In His Words: Please Dream (2022)

Composer: Kathleen Tagg featuring words by Archbishop Desmond Tutu with musical quotations from Hilton Schilder & Dizu Plaatjies
TEXTS: * ALL TEXTS FROM SPEECHES BY ARCHBISHOP TUTU *

I. There Is No Neutrality
II. We Stand on Holy Ground
III. Ubuntu
IV. Please Dream

Fl - Horn - Brass 2 2 1 - Piano - Percussion 2 (1 + drum kit) - Str - Tape part

Duration: ca. 20 min
Commissioner: Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival
Performances: Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival cond. by Jakubus De Jager: July 4 2022

Program Notes:
Sitting and listening for hundreds of hours to the Arch speaking was a truly humbling experience. Despite having grown up in South Africa knowing his voice and the content of his speeches well, this process of listening to speeches from the entirety of his public life to choose what to include in this work was a completely transformative experience for which I am extremely grateful.

The process of choosing of texts for this work was extremely daunting, given the enormous recorded output of the Archbishop’s words, each one filled with treasures, and an honour to listen to. I chose texts, finally, from four public speeches that spanned a nearly 30 year period- from the earliest in 1986 at Stanford University, where he called for sanctions and divestment to the last at a commencement ceremony at UC Santa Barbara in 2013 where he talked about our interdependence as people. Quite apart from the subject matter, each text has an incredible musicality, and the main purpose of my work has been to try to showcase and support the words and the messages with the musical settings, rather than asserting the music first.

Many important topics are not covered: the Archbishop’s fierce support of the struggles of people across the world, from Palestine to Tibet and beyond; his staunch support for the LGBTQ+ community; his continued vocal criticism of corruption in post-apartheid South Africa; the need for better health infrastructures in the developing world, and many more. However, the included words show over and over his moral compass that was such an anchor not only to South Africans, but to people across the globe. His fierce fight through his words and the way he lived his life for justice, his attempt to see the full potential of each person, and his faith shine through. Each included text is a call to each of us for personal accountability.

The score contains numerous musical quotations. Snippets of music by South African musicians from different musical backgrounds than my own are woven into the piece, leading to part ownership of the work. I am very grateful to my colleagues for allowing me to weave quotations of their music into this piece. It felt absolutely vital for a work dealing with such an iconic figure in our country to have other voices than my own included. It also allowed me to be free to write in my own voice, knowing that theirs are woven in with mine. Included quotations are by Hilton Schilder (In Please Dream): Ek het ’n Bra heard on the 1987 album Mr Mac and the Genuines, and in a new form on the 2021 album: Hottie Culture (Coming Home). Dizu Plaatjies’ umrhubhe bow tune is quoted in the movement Ubuntu. Additional quotes include St Catherine’s Court (In We Stand on Holy Ground) by Richard Strutt (1848-1927), for the dedication of a church (with thanks to Richard Haigh).

I. There is no neutrality (From a talk at Stanford University, 1986)
II. Standing on Holy ground (From Bynum Tudor Lecture- Oxford University, 2010)
III. Ubuntu (From a talk at UCSB, 2013)
IV. Please Dream (From a commencement address at Gonzaga University, 2012)

TEXTS: * ALL TEXTS FROM SPEECHES BY ARCHBISHOP TUTU *

STANFORD UNIVERSITY, 1986:
”Dear friends, let's not kid ourselves. In a situation of injustice and oppression, there can be no neutrality. You have to take sides. You have to say, "Am I on the side of justice, or am I on the side of injustice?" (audience applauding)

When an elephant is sitting on the tail of a mouse, and you say, "I am neutral", the mouse is not going to be particularly pleased about your neutrality. You have already made a decision! You have decided to be on the side of the powerful, of the elephant. There is no neutrality. You have already, in fact, made a choice.

You know, as the kind of students you are, that there are probably only three ways in which you can change a social political dispensation which you do not like. The normal, the conventional way, that is open to people in a democracy is you vote people out of power whom you don't want, who have not pleased you. Now, in South Africa, that route is not available to black persons.

According to the new constitution of 1984, 73% of the population of South Africa, the blacks,
are totally excluded from any meaningful participation in political decision-making. In that constitution, you may not believe it, we, the vast majority of that land, are mentioned only once in one sentence, and that is the end of any further reference to us.

Here, I stand before you a Nobel Laureate, Bishop of one of the largest dioceses of our church in Southern Africa, rising 54 years of age, and some people might risk suggesting that I was perhaps reasonably responsible. In the land of my birth, I do not vote because I cannot vote. I am excluded from that facility, from the franchise, by the law of the land. An 18 year old, because he or she is white, and latterly, because they are so-called colored or Indian, can vote.

They talk about reforming apartheid. We're not interested in reforming apartheid. Yeah! You don't reform a Frankenstein! You destroy a Frankenstein! (audience applauding)

Now, we're gonna be free. No matter what you in this country or anywhere else do or don't do, we're gonna be free. We- (audience applauding) But, we want a new South Africa!
For all of its part, black and white, we want a South Africa where people count, not because of biological irrelevancies, the color of your skin or any other thing, where people count because of who they are, persons of infinite worth because they are created in the image of God. (audience applauds) We want a new South Africa that is democratic, truly democratic. We want a South Africa that is truly just, and it's going to happen.”

From Bynum Tudor Lecture- Oxford University, 2010:
”Truth commissions reveal too that you and I are capable of the most ghastly atrocities. Those who were perpetrators in South Africa, those who supported Hitler are not people with horns, and if you look carefully you see their tail. They were ordinary human beings like you and me.
They went to church. They were decent members of their community it was thought. And so you and I can't ever be hoity-toity. You and I can but say: “There but for the grace of God go I.”
For I don't know, I couldn't predict that if I had been subjected to the same conditions as these people I wouldn't turn out the same.

