Composer inspired by Joan of Arc

The day composer Richard Einhorn met Joan of Arc, his life changed.

"I discovered somebody who was very particular, very clear, very specific -- and someone who remains a total puzzle," he told The Evangelist. "She is a very unique individual. When you try to collapse her down, she slips out of the mold. Joan is the patron saint of many things, including the patron saint of obsessives; and when you get involved with her, people get sucked in. I couldn't read enough about her."

Mr. Einhorn is the composer of "Voices of Light," an oratorio that will be performed by Albany Pro Musica at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, March 10, 8 p.m., with pre-concert talks by Mr. Einhorn and silent film expert Prof. Ralph Blasting from Siena College in Loudonville.

Adding sound

Mr. Einhorn's piece will be performed while "The Passion of Joan of Arc," a 1928 silent film, is shown on a screen above the choir.

The film and his music came together through serendipity. In the early 1980s, he became entranced by the thought of doing a large work based on a spiritual or religious figure. He wrote one piece based on St. John of the Cross and another on St. Francis of Assisi, but "I didn't feel like I'd gotten the large piece that I was feeling in my system out yet."

One day, searching film archives in the Museum of Modern Art in New York for a separate project, he came across a notice describing a silent film about the French martyr and arranged a screening. He came out of the film knowing that Joan was to become his muse.

Back in time

The composer said of the movie, "There are times you don't know where 'down' is, places where it literally floats. It's a film version of an optical illusion. It has a feeling of being out of time.

"You're constantly readjusting your focus, knowing that it happened 500 years ago, but also feeling that it could be any girl at any time, and that a lot of the issues are issues we are grappling with right now: the notion of church and state, and what really represents spiritual truth."

While the oratorio is a separate piece with its "own integrity," he said, "I hoped that it would be performed while the film was being shown. It works so much better together than I anticipated."

Research

To construct the music and libretto for "Voices of Light," Mr. Einhorn read writings by medieval Catholic women mystics, studied Joan's trial transcripts, attended "an enormous number of services," and toured France, following Joan's path from her hometown of Domremy to the battlefields around Orleans and Paris, and to Rouen, where she underwent her heresy trial.

In the film and the oratorio, he said, Joan "knows she is going to die. All her battles are behind her; all her glory is behind her. Her behavior is just unbelievable -- her bravery, her intelligence and her ability to read what is really going on. The quality of her answers is just stunning.

"You get the sense of an incredibly brave, honest and decent human being. When you realize that it's not just simply a legend, but a real human being who did all that and was 19 when she died -- it's an overwhelming story, where you are absolutely captivated."

Lyrics

Along with selections from the Bible, the words of the oratorio contain a "patchwork" of quotations from medieval mystical literature, reflecting Joan's own thoughts, visions, memories and the plot of the film.

He said that the libretto reflects what he believes to be central themes to Joan's life: "the theme of fire, the theme of war, male/female gender issues, mysticism, religiosity and heresy, and persecution."

One of the film director's goals, Mr. Einhorn believes, meshes with one of his own: to present the piece as both a story happening in the medieval world and one that could happen today.

"I love to play with that idea of ambiguity, of not really knowing where you are. Are we listening to modern or medieval music?" he said.

"I started this project one kind of person and came out of it a totally different one, both professionally and emotionally. It really was a watershed for me, and I'm really glad I did it. I learned an awful lot of things I would never have imagined knowing or caring about."

(The composer's research on Joan of Arc took six years, but the actual writing of his piece required only months. He called it "the easiest thing I'd ever done." For tickets, call Albany Pro Musica at 438-6548. See advertisement on page 6.)

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