Jamie Raskin Oratorio

Karren Alenier

As November 5, 2024, the day of the most significant election in United States history, approaches the Steiny Road Poet has been reading Jamie Raskin's lyrically-written book Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy. On September 7, 2024, she heard The Jamie Raskin Oratorio, a powerful poem by Anne Becker based on Raskin's book, with piano and trumpet accompaniment by Noam Faingold. Washington Musica Viva (WMV) with Carl Banner on piano, Chris Royal on trumpet, and Anne Becker reading the words performed the work at the Church of the Ascension in Silver Spring, Maryland. The beloved U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin sent a video to the concert, saying he would be a mess if he showed up and instead would attend the Bruce Springsteen concert that was held at Nationals Park in Washington, DC that evening. The concert was structured in two parts, beginning with a transcription of Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe song cycle played by Carl Banner on piano and Rhonda Buckley-Bishop on soprano saxophone. This instrumental presentation grounded the evening in a variable feast of moods. Although Schumann meant for this work to be sung, his music is so sonically rich that it easily stands on its own. As always, Steiny enjoyed hearing these two talented musicians play together. After Anne Becker delivered her poem which ran just under 40 minutes, Steiny and the audience of an estimated 175 rose to their feet in thunderous appreciation. BACKGROUND Jamie lost his only son to suicide days before the January 6, 2021, insurrection perpetrated by the then-sitting president of the United States Donald Trump. Thomas (Tommy) Bloom Raskin, a second-year student at Harvard Law School, had been, since childhood, a precocious philosopher, policy wonk, and moral voice in his father's ear. Plagued by severe depression and sleep problems, Tommy, 25 years old, ended his pain and was discovered by his father on December 31, 2020. HOW DID THE JAMIE RASKIN ORATORIO COME ABOUT? Carl, who founded Washington Musica Viva in 1998, commissioned a piece based on Jamie Raskin's speeches, asking Anne Becker to work with composer Noam Faingold, who is WMV's composer-in-residence. Anne accepted the commission but then found she needed written text to work from. Access to Jamie's speeches was recordings only. Anne said in an interview Steiny conducted September 11 that transcribing  was daunting and would have taken too much time. She needed to have his words in a written form to work with. What drew her to Jamie's book was his strong connection to his son. WHAT WAS THE POET'S PROCESS? At first, Anne said she believed she could not talk about Tommy's suicide, but as she read further, she felt she had to. What helped her understand Tommy's decision was that she had a good friend who also committed suicide. She realized that Tommy came to the point where pain was greater than his will to live. Among the observations Anne made about Unthinkable—Jamie is a good storyteller, he injected a thread of magic in his storytelling touching on such things as Hogwarts, the fictional boarding school of magic from the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, and that family was an important aspect of what Jamie was imparting about himself and his son. Anne also said she had a personal experience with the Institute for Policy Studies, where Tommy had interned at a young age and which was founded by Jamie's father Marcus Raskin. Tommy's Baba, Marcus, had been prosecuted by the then Attorney General Ramsey Clark but acquitted for conspiring to aid and abet draft evasion during the Vietnam War. Tommy was vehemently against war as well as an animal rights activist. Anything that endangered life concerned Tommy, which made his suicide so much harder to accept. Of "Unknowable," the subpoem that begins The Jamie Raskin Oratorio, Anne said she had strong feeling for it because it is most like her own poetry. For years, Anne has led her poetry workshop Writing the Body for people who have experienced life-threatening or chronic illness as a patient, caregiver, or family member. Pay attention to Anne's use of words with "s" which gives a shushing, seething, and sinister feel to the silence experienced by the suicide's death. Unknowable by Anne Becker Peaceful the room was and every object in it after all that would happen had happened and there were only objects in it: soft cotton clothes strewn where they had fallen when they shucked the body they had cradled, they contained, they caressed all the day before; a book come to rest, open lying face down on the floor. No movement now, not even of air entering and leaving the lungs.  No cell twitching, performing its functions, no metabolism burning its chemicals, no exchange of by-products, elegant symmetry.  