It was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the 2014 Ecstatic Music Festival, and first performed at Carnegie's Zankel Hall on February 22, 2014.The work is a distorted, wild, blasphemous take on the traditional Vespers prayer service, in which fragments of poems by Matthew Zapruder replace the customary sacred text.
Vespers for a new dark age / Missy Mazzoli ; text compiled from poems by Matthew Zapruder -- A thousand tongues : Lorna Dune remix / Missy Mazzoli ; text by Stephen Crane.
Note
The 1st work for 2 sopranos, alto, violin, 2 keyboards, clarinet, double bass, percussion, and electronics; the 2nd work a remix by Lorna Dune of Missy Mazzoli's A thousand tongues.
The 1st work reimagines the traditional vespers prayer service and replaces the customary sacred verses with poems by Matthew Zapruder that contend with themes like technology, God and more.