Truth commissions also wonderfully, Wonderfully demonstrate that.. you know what. ..Yes these atrocities are ghastly. These perpetrators can be awful guys. But it isn't the it isn't the end of the story. It isn't it isn't even the whole story. It isn't even the most important part of the story. The important part is, Hey! we human beings can be extraordinarily magnanimous.

Frequently in the TRC, I would say …. when someone who by rights should have been bristling with hatred and anger ……but were ready actually even to embrace in public someone who had done the most abominable things. I would say, would say… Let us keep quiet…Let us keep quiet…For we are in the presence of something holy. We really ought to take off our shoes. For we are standing on holy ground…. We human beings are fantastic things. We are made ja… We are made ultimately …Isn’t it incredible that WE finite creatures can be can be those who are made for the infinite. For the transcendent. We….We.”

UBUNTU: UC Santa Barbara, 2013
”Ubuntu. Ubuntu says a person is a person through other persons. The solitary individual is really a contradiction in terms. I wouldn't know how to walk as a human being. I wouldn't know how to speak, how to think. I wouldn't know how to be human. I need other human beings to help me to be human. None of us comes fully formed into the world.

I need you in all of your giftedness, with all your weaknesses. I need you so that I can be, I can be me in all of my giftedness and my weaknesses. It's actually quite wonderfully good…almost you could almost see God rubbing God's hands in in divine self-satisfaction and saying:”Even if i have to say so, that is pretty smart, eh.”

You know the lovely story of Adam and Eve. Adam is sitting in the garden and he's probably having the time of his life and enjoying himself sitting around there with the animals and everything. And God says “It's not good for this guy to be alone, and so God says, and so God says: “Adam”. He says: “Jaaa”. “How about choosing a mate from these animals?” And so he makes the animals pass in front of Adam and says: “How about this one?” “Nope.” “What about this one?” “Not only your life!”
And so God puts Adam to sleep, and the story goes out of Adam’s rib produces this delectable creature, Eve. And Adam wakes and says: “Wow! this is just what the doctor ordered.”

Well it is in fact, yes, it is a charming story speaking of the fact that we are made for complementarity. That none of us can ever be totally self-sufficient. God creates me with my gifts, but also with my lacks, my weaknesses. And God creates you with your gifts, but also with your weaknesses, so that you and I can compliment one another. We are made to live in a delicate network of complementarity, of making up for what is lacking in one another's gifts. And God can say “Voila! voila. That is what I have meant you to be”.

And so Ubuntu, Ubuntu says: When I dehumanize you, whether I like it or not, inexorably I am dehumanized in that process. For my humanity is caught up in your humanity. In order to enhance my humanity, I have to work like blazes as it were to enhance your humanity.”

Archbishop Tutu Speaks at Gonzaga University Commencement, Gets Honorary Degree 2012
”It's quite extraordinary actually to think that God has had as God's favorite collaborators,
co-workers…have you noticed? Young people, young people!

God says to you please, please, please dream. Please dream. Don't allow yourself to be infected by the cynicisms of oldies like us. Dream, dream God’s dream. Dream as you are. God says dream, dream, dream of a world where poverty is no more. Dream of a world that is marked by an equity, where everyone, everyone has a decent life. We can, we can have such a world, and God says please, please dream. Please dream.”

CITATIONS:

I. STANFORD UNIVERSITY, 1986: (Citation: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, then Bishop of Johannesburg, spoke at Stanford University's Memorial Auditorium for the first national Martin Luther King Day holiday on January 21, 1986. He described the evils of Apartheid, emphasized the importance of economic sanctions, and described other actions Americans could take to help end the racist system. Citation: Desmond Tutu at Stanford University, Stanford University Video Collection (SC1031), Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford Libraries. Persistent URL: https://purl.stanford.edu/sx228fk4602. Reformatted by Stanford Libraries in 2013.)

II. From Bynum Tudor Lecture- Oxford University, 2010: (Citation: The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, delivers the Annual Bynum Tudor Lecture at The University of Oxford.)

III. Ubuntu
(Citation: Archbishop Desmond Tutu was awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his immense contribution to the cause of human rights. He spent years working to create a democratic and just society without racial divisions in South Africa. In 1995 Tutu was chosen by President Nelson Mandela to chair South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and investigate the crimes committed during the apartheid regime. Since 2000 the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre has promoted ethical, visionary and values-based human development. [12/2005] [Show ID: 11162] UCTV is the broadcast and online media platform of the University of California, featuring programming from its ten campuses, three national labs and affiliated research institutions. UCTV explores a broad spectrum of subjects for a general audience, including science, health and medicine, public affairs, humanities, arts and music, business, education, and agriculture. Launched in January 2000, UCTV embraces the core missions of the University of California -- teaching, research, and public service – by providing quality, in-depth television far beyond the campus borders to inquisitive viewers around the world. (https://www.uctv.tv) ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV2LURTu3eQ&t=450s

IV. Archbishop Tutu Speaks at Gonzaga University Commencement, Gets Honorary Degree 2012
(Citation: SPOKANE, Wash. -- Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu told Gonzaga University graduates Sunday (May 13, 2012) that God wants them to dream of a world without war or hunger, and urged them to reject cynicism and collaborate with the Lord to work for a better, gentler world. Today's senior commencement launched Gonzaga's 125th anniversary celebration) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j66QsKkdbv8