Angels of Light

Angels of Light was inspired by the novel A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin. The novel portrays a soldier’s experience of youth, triumphs, love, loss, retribution and redemption.

Helprin recalls the soldier’s destiny by depicting events which have an heroic and, at times, almost mystical grandeur. This piece takes its title from a passage at the beginning of the novel set in Rome.

“Had he looked up he might have seen angels of light dancing above the throbbing bright squares - in whirlwinds, will-o’-the-wisps, and golden eddies - but he didn’t look up, for he was intent on getting to the end of the long road, to a place where he had to catch a streetcar that, by evening, would take him far into the countryside. He would have said, anyway, that it was better to get to the end of the road than to see angels, for he had seen angels many times before. Their faces shone from paintings, their voices rode the long and lovely notes of arias; they descended to capture the bodies and souls of young children; they sang and perched in trees; they were in the surf and the streams; they inspired dancing; and they were the right and holy combination of words and poetry.”

People always talk of the ancients: but what does that mean, except that it says, turn your attention to the real world, and try to express it, for that is what the ancients did when they were alive. – Goethe

The work of Japanese artists is as simple as breathing. And they do a figure in a few strokes with the same ease as if it were as simple as buttoning your coat. Oh! I must manage someday to do a figure in a few strokes. – Vincent Van Gogh

Angels of Light was premiered on January 21, 2001 by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Barbara Day Turner conducting, in San Jose, California.