Composer David T. Little Releases DARK HYMNAL, MEDITATIONS ON BLACK LODGE
Dark Hymnal is a series of electronic "meditations" derived from Little's opera film Black Lodge.
Composer David T. Little has released a brand new album, Dark Hymnal, on Cantaloupe Music, inspired by music from his GRAMMY️-nominated opera Black Lodge.
Available on all digital platforms, Dark Hymnal is a series of electronic "meditations" derived from Little's opera film Black Lodge, and including samples from the opera's original soundtrack, performed by Timur and the Dime Museum and Isaura String Quartet and featuring text by librettist Anne Waldman. Played without pause, the 15 sections of Dark Hymnal lead the listener on a mysterious journey; a kind of spiritual maze that circles back on itself, toward something unknown.
"As you listen, your ears might deceive you, at times making you think you hear things that aren't actually there," Little explains. "It might at other times feel as if the music-and the audio-is attempting to crack out of the frames which contain it: sounds throb and push against speaker cones; chords melt, or vanish after merely a hint, their harmonies showing one path, then pivoting toward another, more dangerous, more enticing. Dark Hymnal may feel simultaneously lulling and disconcerting, comforting and perplexing, and even at times, frightening; a work with its spiritual roots in the world of Black Lodge."
Originally created as the score for Sandra Powers' immersive theater performance BARDO-itself a pre-show event for the West Coast premiere of Black Lodge-Dark Hymnal had its world premiere on October 19, 2024 at the United Theater on Broadway in Los Angeles, co-presented by CAP UCLA and Beth Morrison Projects.
Black Lodge, Little's metal-infused opera film that inspired Dark Hymnal, draws on the complex mythologies of David Lynch, William S. Burroughs, and Antonin Artaud. Featuring a libretto by celebrated poet Anne Waldman and performances by Timur and the Dime Museum and Isaura String Quartet, Black Lodge was recorded remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its premiere at Opera Philadelphia as a hybrid production by Beth Morrison Projects, and its subsequent soundtrack release on Cantaloupe Music, drew critical acclaim, called "a revelatory marvel" (LA Times), as well as garnering a nomination for Best Opera Recording at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in 2024. Listen to Black Lodge.
Lasting 90 minutes, Little says that, "Dark Hymnal is best experienced in full, possibly in the dark, and with a sense of openness to where it might take you. As in Black Lodge, this will lead to an experience that will be different for everyone. I encourage you to embrace that sense of the unknown, and go with it where it leads."
Dark Hymnal Tracklist:
1. introit [04:40]
2. the voice inside your head [05:33]
3. scorpions from the sky (after sonja krefting) [03:15]
4. your face, a mask, stares back at you (for anna coleman ladd) [07:35]
5. purgatorio [03:41]
6. spells from artaud [05:49]
7. penitentiary [07:00]
8. the knives of angels [05:23]
9. dark hymnal [06:46]
10. the black rider [06:12]
11. so that these fiends could live off him [08:21]
12. frayed wires of a mechanical hound [07:52]
13. heavy judger of men (a mask, your face, stares back at you) [05:23]
14. harmonium [03:45]
15. until the darkness takes us [09:14]
Composed and mixed by David T. Little
Mastered by Andrew McKenna Lee, Still Sound Music
Featuring text by Anne Waldman
Includes samples from the Black Lodge original soundtrack, performed by Timur and the Dime Museum and Isaura String Quartet
Cover design by Sandra Powers, from the original Black Lodge album art by DM Stith
About David T. Little
David T. Little is known for stage, concert, and screen works permeated with eclectic influences and the power of the unexpected. Little readily probes the deep corners of human psychology, invoking religious, political, historical, spiritual, and social themes as pathways for exploring the human condition. He has drawn acclaim for operas including Dog Days, JFK, and the comedy Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera (all with libretto by Royce Vavrek), as well as his opera Soldier Songs. His broad catalog speaks to the mix of light and dark that we experience in life, unafraid to invoke the mythical, bewitching, disturbing, surreal, or comedic. His work Black Lodge was nominated for Best Opera Recording in the 2024 GRAMMY Awards.
