Secrets, Dreams, Faith and Wonder is a feature-length abstract music/video ritual of thanksgiving in five parts; it follows the structure of rituals of gratitude celebrated throughout the ages and across cultures and religions (and especially the Catholic Mass). The five pieces of music incorporate voices in Latin, English and Arabic (texts from the Bible, by M. L. King and M. K, Gandhi) as well as bird and whale songs. Each of the videos was made to fit the music of the respective movement. Each of the five parts has its own tonal and timbral language, and yet they fuse into a whole when viewed as a single large-scale work. The two inner parts (Leur Songe de la Paix and Credo) have text subtitles incorporated into the videos (texts by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas K. Gandhi, respectively), while the other parts each has a related text of some sort.—Stephen Travis Pope
In intact societies, people organize their lives around regular rituals that celebrate all manner of milestones and life-transitions. Many of these rituals have evolved over generations and incorporate our most important teachings about the human character, our families and communities, and the role that spirituality plays in our day-to-day lives. Our rituals also reflect and encode our shared social metaphors and generally reinforce the societal power structures of the group that promotes them.
The music/video pieces collected in "Secrets, Dreams, Faith and Wonder" form a ritual of thanksgiving in five parts: (1) a lament of surrender, (2) the reading of the lesson, (3) the celebration of the ritual, (4) the recitation of the creed, and (5) a hymn of benediction. When looked at this way, it closely mirrors the structure of the Catholic mass as well as other rituals of gratitude celebrated throughout the ages and across cultures and religions. Each of the five parts has its own tonal and timbral language, and yet they fuse into a whole when viewed as a single large-scale work. The two inner parts (Leur Songe de la Paix and Credo) have text subtitles incorporated into the videos (texts by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas K. Gandhi, respectively), while the other parts each has a related text of some sort.
The motivation for "Secrets, Dreams, Faith and Wonder", for making a new mass for the new millennium, is summed up in the following paraphrased quote from the late Joseph Campbell, Those who have heard the rhythms and hymns of the angels, who have understood any of the words of the angels, will try to recite those hymns in such a way that the angels will be attracted.
