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When she was a child, Ming Wang was taken to see the film Exodus. The scene that affected her most was the one in which the plague slowly descended from the skies like a dark green smoke, and an unearthly scream rose up in the darkness and then subsided. The Angel of Death passed by those houses marked with lamb’s blood; thus were the Hebrews spared death and granted redemption.
During the recent Pandemic, Ming sketched this piece in an attempt to express the desperation, fear and sense of vulnerability that affected us all in varying degrees. Surely, each one of us hoped that the deadly virus, like the biblical plague, would pass us by and that we and our loved ones would survive the present, very real threat to our lives.
Pessach contains three main elements: the soundscapes with their ghostly motion symbolizing the power of the Angel of Death; a twelve-note row that starts with the famous B–A–C–H motif (also used in her piece Arche from the same group of compositions) and acts as a central thread that weaves itself in different forms through the entire series; and, at the centre of the piece, the chorale ‘An Wasserflüssen Babylon’ with its melody by Matthias Greiter (c.1495–1550) and harmonization by Claude Goudimel (c.1520–1572). This chorale embodies the very deep sadness experienced by humans, who, despite everything, escape the shadow of death through their beliefs.
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Music example
Full score and parts
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