In September 2024, Little unveiled his newest opera What Belongs to You, based on Garth Greenwell's critically acclaimed debut novel, at the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond (VA). Developed for GRAMMY-winning tenor Karim Sulayman and Alarm Will Sound, the 20-piece ensemble is led by Alan Pierson, and with stage direction provided by renowned dancer, choreographer, and director Mark Morris, the "ravishing, ambiguous, and frankly erotic" (Night After Night) work was praised for its "intense juxtapositions of lyrical radiance and a hard edge" (The New York Times). Little, who is composer and librettist for the piece, took up Greenwell's text as the starting point for an opera in his own inimitable style, approaching What Belongs to You as a chance to reflect an evolution in his compositional energy and a turning inward, looking back to look forward; leaning away from the rock bombast of Black Lodge, toward something more introspective, informed more by Monteverdi than Metallica.
Little's Black Lodge, nominated for Best Opera Recording in the 2024 GRAMMY Awards, is a metal-infused film opera drawing on the complex mythologies of William S. Burroughs, Antonin Artaud, and David Lynch, with a libretto by celebrated poet Anne Waldman and performances by Timur and the Dime Museum and Isaura String Quartet. Black Lodge premiered by Beth Morrison Projects at Opera Philadelphia, and the soundtrack was released by Cantaloupe Music.
Among his other key compositions are several large-scale instrumental works, including the "ghost play" Haunt of Last Nightfall for percussion quartet, and AGENCY, a companion string quartet about the nature of choice and knowledge, in which "episodes of crushing sonic violence coexist with oases of serene lyrical beauty for an overall sense of smoldering, luxuriant noise" (The New York Times). Yet other works explore life's many highs: the ecstatic, almost manic energy of Spalding Gray, the Iggy Pop-inspired "joyous honk" of raw power, the wry humor of Speak Softly, the fond nostalgia of 1986, or the moonstruck aches of first love in JFK and What Belongs to You.
Little set the tone for his operatic work with the 2006 premiere of Soldier Songs, drawing praise for "the imaginative way he draws on his varied musical interests to produce arresting and coherent works" (Musical America). Based on extensive interviews with military veterans, the work has been performed by Los Angeles Opera, Atlanta Opera, San Diego Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and by Beth Morrison Projects at the Holland Festival. A film adaptation of Soldier Songs was later produced for the Opera Philadelphia Channel, earning a 2022 GRAMMY Award nomination and a 2022 Opera America Award.
Little's many compositions for solo performer or small ensemble often include ghostly or spiritual themes. Ghostlight, commissioned for Eighth Blackbird by The Kennedy Center, looks to surrealist art and fairy tales for their unspoken lessons, while dress in magic amulets, dark, from My feet is a meditation on Christ on the cross commissioned by The Crossing and International Contemporary Ensemble. Still other works draw from literary sources or history, such as The Crocus Palimpsest, a Samuel Beckett-inspired work for solo cello composed for Matt Haimovitz. The same is true for Little's works for orchestra and large ensemble, including The Conjured Life, a centennial tribute to Lou Harrison, and CHARM, a celebration of city life commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Little is the founding artistic director and former drummer for the amplified chamber ensemble, Newspeak, which explores the relationship of music and politics, while confronting head-on the boundaries between the classical and rock traditions. They have released four commercial recordings, with a fifth on the way.
Little has been commissioned by the world's most prestigious institutions and performers, including recent projects for The Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater new works program, the Kennedy Center, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, London Sinfonietta, The Crossing, Kronos Quartet, and Beth Morrison Projects. His music has been presented by Carnegie Hall, Holland Festival, LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Opéra de Montréal, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the LA Philharmonic. Little's recorded catalog includes over 20 commercial releases, on such labels as New Amsterdam Records, Pentatone, Sono Luminus, Bright Shiny Things, and Cantaloupe Music.
David T. Little is a recipient of the Copland House Residency Award. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes. Learn more at www.davidtlittle.com.
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