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I'hare!
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12 minutes - MD Commissioned by Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Kevin Badanes, conductor
The Pawnee invocation “I'hare!” calls the community into a place of awareness and reverence. This vivid and atmospheric work, modeled after the ancient Hako ceremony, honors those sacred Powers which give and sustain life.
Composer's Note: In the words of Pawnee leader Tahir'ssawichi: “I'hare is an exclamation, as when one suddenly remembers something of which he has been unmindful, because other things demanded his attention. The mind having been recalled to the subject, now appreciates its importance, gives it complete attention, and becomes absorbed by it. The word means: I remember, I perceive, I give heed.”
A close relative of the more familiar “Heya” and “Heyo,” “I'hare!” is the utterance used in the Pawnee ceremony of the Hako, which honors everything which gives and sustains life. In the opening part of the Hako, the Invocation of the Powers, everyone present is called upon to consider each specific sustaining Power, by listening deeply to its ceremonial naming. During this time, the word “I'hare!” is uttered repeatedly, calling upon all to enter a state of acute awareness and reverence.
“I'hare!” was commissioned in 2006 by Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, a project which required that I set a particular Native American prayer to music. While researching the source of this prayer, I discovered not only its source, but also its considerable inaccuracy. Using Alice Fletcher's painstakingly detailed documentation of the Hako, I rewrote the text, restoring the original order of the Powers, austerity of language, and clarity of form. I chose to retain the Pawnee word “I'hare!”; along with the English approximations “remember,” “consider,” “revere,” and “hold in our hearts.”
“I'hare!” does not attempt to recreate a Native American musical or religious experience. Just as the classical chorus and orchestra are my own culture's instruments, and the musical language is from my own artistic background, so I am sure that my own spiritual lens is hopelessly Western. What I have attempted to do is create a space in which wonder, remembrance, stillness and gratitude can exist, a space made sacred not by a chanted “Om” or a traditional “Alleluia,” but by a word just as holy and powerful: “I'hare!”
Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Choir and Orchestra ~ Kevin Badanes, conductor
I'hare!
Remember the circle of the Great Blue Sky (1), source of all that brings us life:
Ever-breathing Winds (2), Mighty Father Sun (3), Bountiful Earth (4),
Creatures and Plants which give us life (5), and Water (6).
I'hare!
Consider the sacredness of spaces,
The Consecrated Ground (7) where we go to pray,
The Blessed Land (8) where we build our dwellings,
The Shelter (9) which keeps our children free from harm,
The Hearth (10) whose Glowing Coals (11) and Leaping Flames (12) give forth the Sacred Fire.
The Passageway (13) of all that is holy, through which we travel all of our days.
I'hare!
Revere those who nurture and sustain: Brown Mother Eagle (14) and White Mother Corn (15).
Remember everything which gives long life to us and to our children, who are our strength and our future.
We hold this in our hearts as our prayers (16) returns to the sky.
I'hare.
Adapted by Elizabeth Alexander from Alice C. Fletcher's 1904 documentation of "The Hako: a Pawnee Ceremony"
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