In This Earth (2026)
Commissioned by SOLI Chamber Ensemble for Kelley O’Connor with generous support from Willo Carey in memory of Peter A. Benoliel, and Jane and Rick Lewis.
Instrumentation
Mezzo-Soprano
Clarinet in B♭ (Bass Clarinet)
Violin
Cello
Piano
(PV available)
Duration: 9:45
Program Notes for IN THIS EARTH
Rudolfo Anaya is one of New Mexico’s most important artists, credited with popularizing the stories and spirit of the region. His work spans short stories, novels, plays, anthologies, and more. Growing up in New Mexico, I would meet him often when he visited schools to sign books and talk about writing. Anaya helped build the foundation that artists like me stand on when we explore New Mexican identity in our work. While I have created many projects inspired by his stories and anthologies, this is my first time setting his actual words.
In This Earth reads like a secular prayer, with repetition and ceremony built into the text itself. In the opening, Anaya seems to search in real time for those at rest in the earth who matter most: kings, saints, folktales, warriors, and finally, ancestors. The music, propelled by a solo clarinet, searches for meaning while the ground moves beneath it. Then, with an incantation and a command to rise (“bare feet dancing on earth”), Anaya sets a series of legends in motion. As each legend comes to life and we learn about the accomplishments of gods, saints, kings, and warriors, we are also forced to reckon with their suffering. La Llorona cries for the deaths of the poor and bears witness to those who would kill the earth. The piece ends like a prayer, as the singer implores us to dance as a means of remembering and reconnecting with our history, our ancestors, and our earth.
Thank you to SOLI, and especially Stephanie Key, for asking me to write this work for your 2025–26 season and for allowing me to choose a poem by Rudolfo Anaya. Thank you, Kelley O’Connor, for your radiant artistry and for inviting me to be part of your residency with SOLI. This poem feels especially meaningful as the premiere will occur just days after the birth of my second son, a moment when I will be reflecting deeply on family, lineage, ancestry, and our responsibility to the living earth.
- Nicolás Lell Benavides