Afterword mj351
Afterword was composed to a text by Caroline Heaton.
Caroline Heaton writes:
“Afterword is written in the form of questions, rather than exhortations or ‘information’, and is couched in very simple language, which leaves the audience free to reflect.”
The first two questions are posed by bass then soprano, accompanied by a distant, textless choir. Three questions are then posed by the choir:
“… Whose decisions write and re-write history,
inscribe laws that outlaw the oppressed?
Whose wounds speak volumes,
whose injuries cry out for redress?
Who now has ears to hear, who now
has a heart that is grief-possessed?
…”
before the bass and then the soprano soloists each sing the final question:
“Who now finds compassion still within himself?”.