Baha'i Bicentenary Concert

For the future, I have plans to cut this concert up into chunks, separating the songs from the narrated sections. In the meantime here is the entire concert, start to finish. All 90 minutes.

(Notes below are identical to the notes for the youtube video. Why paraphrase myself?)

This concert consists of (1) songs for soprano and chamber orchestra, and (2) narrated stories with musical accompaniment. The majority of the concert (Part One and Part Two) features the narration, while the songs occur at the beginning, middle, and end.

These compositions were commissioned by the Baha’is of Champaign County for the Bicentenary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh. The concert took place on October 22nd, 2017 at Foellinger Auditorium on the University of Illinois campus in Urbana, Illinois.

Opening: (00:00)
  00:15 - Song - O Night
  07:22 - Song - Midnight Prayer
Part One - The Primal Point: (13:00)
  The Báb as a child
    13:05 - The Báb as a child - Chanting a Prayer
    14:21 - The School Teacher
    15:26 - The Uncle’s Dream
  The Wife of The Báb
    17:26 - The Wife of The Báb - Midnight
    20:52 - At the Breakfast Table
  23:56 - First Disciples - The Letters of the Living
  The Governor’s Plan
    26:29 - The Governor’s Plan
    28:42 - Cholera
    31:11 - Banishment
  32:43 - One Greater Than Himself Will Come
  33:53 - Baháʼu’lláh - Champion of The Báb
Intermezzo: (37:38)
  37:58 - Song: I Beg Thee
Part Two - Baha: (42:19)
  Baháʼu’lláh as a child
    42:22 - Dream of the Fish
    44:37 - Dream of the Fish - The Soothsayer
  Arrested
    47:26 - Arrested
    49:31 - Torture & March to Tehran
    52:33 - Arrival in Tehran & The Black Pit
  Siyah Chal
    55:12 - Siyah Chal - The Prisoner’s Dream
    58:37 - The Maid of Heaven
    1:01:55 - ‘This’
  Four Times Exiled
    1:05:22 - Four Times Exiled
    1:06:38 - Akka - The Most Great Prison
  Happiness
    1:07:23 - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá [Happiness]
    1:07:47 - Arrival in Akka [Happiness]
    1:08:16 - Bahíyyih Khánum [Happiness]
    1:08:43 - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá [Happiness]
  1:11:24 - Professor E.G. Browne
  1:13:26 - A Mighty Day
  1:15:29 - Our High Destiny
Conclusion: (1:18:20)
  1:18:35 - Song: Birthday Festival

Soprano - Wendy Marck
Narrators - Katherine Bokenkamp & Scott Walters

Flute - Matthew Reeder
Clarinet - Moria Tunison
Horn - Carly Charles
Violin 1 - Alex Malaimare
Violin 2 - Rebin Ali
Viola - Yoobin Lee
Cello - Kayla Schoeny
Piano - Alex Munger (narrated sections, including ‘This’ with Wendy Marck)
   Halim Beere (songs: O Night, Midnight Prayer, I Beg Thee, & Birthday Festival)

Recording Edited & Mixed & Mastered by Connor Criswell
Additional Editing by Halim Beere
Composed and Conducted by Halim Beere

Lyrics: #

  O Night - a tablet of Bahá’u’lláh about The Báb
  Midnight Prayer - a prayer by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
  I Beg Thee - a prayer by The Báb
  Birthday Festival - a tablet of Bahá’u’lláh

Narration: #

Most of the narrated text is taken directly from various histories and sources. Some of the text is original, but nearly all of it is quoted or paraphrased from (1) Release the Sun by William Sears, (2) The Story of Baha’u’llah by Druzelle Cederquist, (3) The Dawnbreakers by Nabíl-i-Aʻzam, (4) God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi, and (5) some pilgrim accounts found on www.bahai-library.org and baha’i blogs.

Images: #

All images are from media.bahai.org.
Except the portrait of Professor E.G. Browne, which is public domain and obtained from Wikipedia (through Wikimedia Commons).