Revenant by Andrea Venet

The TCU Percussion Orchestra, conducted by Brian A. West, performs "Revenant" by Andrea Venet live at PASIC 2022 on 11-10-22. Posted with permission.

REVENANT (2022)
Revenant for percussion orchestra is partially inspired by conceptual and harmonic elements of
Leonard Bernstein’s 1971 MASS, which, like many of his works, deals with a crisis of faith among
humanity, moral conflict, and political unrest. With parallels to many societal circumstances
today, the concept resonates with me. In Bernstein’s work, the main character, or ‘Celebrant’,
begins in peace but eventually loses his sanity after his faith is continually challenged by the
congregation. In the movement “Fraction: Things Get Broken”, instead of the bread being broken
for communion, the Celebrant crumbles under the pressure from the complaints and demands
from the congregation. Everything, and everyone, comes apart until what can be interpreted
as the Holy Spirit or divine entity, represented by a solo flute, joins with a boy soprano and
eventually revives all those fallen on stage. This portrays a reconciliation of peace, which leads
to the final chorale, “Almighty Father”. This is a beautiful example of redemption, renewed life
and unity; the harmonic and melodic behavior of “Almighty Father” impacted me greatly and
informs my compositional process throughout Revenant.
Revenant means someone or something that returns after a long period of absence or death. I
attempted to capture this by a recurring motive in the upper metallic instruments, which has
divine implications. It is eventually distorted and derails the entire ensemble by the xylophone
in the section at letter H. This represents destructive social and agenda-driven messaging
disguised as progress, which often obscure the truth and influence those with even the best of
intentions until things are unrecognizable. This also parallels the Celebrant’s crumble described
above. Despite distortions and things being “broken”, the revenant motive prevails and offers
redemption. Just as Bernstein stated in regards to MASS, the goal is to communicate a universal
reaffirmation of faith.
-Notes by the composer

Видео Revenant by Andrea Venet канала TCUPercussion