What if a central biblical figure was an ordinary person? That’s what a Potomac songwriter set out to explore through his song cycle, “My Name is Moses.”
Robert Nath, a longtime member of Washington Hebrew Congregation, will see his song cycle performed in a synagogue for the first time on March 29, after two D.C.-area performances in the fall.
Inspired by musical theater, “My Name is Moses” features just under an hour of melodies and character storytelling, starting with the titular prophet’s birth and ending with his soliloquy. The song cycle aims to bring Moses to life as not only a prophet, but also a husband, a brother and a man “wrestling with God and himself,” according to the event listing.
“This is — in origin — a Jewish story, but it is also universal,” the self-taught songwriter said. “Its origin in the Hebrew Bible makes it appropriate to have it performed at Washington Hebrew. It’s important that we have a Jewish audience and Jewish venue.”
“My Name is Moses” features 11 songs, more than half of which Nath had already written as part of a larger project that’s in the works: a full-length musical based on the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
Nath teamed up with Jeffrey Dokken, the music director for the Washington Commanders, who produced, directed, conducted and coordinated “all aspects” of “My Name is Moses.” He also worked with arranger Jonathan Comisar, who orchestrated the performance.
“Along the way, Jeff and I decided to reorient that larger project, which meant that we wanted to tell that particular story from a different point of view, rather than the traditional one that had Moses as the chief character and protagonist,” Nath explained. “I had already written quite a few songs about Moses, and the question was, ‘What do we do with those songs?’”
Dokken suggested the two create a song cycle — blending poetry and melody — based on the prophet’s life and his relationships with others on a “very granular, retail level,” Nath said.
All of the questions regarding Moses’ relationships with his wife, Zipporah, his brother, Aaron, and the all-powerful Pharaoh, are personality-based and embody the real-life experiences of people today. “Those were real people, and they faced [those issues] as well,” Nath said.
Dokken taught Nath about song cycles and supported the songwriter as Nath delved into a genre new to him, a process that took about six to eight months.
“It is much easier to get a song cycle up on stage than a full musical,” Dokken said. “And it is an elegant way to tell a story without having to tell the entire story, because the definition of a song cycle essentially is a group of songs loosely based on the same subject.”
He said all of the featured songs are about Moses, minus the linear retelling of his life story. “This is about Moses as the man, not Moses the religious and historical figure,” Dokken said.
“[It] just really views him as a flawed and complex human being,” he added. “A song cycle is the perfect way to do that because we don’t have to get bogged down in the quagmire of musical theater, like the forces who tell every minute detail of the story. Song cycles allow you to trust the audience and say, ‘They’re going to understand what’s happening here.’”
Instead, the emphasis lies on the music, performed by three professional singers and a sextet including a pianist, string quartet and clarinetist.
“I’d like the audience to suspend disbelief,” Nath said, citing a phrase commonly used in musical theater and drama. “I’d like them to imagine themselves as Moses confronting God. I’d like them to imagine what it was like to be Zipporah or to be Aaron. I’d like them to imagine what it was like to be the almighty Moses when he challenges God, and be in the song itself as it flows along.”
In order to make that happen, Nath himself attempted to get inside the minds of the characters while writing the song lyrics.
“When Moses confronts the Almighty at the burning bush … what is he hearing and thinking and feeling? What is it about this particular moment that is so history-changing, so seminal in the history of the world?” Nath said. “This is a crisis in Moses’ life that changes history. I want to know what he’s thinking and feeling.”
In another song, “I Did Not Ask for This,” Zipporah strongly protests Moses’ suggestion that they return to Egypt and “face almost certain death.”
“I tried to imagine what Zipporah would say in real life to her husband when he comes down and basically says, ‘Let’s change our entire lives and perhaps go off to die in a horrible place,’” Nath said. “She can’t believe this is happening. She protests strongly: ