UP Symphonic Band - The Divine Comedy / IV. Paradiso (Robert W. Smith)

The Divine Comedy is a four-movement work based on Dante Alighieri’s literary classic of the same name. The story of Dante’s trilogy is basic: One day Dante Finds himself lost in a dark wood. Virgil, a character based on the revered Roman poet, appears and rescues him. Virgil guides Dante to a contemplation of Hell and Purgatory. Dante, having confessed his faults, and with Beatrice as his guide, is led into a Paradise and attains a glimpse of the face of God. IV. Paradiso In the composition of “Paradiso,” the composer was faced with the same basic problem which confronted Dante in his literary masterpiece. What description of heaven will have a universal appeal? The sensory experiences on which Dante built his heaven were sights and sounds. The sights consisted of brilliant lights with varied colors, symbolic formations, and combined with their hypnotic gyrations. The sounds were those of the imagination, conjured by the reader’s own past experiences with unheard melodies “sweeter than those heard on earth.” It was Dante’s hope that scenes presented to our imagination through the language of poetry may surpass the remembered scenes of our experiences. In “Paradiso,” Dante has ascended at an incredible speed from the top of the Mountain of Purgatory to the first sphere of the heavens. He is enamored with the sight of light, growing brighter and more intense with each sphere of his journey. The composer has called upon the mallet percussion to represent those beams of light. Beginning with single tone (beam), the intensity grows with each entrance until we are surrounded with lights of multiple colors and complexities. As the light engulfs the listener, we are presented with the sounds of joy, peace, love and hope – growing even brighter as the journey through the spheres of progresses. As the listener arrives at the Empyrean (the region of pure light), the “Music of the Spheres,” first introduces the Ascension. Is related in brilliant fashion by the brass section. The light continuous to intensify as the woodwind colors swirl around the bass figures. The sights and sounds grow even brighter as Dante sees a river of light which is transformed into a great rose at whose center is the wonderful source of the lights. Upon the petals are seated the saints, clad in the whitest of robes. Angels fly, like swarms of bees, up from the heart of the rose to the petals, their faces of living flame, their wings of gold, their bodies white as the purest snow. Dante looks to the highest tier, where Mary sits enthroned, surrounded by a thousand joyful angels. Mary is surrounded by heroines of the Old Testament: Eve, Rachel, Sara, Rebecca, Judith, and Ruth. On Mary’s opposite side are the male figures of the Christian era: John the Baptist, St. Francis, St. Benedict, and St. Augustine, as well as Adam, Peter, Moses and John the Apostle. The lower tiers of the rose are filled with thousands of infants, purified in their glorious innocence. With a gracious smile from the Virgin Mary, Dante is permitted the Beatific Vision. He lifts his eyes toward the heart of the rose. Within one blinding light, he recognized three lights in the form of interlocking circles (a symbol of the Trinity). Within one circle he perceived the dim image of a human face, a reminder that God, through Christ, lived – and still lives – as man on earth. ___________________________________ La Passió de Crist: A UP Symphonic Band Holy Week Concert Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (Little Theater) Cultural Center of the Philippines 07 April 2017 UP Symphonic Band Rodney Ambat, conductor