WINGATE: BEYOND LIFE
Chapter XI of the Dhammapada for Mixed Chorus

(THIS PROJECT IS A WORK IN PROGRESS)

Instrumentation:
SATB a cappella

Text:
The Dhammapada, Chapter 11 (Jarāvaggo, or ‘The Chapter concerning Old Age’) in the original Pāli.​

Notes:
Having discovered Juan Mascaró’s compellingly poetic 1973 translation of the ancient Buddhist text The Dhammapada during comparative religion research in 2002, the composer was struck by Mascaró’s choice to translate the title of the eleventh chapter as ‘Beyond Life’, instead of the usual rendering of ‘Old Age’, or ‘Chapter about Old Age’. Having shortly thereafter been asked to compose a choral piece for use at a funeral using a non-Christian text, the setting of this Dhammapada chapter became inevitable. But instead of using Mascaró’s translation, the composer chose to set the text in the original Pāli language in order to help transcend the mere quotidian for this piece, and to allow listeners to live for a few minutes in a language of ritual, rather like the ecclesiastical Latin formerly used in the Western church. Beyond Life has subsequently endured multiple revisions and currently awaits its final incarnation.