Kaddish for Columbus, Score

With purchase: All parts: Piano (full score), flute, guitar, violin, singer, reader (optional violin 2) | 11′

Commissioned by the
Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies

Perusal score and recording, below.

Kaddish for Columbus is a spiritual and theatrical journey from “hiddenness” to “reawakening,” as expressed in Miriam Herrera’s eponymous poem. It expresses the crypto-Judaic narrative as both psychological and spiritual, and as universal as it is particularistic. Its musical influences encompass contemporary concert music, Sephardic and Medieval traditions, and theatrical music– and are intended to shed a multifaceted light upon the text. Herrera’s heartfelt description of her original inspiration for the poem is shared here, with deep gratitude to her for her trust in me to musically interpret her personal story:

“It came from a peak experience.  I was living in Northern New Mexico at the time, hiking in and around the Pajarito Plateau.  One late afternoon near dusk,  I witnessed the most brilliant and colorful sunset I’d ever seen.  I just watched, mesmerized, and all of a sudden, my whole spiritual life seemed to be laid out in front of me. I felt as if the Shechinah had come to visit my heart as She inhabited the beautiful landscape. It seemed that everything was silent as the purple and red light dominated the landscape.  I felt whole and loved by G-d, and internally got the message that I was alright just the way I was and didn’t need to change or fit into any mold of what a Jew is supposed to be.”