Dana Gioia, Robert Schuneman

The Angel with the Broken Wing

This poem by Dana Gioia is spoken by a santo, a devotional wooden statue carved by a Mexican folk artist. This anthropomorphized statue speaks of its history and its fate as a museum piece. The setting, a hymn by Robert Schuneman, is intended to challenge singers' perception of rhythm, harmony, and structure. It contains a cantus firmus that undergoes various transformations paired with shifting time signatures nearly the entire way through the piece. Mostly homophonic music is contrasted by passages of polyphony, thinner choral textures, and one featuring a pedal point.