Raua Needmine | Jacksonville University Singers | TEDxJacksonville

Описание: Veljo Tormis (1930-2017) spent most of his career as an Estonian composer writing under Soviet rule. Much of his frequently provocative oeuvre flirted with the boundaries of government censorship, escaping suppression largely through the composer’s cunning use of “the people’s” folk melodies.
Tormis’s landmark protest of 1972, Raua Needmine takes inspiration from shamanistic practice. The complex and insightful, ten-minute composition grows from exceptionally simple musical materials. A four-note, folk tune motive becomes an ostinato and eventually the work’s backbone. Accompanied only by a pounding drum, the text draws heavily from the 9th rune of Kalevala. This section of the Finnish creation epic details iron’s innate neutrality while in the ground, immense usefulness in tools, and ultimate destructive power when molded into weaponry. Tormis commissioned contemporary poets to extend this metaphor into modern “tools” made from steel, chromium, titanium, uranium, and plutonium, culminating with the atomic bomb (complete with air-raid sirens). In this context, the composer highlights humanity’s often irresistible thirst for power even in the face of imminent annihilation.
Raua Needmine closes by reminding us that both iron and humanity “are from the same seed”. We share this earth, soil, and planet, and carry the potential to be benign entities, beneficial tools, and devastating weapons. We bear both the consequences of our decisions and the responsibility to choose wisely. May Tormis’s wisdom, birthed and matured under totalitarianism, inspire us to reflect carefully on the choices we make in freedom.
Selected annually by audition, the twenty-five members of the Jacksonville University Singers perform an eclectic and challenging repertoire spanning the centuries and the globe including Renaissance polyphony, Baroque and Classical masterworks, folksongs, music theatre, opera and new music by living composers.

The University Singers have performed for conferences of the American Choral Directors Association, the Florida Music Educators Association and the Music Teachers National Association. Other notable performances include concerts in New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, England’s Canterbury Cathedral, Chartres Cathedral, La Madeline - Paris, the Basilica of St. Nicholas – Nantes, and numerous collaborations with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. The University Singers give over twenty performances each year on campus, in the community and on tour. A concert tour of Italy in May 2016 included performances in Florence, Venice and Rome at St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Dance Department at Jacksonville University is dedicated to providing excellent programs of study in dance with the infusion of a strong liberal arts education. Dance training includes ballet, modern and jazz dance techniques, creative compositional projects, historical and theoretical thinking, multi-performance opportunities and aesthetics taught by an outstanding faculty with both professional and academic credentials. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx