Remnants of a Sabbath Hymn

for cello and piano | 2022

     The practice of “rest” is one that is elusive in Western society. Whether or not we want to participate in the frantic pace of life, many of us end up trying to stay apace with everything going on around us. There are many wonderful things about modern life, but I have found that some of those things can work against getting the rest our bodies, minds, and souls need. During some seasons of my life, I have wrestled with the tension of being incredibly busy with wonderful things, but also knowing that I was exhausted.
     A few years ago, I became acquainted with Wendell Berry’s Sabbath Poems. Berry’s simple, yet profound way of conveying ideas about Sabbath resonated with me. I found myself re-reading these beautiful lines of poetry, wanting to experience the kind of rest that Berry somehow understood in a deep and rare way.
     When I was given the opportunity to write a work for piano and cello, I knew I wanted to the piece to somehow reflect Berry’s thoughts on Sabbath. Remnants of a Sabbath Hymn is a loose meditation on his work. The following stanza from the 1979 collection, number IV, was particularly rich:

I leave work’s daily rule
And come here to this restful place
Where music stirs the pool
And from high stations of the air
Fall notes of wordless grace,
Strewn remnants of the primal Sabbath’s hymn.
And I remember here
A tale of evil twined
With good, serpent and vine,
And innocence as evil’s stratagem

 Remnants of a Sabbath Hymn was written for David Gompper and Timothy Gill. It is gratefully dedicated to David Gompper, who has been a colleague, mentor, and friend.

The work appears on Exchanges, an album on the Albany label by David Gompper and Timothy Gill. It can be found on any streaming service.