IF YOU GO
What: A music-art performance titled "Trauma, Loss and Transcendence," dedicated to victims and survivors of the Dec. 2 San Bernardino terrorist attack
When: 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2
Where: Culver Center of the Arts, 3824 Main St., Riverside
Tickets: To reserve tickets, which are free, visit www.artsblock.ucr.edu.
"City in the Sea" lyrics
By Martin Jaroszewicz
Lo! Death has reared himself a throne
Far down within the West
Thy name cannot be spelled
A city in a golden sea
lies broken, sad alone
Tweets emerge around it
nothing from within
A city in a golden sea
lies broken, sad alone
tweets emerge around it
tweet! tweet! tweet! tweet! tweet!
Death seems so far away
it rests on giant towers
do not wake in the golden sea!
do not wake in the golden sea.
Death seems so far away
it rests on giant towers
do not wake in the golden sea!
do not wake in the golden sea.
A golden city stands alone
And the light of cellphones
radiate from the fountain
of the wounded sea
Death seems so far away
"Too Much Love" lyrics
By Paulo C. Chagas
I
He was looking for a woman
He went online to find a match.
"Someone who takes her religion very seriously
and is always trying to improve her religion
and encouraging others to do the same
using wisdom and not harshness."
wisdom, wisdom, wisdom
and not harshness
wisdom, wisdom, wisdom
and not harshness
Did she corrupt her husband?
Or did he corrupt her?
Did their love for each other
give rise to an act of mass terror
neither would have contemplated alone?
They lived quietly in a townhouse,
an intensely private pair
who drew little notice from neighbors
She stayed home rather than worked.
She opted not to drive.
He didn't want her talking to men,
and she dutifully avoided their company.
Her face was hidden.
On Wednesday morning,
they left their 6-month-old daughter with the grandmother,
who lived upstairs.
They retrieved combat rifles and handguns
from a large arsenal they had been secretly amassing.
He briefly joined his co-workers
or their holiday potluck,
before leaving.
He returned with his wife.
Together, wearing masks and black tactical gear
and carrying those weapons,
they stormed into the party,
killing 14 people and wounding 21 others.
II
Too much love,
too much love
too much love
Did they do it for love?
Did they kill them out of love?
Too much love,
too much love
too much love
Were they obsessed with suffering
and glorification of self-emptying love?
Did their life could only find fulfillment
in a sacrificial death?
Too much love,
too much love
too much love
"Love of God is pure when joy and suffering
inspire an equal degree of gratitude."
Too much love,
too much love
too much love
Love tends to go ever further and further,
but there is a limit.
When the limit is passed
love turns to hate.
Too much love,
too much love
too much love
Too much love,
too much love
too much love
Low, machine-like sounds grew ever louder toward a frightening crescendo – multiple times – while an aerial projection of the city of San Bernardino lit up the walls in an otherwise dark room.
And when the black-and-white-and-dark-brown projection zoomed in on the city, it brought the Inland Regional Center area into focus.
“I feel as though I’m trying to come into contact with something very awful and complex,” said Gary Barnett, 46, of Riverside.
Immersed in reverberating sound and a shifting projection, dozens of visitors to the UCR Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts on Thursday saw, felt and heard artists’ interpretations of the Dec. 2, 2015 terror attack.
“It’s pretty stark,” Barnett said. “That grainy image, with the complex sounds around it, evokes something. And the sound is all around us. You feel it as much as you hear it.
“I guess it’s an artist’s representation of what we all feel.”
Titled “Trauma, Loss, and Transcendence,” the performance was dedicated to the memory of victims and to the healing of survivors of the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino that killed 14 people and injured 22 others. A second concert is set for 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, at the Culver Center of the Arts in downtown Riverside.
The first half of the event featured an immersive video and sound experience accented by computer-generated live electronics.
Following a short break, a pair of musical pieces were sung by soprano opera signer and Cal State San Bernardino music professor Stacey Fraser, accented by the rhythmic sounds of percussionist Justin DeHart from the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet.
CITY LIES BROKEN
One couldn’t miss references to San Bernardino in the lyrics. In unveiling the “City in the Sea” piece, written by UC Riverside scholar in residence Martin Jaroszewicz, the words speak of a devastated Inland Southern California community:
“Lo! Death has reared himself a throne
Far down within the West
Thy name cannot be spelled
A city in a golden sea
lies broken, sad alone”
The second piece, composed by Paulo Chagas, a composer and UCR professor of music, was titled “Too Much Love” and explored the thinking of the couple, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, who carried out the brutal attack, then left behind their 6-month-old baby.
The piece contained a number of chilling questions.
“Did she corrupt her husband?
Or did he corrupt her?
Did their love for each other
give rise to an act of mass terror
neither would have contemplated alone?”
Some of Fraser’s verses were set against high, seemingly discordant crotales notes reminiscient of a tense scene in a scary movie.
SAFE PLACE
Chagas, who teamed with Jaroszewicz to coordinate the event, said they invited the audience to participate, by tweeting to @culvercenter. As they came in, tweets were projected onto one wall. On another, were words from a newspaper article about the massacre one year ago.
While attendees were being immersed in sound, their eyes were drawn to three-dimensional aerial images of San Bernardino sprayed across the walls.
“Everything is black and white. There is no color,” Chagas said before the event. “Color is very distracting.”
Michael Janz, 30, of Riverside, said he was struck mostly by the overwhelming computer-generated electronic sounds, which filled the room.
“You’re in it. You’re surrounded by it,” Janz said. “The computer gave an otherworldly texture.”
Organizers said through the presentation they were hoping to call attention to the anniversary of the attack in a sensitive way.
“To me, art is a safe place to address issues that are hurtful,” said DeHart, the percussionist.
Organizers said they were also hoping to ease the pain of victims’ families and the survivors.
“Art and music may not promote healing for everyone,” Fraser said. “Everyone has their own way of dealing with grief.”
But for some, she said, it may help.
After immersing herself in the more-than-hour-long performance, Alicia Reynoso, 40, of Riverside, said she believed that it did.
“I think music is very healing to any type of soul,” Reynoso said.
Contact the writer: 951-368-9699ddowney@scng.comTwitter: PE_DavidDowney
