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Of Sons of Noah, Hartke writes:
“I ran across the Machado short story while living in Brazil; later I translated it from the Portuguese
myself and gave that version to Philip Littell for him to base his poem on. His text is really a
completely original rewrite of the short story, everything beautifully couched in his own elegantly
colloquial language. Machado wrote the story in response to the Crimean War, the first modern
conflict between European Christendom and the Islamic world. Hence the combatants in the story are
Japhet (Europe) and Shem (the Middle East). Ham (Africa) is a hapless and helpless onlooker, and I’m
sure Machado, himself the son of a freed slave and a Portuguese mother, intended the irony.”
Hartke sets Littell’s text for solo soprano, who sings the roles of Noah, his sons Ham, Japhet, Shem, and their wives, as
well as serving as narrator and even providing sound effects for the fight. The work is a tour de force, a miniature opera
written (as a birthday gift!) for the composer’s wife, Lisa Stidham, who makes the most of the dramatic and musical
opportunities here. Littell creates a varying refrain which begins “All are aboard / an ark / all are aboard / an ark that
floats / an ark that floats above the earth / atop the flood, that rests over the abyss.” Hartke takes advantage of the
refrain’s musical implications, moving from scene-painting to reflective pathos as the regrettable story unfolds. Littell
underscores the modern relevance of Machado’s allegory by inserting blanks in the text at the end of Noah’s final
prayer: “OH LORD / can you imagine what will happen in / (Fill in the blank, freely, with whatever contemporary
territorial aggressions happen to come to mind.)” On this recording, the places selected are Ireland, Israel, Kosovo,
and Somalia.
The instrumental forces for Sons of Noah are as original and telling as the text: quartets of flutes, guitars, and bassoons.
Hartke writes that “the instrumental combination occurred to me one day at USC—it was the day for instrumental
juries—and I could hear bassoonists and guitarists warming up in the resonant stairwell adjacent to my office. So I
wrote the piece for an ensemble that I knew could be put together with no problem at all at a place like USC. I also
liked that its make-up harks back a bit to the sound world of the early Baroque, when massed plucked instruments were
commonly used in ensembles that could also include consorts of winds.”
Hartke’s ear for massed ensemble chords is Stravinskian in its precision: Note the beautifully gauged chords
accompanying Japhet in Chapter 2 (track 6). Note also the opening depiction of the rain (piccolos and high guitar
harmonics), an effect both original and highly theatrical. The lovely coda to Chapter 1 (track 4) is set to the quartet of
murmuring guitars. The quartet of flutes in Chapter 3 (track 12 ) creates a remarkably vivid image of the combatants
panting for breath.
The soloistic writing for the instruments is equally telling: Note the passage in track 2 beginning “Could they see that
land / under the water?” where the low-register soprano is accompanied by a fourth (B flat-E flat) shifting color
between alto flute and bassoon. The ending of Chapter 2, at the words “sevenfold vengeance fell on Cain” (track 10)
features solo bassoon in the range of the famous opening of Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps, here aptly marked “sick at
heart.” The tender interlude at track 7, the story of the wolf and the lamb, marked in the score “a fable,” illustrating
the contagious nature of the growing lack of trust among the brothers, is preceded by a lovely medieval-influenced trio
for two flutes and bassoon.
Another possible echo of Stravinsky is in the formality of the dramatic technique of Littell and Hartke, a certain
objectivity they bring to the horrors they depict. They share with many great modernists, and with the Mozart of Don
Giovanni, an understanding that a strong story told in a direct and vivid way is more expressive than any direct
outpouring of emotion, no matter how sincere. Much of Sons of Noah seems light in tone, almost cheerful: that
delightfully pitter-patting opening, or the lightly syncopated rhythm that opens Chapter 2 (track 5). While the music
and words carry rich emotional implications, they are direct and without clutter. This is the rigorous technique of
comic opera with a bite, a comedy that examines the sources of evil. It is the tradition of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat,
of the Brecht-Weill Mahagonny, of the stylized and largely narrated Rape of Lucretia of Britten, and of the chilling political
comedy of Judith Weir’s A Night at the Chinese Opera. As in all these works, the instrumental deployment is boldly
original, the vocal writing is varied and challenging but above all text-based, and the texts themselves deal with the
suffering caused by the misuse of power. Sons of Noah takes its place in this line of dramatic works. Hartke’s ability to
adjust the dramatic pace while maintaining a sense of continuity and musical flow is a quality one can recognize in
many of the great opera composers. In fact, Littell and Hartke are already working on their first full-scale opera
together, based on the Maupassant short story Boule de Suif and commissioned by Glimmerglass Opera.

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