Composer: David Sanford

Seventh Avenue Kaddish (7:23)

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david sanford SEVENTH AVENUE KADDISH

David Sanford's "Seventh Avenue Kaddish" places the cellist near ground zero, playing on the streets of New York as buildings collapse, debris blinds, dust suffocates. Yet the street musician continues to wail because that is all he can do. The form of "Seventh Avenue Kaddish" is inspired by the four parts of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme — "Acknowledgement," "Resolution," "Pursuance," "Psalm."

David adds, "'Seventh Avenue Kaddish' was written to express simultaneously the point of view of a cantor, a jazz visionary, a street musician, and/or a concert cellist. They share the perhaps incorrect sense that their only tenable position in the face of catastrophic events is to soldier on as entertainers and/or professional mourners."

I certainly felt a sense of confusion and guilt when I was musically paralyzed for days following 9/11. Nothing made sense, least of all the role of art in the midst of chaos. But the power of music transcends when, with a piece like "Seventh Avenue Kaddish," you can explore areas of the mind and heart that you would not dare to enter alone.

David Sanford (1963- Pittsburgh, PA), winner of the Rome Prize in 2002, received degrees in theory and composition from the University of Northern Colorado, New England Conservatory, and Princeton University. His commissions include works for Speculum Musicae, the Meridian Arts Ensemble and the Empyrean Ensemble, and he is the composer and conductor of the Pittsburgh Collective. Recent projects include a series of works for big band, completed while in Rome. He currently teaches at Mt. Holyoke College and lives with his wife, architect Mary Yun, in Northampton, MA.