cursed belief by Calvin Hitchcock published on 2020-11-15T01:08:09Z Written for the Rhythm Method Quartet Lake George Composer Institute 2020 Premiered on Facebook Live August 14 2020 Leah Asher, violin; Marina Kifferstein violin; Wendy Richman, viola; Meaghan Burke, cello Bernd Klug, audio engineering and mixing Program note Taking its title from a Flannery O’Connor quote, “cursed belief” is a meditation on an upbringing in the American Evangelical community, innocent religious fervor, and people or systems that twist said fervor into militaristic power. The tune of “Jesus Loves Me” reflects the child-like faith of a young believer toddling through the harmonic underpinnings of “Onward Christian Soldiers”, first learning and then proclaiming through soaring melody, “yes, Jesus loves me!” This sentiment is quickly trapped by the looping phrase “for the Bible tells me so” as the adolescent believer struggles to cope with the human realities of Christendom. His crisis of faith is drowned out by an aggressive Military March for Christ. Overpowered and broken, he eventually joins the parade “with the Cross of Jesus going on before”. The piece is book-ended by a Sunday School class performance led by a zealous teacher marching her children into the kingdom amid the applause and laughter of an approving church congregation. Genre string quartet
