Voices of Connection: 02/03 Gilda Lyons: Nahuatl Hymn to the All-Mother
GILDA LYONS Nahuatl Hymn to the All-Mother
Milwaukee Choral - Sharon Hansen, conductor
Guest curator, Gilda Lyons
Having grown up in New York State with half of my family based in Nicaragua, distance has always been a consideration for me. In some ways, I may have spent my life as an artist working to close distances of various kinds—as a vocalist, stripping away artifice in order to better connect; as a composer, going deep with research until I create for myself the illusion of oneness with the images driving a new work. I think too that music has allowed me to hold closer aspects of the world with which I feel connection. When I turned to write Nahuatl Hymn to the All-Mother, I had just returned that winter from our family’s home in Nicaragua. I was feeling the distance, and it led me here, to a celebration of “the Goddess, who poured forth bounteous flowers as she came forth from Paradise.” The following winter I missed this premiere; it was given on the same night that we went into labor with our first son. I like to think that this was some cosmic closing of distances; some ancient grandmother goddess reaching forward and holding us close, singing “Rejoice! Ahuiya!”
– Gilda Lyons