Beginnings:

A Modern Oratorio
Inspired by

the Shared Creation Stories
of the Middle East

We invite you to join us on a musical journey. Imagine the caravan of human experience, reaching back before you, to the begiinning, the source, the origin of all that is.

Beginnings unite us. According to the mystics of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions, creation never ended. The same power that began the cosmos and set it on its evolutionary journey continues to inspire all of creation. Beginnings unite us.

This music arose from meditations on the shared creation stories in the Bibles (Hebrew and Christian) and Quran resulting from my translation work in The Genesis Meditation: A Shared Practice of Peace for Christians, Jews and Muslims . The impact of these stories is far reaching and touches all people. The negative, distorted interpretations of the Genesis creation stories, ones that postulate un-Biblical ideas like "original sin," the inferiority of women or of certain racial or religious groups, have had a devastating effect on Western history.

The postive, mystical interpretations of these stories deserve to be heard. They aim us towards the meaning of our lives, and to the inspiration of creativity and consciousness.They are the shared heritage of everyone who has every heard, "In the beginning God…."

--Neil Douglas-Klotz

Overture

1. The Creative Word Resounding

Here Comes the Cosmos…

2. The Story Begins

3. The Unformed Seed of Existence

4. The Great Dark Rolls In

5. Breath and Darkness Make Love

6. Light Is!

7. Celebration of the Light

Holy Wisdom’s Story

8. Wisdom and Life Energy Embrace

9. Wisdom Pours Herself Out

10. The Birth Dance of Holy Wisdom

The Human Experiment

11. The First Remembrance

12. In the Divine Image

13. For Better and Worse/Reigning with All Creation

Returning

14. The Seventh Day

Hear a sample of Beginnings:

an excerpt from "The First Remembrance"

Click here

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where you can purchase a copy.