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Composer David Shapiro’s Sumptuous Planet: A Secular Mass captures the rationalist sense and spirit of the Richard Dawkins writings that constitute most of the text. The composer set out to “advance a scientific, atheistic vision of the world” using the musical structure of a Christian Mass. He uses modern choral idioms in movements that dimensionalize texts like “Thankfulness,” which reads in full: “Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one.”
Listen while following along with the lyrics, and sound-pictures become visible; then listen with undistracted ears to the pure a cappella voices of the celebrated choir The Crossing. Each focus pays its own dividends. Appreciate the meaning on an intellectual level; appreciate the beauty of the art.
Music, mercy, and microbiomes
The music illustrates the meaning in countless ways. In the “Adoration,” which reads simply, “Life started from nothing – that is such a staggering, elegant, beautiful thing,” the word “staggering” staggers rhythmically. The “Substance” movement, jiggling with pointillist vibrations, evokes our cells’ origins as agglomerates of independent microorganisms, as well as our increasing understanding of the extent and importance of our microbiomes. (“You are a giant megalopolis of bacteria.”)
The “Mercy” movement dwells plaintively on the phrase “If there is mercy,” making us wait for the conclusion of the sentence, and when it comes it’s with a striking difference between the golden harmonies on the word “kind” and the tightfisted tone cluster of “cruel.” (“Nature is neither kind nor cruel but indifferent”). A gently pulsing rhythm illustrates the “throbbing, heaving, pulsating, protoplasmic, mystic jelly” that’s evoked in the “Spirit” movement, then denied with a quiet, peaceful ending.
The longest and most contemplative movement is “Death.” And the angular motion of “Suffering” suggests the “blind physical forces” that ensure a universe of “no design, no purpose, no evil and no good.”
‘Not yet a scientific age’
One of the most impactful sections is the penultimate movement invoking the names of dozens of ancient gods about whom we today are all “atheists.” “Some of us just go one god further,” says Dawkins. The quietly insistent litany of names – Baal, Isis, Cronus, Thor, etc. – leads directly into the final “Osanna,” which finds vital energy in the blind indifference of DNA: “And we dance to its music.”
Shapiro draws from various musical traditions to craft his 16 widely varying movements. The modernist, adventurous harmonies that The Crossing specializes in, and which in the hands of some composers can grow tiresome or repetitious, are also present here, but in service of the themes, and often with interesting and evocative rhythms and polyrhythms driving them, such as the dotted-eighth 5/8 meter of “Glory.” That’s also one of the movements sung in (or partly in) Latin translations of the Dawkins texts – a nice touch.
The “Introit” at the very start takes as its libretto a quote from physicist Richard Feynmann: “Is no one inspired by our present picture of the universe? This value of science remains unsung by singers. … This is not yet a scientific age.” He’s right. In this century of advances by theocrats – those secretly cynical and those murderously deluded, from Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and even Jewish communities – Sumptuous Planet feels like a cry in the wilderness.
Still, co-opting a religious musical form to serve rationalism and science is a fresh and dynamic tactic. It’s one way to further the struggle against supernatural beliefs and moral demagaguery that seek to drag humanity back into the ooze. Music at its essence is a pure emanation from a purely human and thus purely natural source. Music is nourishment we create purely from our own resources, for the benefit of other humans. Should we need anything beyond that?
Sumptuous Planet by David Shapiro, performed by The Crossing led by Donald Nally, is out November 10, 2023 on New Focus Recordings.
