Program
Thursday, June 29 – 11:15 am
Labyrint světa a ráj srdce by Petr Eben (1929-2007)
- Prologue
- View of the World
- Masks
- The Arrows of Death
- The Sweet Chains of Love
- The Ceremony of the Academy
- The Ignorance of the Learned
- The Wheel of Fortune
- The Crimes of Humanity
- False Promise of a Golden Age
- Vanity of Vanities
- Horror and Swooning
- The Return to God
- Epilogue
Melissa Plamann, organ
Lorraine Brugh, narration
Program Notes
Czech composer Petr Eben’s The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart originated as an improvisation he performed throughout Europe. The work comprises fourteen pieces, alternating with narration from the identically titled book of the Czech humanist philosopher, educational theorist, and theologian Johann Amos Comenius (1592-1670). Comenius was a bishop within the Bohemian Brethren and spent the latter portion of his life exiled in the Netherlands. Eben writes: “The pilgrim who wanders through the labyrinth of the world finds nothing here to delight him and turns his heart towards God. What touches me most about Comenius’ view is his tireless striving to make the world a better place. The whole atmosphere of the text is not that of an idyllic stroll through the world, but of a satirical, bizarre and sometimes even apocalyptic vision.”
About the Performers
Dr. Melissa Plamann is the Wanda L. Bass Chair of Organ, Professor of Music, and Coordinator of Graduate Studies at Oklahoma City University’s Bass School of Music; she also serves as Artist-in-Residence at Westminster Presbyterian Church in OKC. Plamann holds organ performance degrees from Valparaiso University (studying under Dr. Lorraine Brugh) and Emory University, and she was awarded the Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University-Bloomington, where she studied with Dr. Larry Smith.
Dr. Plamann maintains an active performing schedule, and she particularly enjoys programming 20th– and 21st-century works and collaborative pieces featuring other instruments with the organ. She is the previous dean of the OKC chapter of the American Guild of Organists and has served as an executive board member of the Oklahoma Alliance for Liturgy and the Arts, a non-profit organization that fosters liturgical art and encourages creative collaboration between artists, religious groups, and the larger community. Melissa and her husband Ryan have two children, Madeline (5) and Charlie (8).
Lorraine S. Brugh is Senior Research Professor of Music at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana. She is a past president of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians and a charter member. From 2021-2022 Dr. Brugh served as Artist in Residence at Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale, Arizona.
She served as a reviewer and wrote short descriptions of hymns for the hymnal supplement from Augsburg Fortress, All Creation Sings, published in November 2020. On the occasion of a festschrift in honor of Gabe Huck, she contributed a chapter, “Where Do We Go from Here?” The book, Fully Conscious, Fully Active: Essays in Honor of Gabe Huck was published by Liturgy Training Publications in 2019.
She is a member of the North Academy of Liturgy, the American Guild of Organists, and currently resides in Peoria, Arizona.
About the Venue
Trinity Episcopal Church
501 S. Cincinnati Ave., Tulsa, Oklahoma
M.P. Möller Opus 9606 (1961), IV/80
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