2019 . for SATB soloists, string orchestra, piano, and optional SATB choir . 7′ .
I have always loved the great oratorios of the Baroque era and the way in which they communicate the human experience through sacred texts. I wanted to write about the human experience in much the same way, but on a scale smaller than that of an epic saga of a Biblical character or an event from the Old Testament. I decided to instead explore the microcosm of human emotion that is felt in times of grief and the resulting questions we ask God. A whole lifetime of struggle occurs in a single “tiny” moment as we realize the gravity of our loss, try to reconcile the loss with our faith in God, become disillusioned and angry at God’s injustice, slip into doubt and hopelessness, and finally come to terms with the fact that we will never understand. Although written for four soloists, piano, and string orchestra, Tiny Oratorio may be performed with a chorus of singers during the tutti sections.
Text from the Bible
Scorn has broken my heart and left me helpless; I asked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters I found none. Psalm 69:20
I remembered my songs in the night. My heart meditated and my spirit asked: “Will the Lord reject us
forever? Will he never show his favor again?” Psalm 77:6-71
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries
of anguish? Psalm 22:1
Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long? Lamentations 5:20
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, that you have set in
place, what is mankind that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? Psalm 8:3-4
LUCY SHIRLEY 