Jerusalem (from Longing for Home) – Carol Barnett

Composer: Carol Barnett Text by: Robert Mezey (b. 1935) Instrumentation baritone, piano Duration: approx.  2'45" Date Written:  2018 Composer’s note: Longing for Home is a song cycle written to celebrate Source Song Festival’s fifth season. The texts all reference homecoming in various ways – the enduring wish to return to a place remembered with love and longing, as well as the uncertainty, the impossibility of doing so. “Jerusalem” – a cry of anguish echoes from the 11th century for a once-magnificent city, now in ruins, reduced to rubble. The musical influences of Jerusalem include Jewish liturgical cantillation, middle-eastern scales with their frequent augmented seconds, and word-painting – the soaring of an eagle, the excruciating sting of a scorpion. Physician, poet and philosopher Judah Halevi was born in 11th-century Spain, and died in 1141 shortly after arriving in the Holy Land. He is considered one of the greatest Hebrew poets, celebrated both for his religious and his secu