Christopher Coleman
Prophecies for a New Millennium (2000)
variable duration
first performance ca. 75:00
Instrumentation
for various combinations of performers in various media
Program note
“Mother Shipton” is believed by many to be the most uncannily accurate seer the world has ever produced. Her prophecies, supposedly produced in England toward the middle of the 1500s, accurately describe many of the events and things commonplace today, but unimaginable in her time. Submarines, the Internet, the European Union, the World Wars, the rise of Communist China, and more are predicted in startlingly clear language, unlike the prophecies of others such as Nostradamus. And frighteningly, Mother Shipton’s prophecies speak clearly of a coming apocalypse--the end of the world in a series of horrible disasters and wars. She does hold out hope for mankind, though, as she also speaks of a rebirth, lead by some outside source, either extraterrestrial or heavenly.
Further inquiry into the historical truth concerning these prophecies, however, reveals that they only recently “came to light” in the 1970’s, when transcripts written by hand were supposedly smuggled out of a secret library room in Australia. The library denies the existence of this room and this material, and there is apparently no historical record of these particular prophecies (although there may have been a “Mother Shipton”) before about 1970 and no original material exists. Upon examination, the language of the texts reveals that they are modern--there is no trace of 16th century English usage. Undoubtedly the prophecies are a fraud--yet many still continue to believe them in spite of the undeniable facts. They speak to very real and fundamental human fears and hopes--the fear of death and the hope for redemption; and the pull of these fears and hopes may be more powerful than historical truth.
Prophecies for a New Millennium was premiered by the Hong Kong Baptist University Contemporary Music Workshop on May 5, 2000 at Hong Kong Baptist University's Academic Community Hall.
Part I
I know I go -- I know I'm free
I know that this will come to be.
Secreted this -- for this will be
Found by later dynasty.
This is then held year by year
Till an iron monster trembling fear
Eats parchment, words and quill and ink
And mankind is given time to think.
And only when this comes to be
Will mankind read this prophecy
But one man's sweet is another's bane
So I shall not have burned in vain.
Part II
The signs will be there for all to read
When man shall do most heinous deed
Man will ruin kinder lives
By taking them as to their wives.
And murder foul and brutal deed
When man will only think of greed.
The kings shall false promise make
And talk just for talking's sake
And nations plan horrific war
The like as never seen before.
And taxes rise and lively down
And nations wear perpetual frown.
Yet greater sign there be to see
As man nears latter century.
Three sleeping mountains gather breath
And spew out mud, and ice and death.
And earthquakes swallow town and town,
In lands as yet to me unknown.
And Christian one fights Christian two
And nations sigh, yet nothing do
And yellow men great power gain
From mighty bear with whom they've lain.
These mighty tyrants will fail to do
They fail to split the world in two.
But from their acts a danger bred
An ague -- leaving many dead.
And physics find no remedy
For this is worse than leprosy.
Oh, many signs for all to see
The truth of this true prophecy.
Part III
And now a word, in uncouth rhyme
Of what shall be in future time.
The poor shall now great wisdom know.
A carriage without horse will go
Disaster fill the world with woe.
Around the world men's thoughts will fly
Quick as the twinkling of an eye.
And water shall great wonders do
How strange. And yet it shall come true.
Through towering hills proud men shall ride.
Beneath the water, men shall walk
Shall ride, shall sleep, shall even talk.
Part IV
A house of glass shall come to pass
In England. But Alas, alas
A war will follow with the work
Where dwells the Pagan and the Turk.
These states will lock in fiercest strife
And seek to take each other's life.
When North shall thus divide the south
And Eagle build in Lion's mouth
Then tax and blood and cruel war
Shall come to every humble door.
Three times shall lovely sunny France
Be led to play a bloody dance
Before the people shall be free
Three tyrant rulers shall she see.
Three rulers in succession be
Each springs from different dynasty.
Then when the fiercest strife is done
England and France shall be as one.
Part V
The British olive shall next then twine
In marriage with a German vine.
Men walk beneath and over streams
Fulfilled shall be their wondrous dreams.
And roaring monsters with man atop
Does seem to eat the verdant crop
And men shall fly as birds do now
And give away the horse and plough.
There'll be a sign for all to see
Be sure that it will certain be.
Then love shall die and marriage cease
And nations wane as babes decrease.
When pictures seem alive with movements free
When boats like fishes swim beneath the sea,
When men like birds shall scour the sky
Then half the world, deep drenched in blood shall die.
For storms will rage and oceans roar
When Gabriel stands on sea and shore
And as he blows his wondrous horn
Old worlds die and new be born.
Part VI
A fiery Dragon will cross the sky
Six times before this earth shall die
Mankind will tremble and frightened be
For the six heralds in this prophecy.
