GABRIEL KAHANE

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If love will not swing wide the gates →

Every love song is a protest

ensemble 3(III=picc).3(III=CA).3(III=b.cl.).3(III=cbsn)—4.3.3.1—timp.perc(3)—harp—solo baritone (doubling acoustic guitar)—piano/celesta—strings

duration 45 minutes

written 2026

commissioned by Oregon Symphony (commissioner of orchestral version)

premièred October 24, 2026 Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR

PROGRAM NOTE

Beginning with its title, Every love song is a protest is a provocation: can an ethic of love — unconditional love for all mankind, even and especially in the face of cruelty — help to create the solidarity necessary to make a better world? Devised in split screen — on the one hand, songs mining love relationships in my life (with my parents, my wife, my children); on the other, new songs of witness and protest — the song cycle attempts to heed Gandhi’s exhortation that we worship the God of love not only in our political activities, but in every realm of our existence. The cycle is studded with orchestral interludes (I call them “commonplace book meditations”), and takes the listener on an expansive musical journey through eight songs interwoven with readings of texts by Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Judith Butler, Erich Fromm, and Thomas Merton. In an era in which contempt and pugilism are the watchwords of the day, I hope that this work offers listeners a new spiritual ethics, allowing us to say, with Gandhi: all men are brothers.

— Gabriel Kahane, 2026

PURCHASE

Performance materials, available on rental, can be requested here. For perusal scores, please click here.

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