Gigi Mitchell-Velasco
Across the Vast Eternal Sky by Ola Gjeilo
Gigi Mitchell-Velasco conducts the First Church Boston Choral Ensemble in Ola Gjeilo's "Across the Vast Eternal Sky" with Robert Winkley, piano; Omar Chen Guey, 1st violin; Shaw Pong Liu, 2nd violin; Nathaniel Farny, viola; and Rafael Popper-Kaizer, cello, in the Collins Family Concert on April 30, 2023 at First Church Boston, 99 Marlborough Street, Boston MA
The lyrics to this piece come from the contemporary poet Charles A. Silvestri, who “specializes in providing bespoke poetry for choral composers.” Rather like a custom tailor, I guess. He has written the lyrics for a number of pieces by the Norwegian choral composer Ola Gjeilo and says of this one that “The fiery sky at sunset was an inspiration for this poem about a phoenix preparing for rebirth.. . . Ola had asked me for several poems relating to the theme of rebirth, and I gave him this twist on the usual theme.”
So what’s the twist? Actually I think there are two, with the secondary one’s being that Silvestri has the bird itself speaking. I think we’re all vaguely aware that a phoenix is a creature who dies, usually in flames, and then rises anew from its own ashes. There’s quite a variation in the stories of this ever-renewing bird, with the word “phoenix” itself being found in ancient Greek. Many other cultures have had similar tales of the reborn bird; the “firebird” appears in the Russian version of the story, for instance.
Enough historical background. Let’s take a look at the actual lyrics of the piece. The phoenix’s feathers are now gray where once they were red and gold (the most common colors used in descriptions), and it knows that soon it will be “born again in flame.” But—and here’s the major twist—it is not going to die on some sort of funeral pyre and then physically rise again, as is usually the case. Instead, it is going to plunge into the sun itself.
I don’t want to make the mistake of trying to pin down the meaning too strictly here; otherwise I may end up sounding like something from a Hallmark card. I’ll just say that in Silvestri’s hands the myth has become something less literal and more universal. Upon his death the phoenix will be translated, as it were, into another, much larger medium.
-Debi Simmons
Sunlight shines on my face;
this is my grace, to be restored,
born again, in flame!
When I was young, I flew in the velvet night,
shining by day, a fire bird bathed in light!
Grey now my feathers, which once were red and gold,
my destiny to soar up the sun.
Do not despair that I am gone away –
I will appear again when the sunset paints flames
Across the vast, eternal sky.
