Unto The End Of The World

For Flute (doubling Piccolo), Clarinet in B flat, Very large Tam-Tam (sounding from a high gallery), and Choir (SSATTBB).
Notated in C in the score.

'According to Hindu Cosmology,welive at the end of a cycle, the Kali Yuga the Dark Age. There are two important sayings of Christ that should accompany his disciples always during these challenging times.

<spanstyle='FONT-STYLE: italic'>The first is “The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against my Church” (Matthew 16, v. 18); and the second “I am with you always unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28, v. 20).
<brstyle='FONT-STYLE:italic'>These sayings form the basis of this work, which falls into two main sections, each with the same structure and with linked material. Each section begins with KaliYuga, which I havetried to represent in a chaotic, unstructured way, in contrast to the cosmic Cries of Humanity to Christ (Kyrie eleison - Lord, have mercy), and Christ’s responses from Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

The workends with a serene‘Coda’ of the sacred monosyllable “OM”, representing the peace and beatitude of God’s presence. The intermingling of Christianity and Hinduism is an important simile for our times; in the same way, earlyChristianity did nothesitate to incorporate Jewish and Greek thought.'

- John Tavener