For seven days and seven nights
Man will watch this awesome sight.
The tides will rise beyond their ken
To bite away the shores and then
The mountains will begin to roar
And earthquakes split the plain to shore.
And flooding waters, rushing in
Will flood the lands with such a din
That mankind cowers in muddy fen
And snarls about his fellow men.
He bares his teeth and fights and kills
And secrets food in secret hills
And ugly in his fear, he lies
To kill marauders, thieves and spies.
Man flees in terror from the floods
And kills, and rapes and lies in blood
And spilling blood by mankind's hands
Will stain and bitter many lands.
And when the Dragon's tail is gone,
Man forgets, and smiles, and carries on
To apply himself -- too late, too late!
Mankind has earned deserved fate.
His masked smile -- his false grandeur
Will serve the Gods their anger stir.
And they will send the Dragon back
To light the sky -- his tail will crack
Upon the earth and rend the earth
And man shall flee, King, Lord, and serf.
But slowly they are routed out
To seek diminishing water spout
And men will die of thirst before
The oceans rise to mount the shore.
And lands will crack and rend anew
You think it strange. It will come true.
And in some far off distant land
Some men -- oh such a tiny band
Will have to leave their solid mount
And span the earth, those few to count,
Who survives this and then
Begin the human race again.
But not on land already there
But on ocean beds, stark, dry and bare
Not every soul on Earth will die.
Not every land on earth will sink
But these will wallow in stench and stink
Of rotting bodies of beast and man
Of vegetation crisped on land.
But the land that rises from the sea
Will be dry and clean and soft and free
Of mankind's dirt and therefore be
The source of man's new dynasty.
And those that live will ever fear
The Dragons tail for many year
But time erases memory
You think it strange. But it will be.
Part VII
And before the race is built anew
A silver serpent comes to view
And spew out men of like unknown
To mingle with the earth now grown
Cold from its heat and these men can
Enlighten the minds of future man.
To intermingle and show them how
To live and love and thus endow
The children with the second sight.
A natural thing so that they might
Grow graceful, humble and when they do
The Golden Age will start anew.
The dragon’s tail is but a sign
For mankind’s fall and man’s decline,
And before this prophecy is done
I shall be burned at the stake, at 1.
My body singed and my soul set free
You think I utter blasphemy, you’re wrong.
These things have come to me
This prophecy will come to be.
Programme from the Premiere Performance
Part I: I know I go--I know I’m free, I know that this will come to be.....
Wen Ching, Agnes To Wai Man, Esther Lee King Wo, Jocelyn Wong Man Ki, Joanne Tsang Mei Yiu, Jacqueline Tsang King Wing
Interlude I: kalimba solo by Wen Ching
Part II: The signs will be there for all to read when man shall do most heinous deed...
Elaine Louie Wai Wah, Billy Chan Ka King, Geneva Fing Tsui Shan, Michele Ngyuen, Eric Leong Mang Kit
Interlude II: organ solo by Michelle Ngyuen
Part III: And now a word, in uncouth rhyme of what shall be in future time....
Maggie Leung Yu Mei, Julia Poon Chi Ying, Jennifer Chan Ning Huen, Angel Woo Kam Fun, Enoch Lam Yee Lok, John Wilson
Part IV: A house of glass shall some to pass in England. But Alas, alas...
Winnie Lo, Candy Yip Wai Man, Louisa Hung Yuen Kwan
Part V: The British olive shall next them twine in marriage with a German vine....
Maggie Leung Yu Mei, Julia Poon Chi Ying, Jennifer Chan Ning Huen, Angel Woo Kam Fun, Enoch Lam Yee Lok, John Wilson
Part VI: A fiery Dragon will cross the sky six times before this earth
shall die....
complete ensemble
Interlude III: guitar solo by Billy Chan Ka King
Part VII: And before the race is built anew a silver serpent comes to view...
Eva Ng Yuen Mei, Becky Lee, Cherry Poon Sze Ling, Sandy Yau Sum Yee, Catherine Chow Lo Kar, Connie Tam Ho Ying
Guest Artists:
Cheung Ka Ho, Natalie Chan Pui Man, Anita Tam Ho Yan, Mary Lee Wai Man; clarinets
Christopher Coleman, trombone; Chris Choi Ka Yan, euphonium; Thomas Chan Kin Pang, tuba
Digital Signal Processing Workshop Program by Dr. Christopher Keyes
Paintings by Salvador Dali; Maps of Cambodian Bomb Site
Photographs by Stuart Issett and file photos
Creature design, makeup design, and graphic sequence by Christopher Coleman
Creature created by Wen Ching, Jennifer Chan Ning Huen, Maggie Leung Yu Mei, Jacqueline Tsang King Wing, Elaine Louie Wai Wah, and John Wilson