In the Creation
One of the most famous oratorios of the classical era is The Creation by Joseph Haydn. This oratorio portrays and puts on stage the creation of the world as told in the Book of Genesis from the Christian Bible. It is considered to be one of Haydn’s best works as a composer and song writer. In the first and second parts, it has a soprano, tenor, and bass soloist that is played by archangels Raphael, Uriel, and Gabriel respectively.
In the Philippine music scene, we also have our version of a play on the creation story in the Bible. It is composed by Lucrecia R. Kasilag called “In the Beginning.” The composition is a “sacred cantata for baritone solo” that was actually made for the 16th National Music Competition for Young Artists and was copyrighted in the year 1988 (“Welcome to Naxos Records”). Although The Creation and “In the Beginning” are similar in that they both illustrate how God created the heavens and earth, the musical pieces still have different elements, which are: how they the Bible verses were perceived, the structure of both compositions, and the tone and mood of the lyrics. This paper will be focusing on Genesis 1, verses 7-8 that will be used to compare and contrast The Creation and “In the Beginning,” which are movements four and five for the first, and movements three and four for the latter.
The Bible verses are, “God made the dome; and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it (7). God called the dome “the sky.” Evening came, and morning followed--- the second day (8).” These verses pertain solely to the second day of creation.
First, the structure of both musical pieces is different from each other, especially when compared to the original Bible verse, wherein The Creation is more chronologically arranged. The order of events is that on the first day, light was created; then on the second, the heavens. In The Creation, it was strictly followed. Movements 2 and 3 talked about the earth being just a dark abyss until light was created. After light was created, then the heavens, which is completely accurate from the Bible. However, in “In the Beginning,” I understood it as there was already a form of earth, and then the light was created because the line “he spread light through the earth and sky” came after acknowledging that there were already clouds, seas, and waters.
Second, although the movements were based on these verses, there are still differences in the writing of the lyrics. In Haydn’s The Creation, it was closer to the actual lines that were written in the Bible. The movements were consistent in talking about how God created firmament and separated the “water and the dome” which is basically the heavens for the sky. Despite this fact, there are still lines that are a bit questionable like the presence of hail, storms, rains and etc. that were not explicitly mentioned in the original Bible verse. On the other hand, in “In the Beginning,” the piece had added parts, and it overlapped with the other days in the original creation story. I found the first line of movement III (His light shown through the clouds above) a bit weird because before the line that described God dividing the water and the heavens, clouds were already present “above,” which is unusual because, how can there be clouds, if the heavens were not created yet? Moreover, in the Bible verse, there was no explicit line that says God actually made clouds. While the formation of the clouds could be implied, it is still different in a sense that Kasilag had already added artistic interpretations in the composition of these movements. Both pieces had different ways on how it portrayed the third day of the story, but in my opinion, The Creation had a more accurate depiction in a sense that it was more logical and factual. It was more accurate in terms of following the texts, and the consistency with the verse.
Third, the tone and mood of these pieces were similar, but there are still subtle distinctions. Although both are characterized glorious and, at the same time, unpleasant in nature, The Creation had a more cheerful mood than “In the Beginning.” The initial piece--- The Creation---sounds joyful despite having “outrageous storms” and “heaven’s fire” appearing into the scene. In movement 5, in spite of the dreadful natural calamities in movement 4, the creation of heavens were still glorified and praised. More than that, if you listen to the audio of movement 5, the tone is happy, jolly and full of grace. Yet, in “In the Beginning,” it was more formal and monotonous as it merely describes and enumerates the events. There are no images that pop in your mind when you read the lyrics.
Truly, both The Creation by Joseph Haydn and “In the Beginning” by Lucrecia Kasilag are two comparable compositions despite being written in different periods in time with the initial in the 18th century, and the latter in the 19th century. They have similarities in terms of the “inspiration” and the mood of being glorious and thankful, but there were also differences in the way they interpreted the Bible verses, how they formed each movement, and how the atmosphere was defined and shown.
Works Cited
"Welcome to Naxos Records." History of Classical Music - Eras. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://www.naxos.com/person/Lucrecia_Roces_Kasilag/23491.htm.
"The Story of Haydn's Creation." William Byrd | Classical-Music.com. April 29, 2016. Accessed December 08, 2018. http://www.classical-music.com/article/story-haydns-creation.