David Lang’s before and after nature
Music and text by David Lang
Video and visual design by Tal Rosner
Performed by Bang on a Can All-Stars
With Penn State Concert Choir under the direction of Dr. Christopher Kiver
David Lang’s before and after nature is a meditation on the natural world, both before human existence and after humans are gone.
Lang met closely with scholars, faculty, and students in Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability, and with the Doerr-affiliated Environmental Justice Working Group. He combined what he learned with his own readings from the past fifty years of environmental thinking, leading him to write his own texts that explore the different ways we define and understand nature.
Lang set these texts for voices and Bang on a Can All-Stars, and he enlisted video pioneer Tal Rosner to invent a way to visualize the meanings of the music in video and projection. The result is an immersive spectacle of sound and vision, both heartbreaking and miraculous, full of beauty, wonder, and awe.
before and after nature was commissioned by Bang on a Can; Stanford Live; Los Angeles Master Chorale; Helsinki Festival and Helsinki Chamber Choir; University of Illinois-Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; with generous support from Robert and Maria A. Skirnick, Stephen Block, Leslie Lassiter, Raulee Marcus, Susan and George Reardon, Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting, Abby Sher.