, my wedding, Manikarnika leaving, Lakshmibai is my new name. Sky of apricot heat-haze, Manikarnika missing, Ah, my horses, my garden, Ah, my father, my brothers, Left behind with my shed skin. Lakshmibai for my Rajah He has chosen my name. Lakshmi, goddess of fortune, Lakshmi, goddess of plenty, Leaving childhood behind me, Lakshmibai, the new Rani. My husband, failing; my child, dying, I am no mother, yet I have a son. Damodar is mine, raising him to lift The mantle from me, inherit the crown. The British steal our rights away from us, The British wreck our self-determined life, The British rob my son, my throne, my hope, The British sear my land with fatal strife. Tyranny breeds evil breeds tyranny …. Faithless cruelty and violence, Mutiny against injustice, I will not give up my Jhansi! Hara, hara, Mahadev! I am a force to free my people. Hara, hara, Mahadev! Young Englishman, sword raised and blazing, You know not you kill a queen. Send my ashes back to mother Ganges, Remember, my child, do not forget me. Your Rani shall return to save your land, Rani Lakshmibai—the bravest and the best. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 17 – JULY 30, 2023 32