The Story
In 2007, a member of the Susquehanna Valley Chorale who asked to remain
anonymous made a donation to the chorale to help fund the commissioning
of a musical work on the subject of Alzheimer’s disease to honor his
parents, who had both died of it. In collaboration with librettist
Herschel Garfein (Elmer Gantry, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead),
a blog was set up on the choir’s website www.svcmusic.org to record
stories by chorus members and the local community describing experiences
with relatives and friends who had Alzheimer’s disease with a selected
group of those stories becoming the basis for the work: Alzheimer’s
Stories for soloists, chorus and large ensemble.
The work is in three movements the arc of which loosely mimics the progression of the disease:
The Numbers - an objective description of the discovery of the disease by Dr. Alois Alzheimer in 1901 including the number of individuals currently afflicted, future projections and dramatized conversations between Dr. Alzheimer and his first patient, Auguste Deter. The movement ends with an extended setting of a quote from his patient Ich hab mich verloren, “I have lost myself.”
The Stories - a pastiche of a number of selected stories taken from the choir’s blog. With a mixture of pathos, poignancy and humor, we meet a number of individuals afflicted with the disease, portrayed by the two soloists, as well as the recollections of family members. Two notables: a woman who still thinks she’s on a boat to Panama with her father; and a WWII Navy veteran who repeats the same bawdy story of the war so many times that the chorus can recite it by heart.
For the Caregivers - The most difficult part of writing a work about such a terrible and ultimately hopeless disease was how to end the work with some semblance of hope. The clue came in a recollection by one of the chorus members about a visit to a nursing home where a patient asked them to sing. When asked what, the patient replied: “Sing anything.” First referenced in the second movement, this idea became the centerpiece and focus of the last movement. The core of the brilliantly realized libretto is as follows:
Find those you love in the dark and light. Help them through the days and nights.
Keep faith. They sense what they cannot show. Love and music are the last things to go. Sing anything.
Alzheimer’s Stories received its world premiere on October 9, 2009 performed by the Susquehanna Valley Chorale at the Weis Center for the performing arts in Lewisburg PA in a program entitled “Monument to Memory.” The performance was conducted by its conductor and musical director Dr.William Payn with soloists Ted Keegan and Bonnie Cutsforth-Huber. It also includes works by the renowned American composer Ron Nelson who was my undergraduate composition teacher and mentor. It was recorded for radio and television by the PBS station WVIA.
Go to the Listen page to hear the works.
October 22, 2009
Robert S. Cohen
Links to more information about the Monument to Memory concert
A Monument to Memory - Web Exclusive Feature, Central PA Magazine, October 2009
THE CREATIVE ZONE: Monument to Memory
ArtScene with Erika Funke Hear the interview here
