Malhaar: A Requiem for Water

Program Notes

In Hindustani music, Malhaar(p/d) refers to a family of raags that beckon rain. As the legend goes, the greatest musicians could cause a downpour from even the most severely parched skies by the power of their song.

This is the inspiration for Malhaar: A Requiem for Water. As drought worsened in Southern California, I yearned for a way to process the rising panic. The work intertwines texts from the traditional Latin Requiem mass alongside the work of Wendell Berry and William O’Daly, along with interspersed Hindi. It traces a trajectory of beauty and awe of water, the fear and devastation around its loss, an answered plea of atonement, and eventually a promise of a new cycle of life, as the water returns to the skies.

This is a hopeful requiem. While the collective loss has been so tremendous, we can still hold out hope that if we change our relationship to the earth, we might beckon the rain back.

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Post script: The week we rehearsed and premiered this requiem in Los Angeles, the city received record rainfall. With over 60 singers, all singing the most beautiful Malhaar, maybe there’s something to that legend after all 😉

Recording

Please note: Camilla Tassi’s projections are not used in this performance — but it is recommended that they be utilized when possible, as the piece was created with the projections in mind.

Another beautiful full performance of Malhaar by Trinity Wall Street is available here (begins at 34:11)

Texts

Here is a PDF of the texts used in Malhaar: Download Texts are provided for perusal and ease of listening – please do not use or reprint without permission.

Special Performance Requirements

This work requires two Hindustani musicians: a vocalist and a tabla player. Please note that this work, though written specifically for musicians who have Hindustani technique and training, also requires the ability to follow a conductor and work within a Western musical setting. If you are looking to program this work with your ensemble and have not worked with Hindustani musicians before, please contact us to discuss logistics. We are happy to offer suggestions and make recommendations.

The work also requires a Western percussionist on a variety of mallet and unpitched instruments. (note: the original version required two percussionists, but has been edited down for only one going forward.)

Audio Guide

These are not available publicly yet, but can be made available to your ensemble if you are programming this work.

Additional Information

In addition to being an incredible poet, William O’Daly works for the California government, and just finished writing the most recent version of the California Water Plan. You can find it here.

If you are not familiar with the tabla, here is a beautiful introduction to the instrument by Shawn Mativetsky. Shawn has worked with many Western classical musicians to build works for the tabla, and is beautifully able to explain tabla theory and practice to those coming from a Western musical context.

Premiere/Performances

Malhaar: A Requiem for Water was commissioned by Los Angeles Master Chorale. It was premiered on March 26, 2023 at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA with Grant Gershon, conductor; Saili Oak, Hindustani vocals; Abhiman Kaushal, tabla; Graycen Gardner, soprano; Adam Faruqi, tenor; and Western percussionists Theresa Dimond and Daniel La France.

Press/Reviews

Esmail, raised and now based in Los Angeles, is LAMC’s composer-in-residence and has created a fresh and profound choral jewel with Malhaar….Esmail’s new piece stirred the ear and soul and proposed a surprisingly supple and affecting cultural synthesis. The Requiem lives, ever renewable in creative hands.

San Francisco Classical Voice review, Reena Esmail’s Malhaar Is a Rainmaker for Los Angeles Master Chorale

Spectrum News video coverage (March 24, 2023) about the LA Master Chorale premiere of Malhaar (Kristopher Gee)

In a way,” Esmail said, “I almost feel like I’m finding musical cognates. Sometimes those cognates mean one thing in a certain culture and they mean another thing in another culture or language. And you can use those cognates to create this glue that allows people to understand each other, maybe without even realizing that they’re understanding each other.

Los Angeles Times feature (March 25, 2023) “California’s escalating water crisis galvanized composer Reena Esmail’s new work” (Tim Greiving)

These days, we talk about representation a lot — the idea that ‘If you can see it, you can be it.” But I’ve found the opposite to be equally true: maybe if you can’t see it, that means IT IS YOU…I think about some of our major South Asian celebrities in other arts fields: Mindy Kaling, Hasan Minhaj, Kumail Nanjiani – they didn’t see what they do reflected in the world before they did it. They are trailblazers, and that’s something we admire most about their work.

India West Journal, Composer Reena Esmail’s Unique New Work Blends Indian and Western Classical Music Traditions

If you create a situation where people have a venue to be able to trust one another, then difficult conversations can happen.” That’s not just what composer Reena Esmail says, but also what she likes to do. Not just amongst the musicians who perform her music, but also amongst the artists and the audience at any given concert.

Craig Byrd “Reena Esmail and her Water Music” Cultural Attache feature (March 24, 2023)

Composer Reena Esmail grew up in Los Angeles and is currently based there; she has said she “yearned for a way to process the rising panic” while witnessing the worsening California drought; her “Malhaar: A Requiem for Water” is the result. If a requiem is a mass for the dead, then titling a composition “A Requiem for Water” is a bit of a gut-punch, but in Hindustani music, a malhaar is a group of ragas calling for rain.

Jessica Bryce Young, Orlando Weekly

Read a beautiful feature in Performances Magazine: Download

Read a review from Hum Hindustani Magazine: Download

Oak, Panchakshari, and Yeung each joined in to bring the program to an end in a resplendent yet meditative space. The final words were a return to the Berry piece from part one: “The water is free only in its gathering together, in its downward courses, in its rising into air.” It gave this listener much to think about long after the standing ovation given to the performers and the scattering of the crowd into the streets of New Haven, where the sky remained clear… I was still thinking about the rain, how easy it is to take for granted all of these lovely days we have been having recently, how often we get frustrated when rain interrupts our events and outdoor plans, but also how vital it is to consider how droughts and water shortages around the world have become more of the norm in recent years. Malhaar remind us of what is happening on this planet, awakening us to the need for change in a most peaceful and powerful way.”

Karen Ponzio, New Haven Independent