The body innocent, not cold yet, still seemed the same, the skin still pliable, still supple, except for the terrible static of the darkened room. Mostly, Anne used Jamie's words for this eleven-part poem. According to Anne, some of Jamie's words have such importance that they were like singing [musical] notes. Anne described the structure of this work as a poetic compression. It took her nine months to write it. The hardest piece to create was "Dear America, My Son", the closing subpoem. She said while she doesn't normally keep a journal, she had to for several months before she could write the closing. WHY WAS THE WORD ORATORIO CHOSEN FOR THE TITLE? Anne said it came from the idea of oration and what an orator would do. She said it was somewhat tongue in cheek, because it doesn't have the elevation of historical and mythical elements. However, she added that there is a sacredness in Jamie's approach. Oratorios are somewhat like operas in that they are large-scale music events with an orchestra and singers. The difference is there are no costumes, scenery, or acting. The themes of well-known oratorios of the past are usually religious. When Steiny asked if Anne had thought of expanding this work so that it becomes a bone fide oratorio, she answered, "I spoke for Jamie without pretending to be Jamie. I felt that the work shouldn't get too big for its britches." Nonetheless, Anne said she would like for the work to be presented again. WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO HAVE THE ACCOMPANYING MUSIC? For Anne, the piano and trumpet were other voices. "I didn't feel like I was alone because these voices were joining me." She also said that every time they put the music with her words, the result was different. It was more improvisation than an exact presentation of words and music. The music was a mix of tonal and dissonant expressions. Unlike the Schumann Dichterliebe played earlier in the concert, Noam  Faingold's music could not have stood alone without the words. Happily, The Jamie Raskin Oratorio music was performed by two outstanding and passionate performers—Carl Banner on piano and Chris Royal on Trumpet. WHAT WAS THE GOAL FOR WRITING THIS WORK? DID POLITICS PLAY A ROLE? "Absolutely," Anne affirmed, "these things [about the January 6 insurrection] needed to be said. I did this kind of thing [addressed pressing issues] in my book, The Transmutation Notebooks: Poems in the voices of Charles and Emma Darwin." Coincidentally, Steiny read Raskin's book Unthinkable during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and felt it was the blueprint for what was presented at the DNC, down to the use of the word weird which is peppered throughout his book. The Jamie Raskin Oratorio ends with a Walt Whitmanesque close that sums up the violence of the January 6 insurrection, quotes Thomas Paine, a hero of Jamie and Tommy (We have it in our power to begin the world again) and quotes the preamble of the U.S. constitution (In order to form a more perfect union) to advocate for the miracle of the American democracy, a state of being "vulnerable as life itself." Dear America, My Son by Anne Becker What now, dear America, my soul, my son?  We could have lost it all on that day the Capitol was attacked, windows and doors smashed, Capitol police assaulted, wounded— their eyes gouged out—and murdered while we ran for our lives with gas masks we could not use.  Our nation, our democracy, could have been plunged into authoritarianism, mass violence, and, even, civil war.  Then I would have lost you twice, my son, my soul, dear America. Join with me now I'm driven by memory and the spirit of you, Tommy, my son, wanting far more from our democracy, not less.  We must express our dread of fascism, what it has done to humanity in the last century, what it does now. And the horror of Nietzchean politics of "force, fraud and will to power." Government must be the active instrument, a drum, promoting the general welfare, not just of human beings, but all living things. Morality must replace violence as the essence of power.  For most of the history of the world, dictators, autocrats, bullies, despots, tyrants and cowards were the rule. We have it in our power to begin the world again. Such a miracle: democracy. Such a fragile, precarious, transitory thing.  Vulnerable as life itself.  We, the people, our inalienable rights, our consent to be governed.  In order to form a more perfect union and preserve to ourselves the blessings of liberty, amending the Constitution as we gain more wisdom, a wider vision. And likewise, Jamie Raskin wanted to preserve the details of both his son's short life and that terrible day of January 6 when a sitting president of the United States tried to upend the most revered democratic government in the world. Brava to Anne Becker for assisting Jamie Raskin in that effort and may the world know Tommy Raskin and never forget the terror of January 6, 2021.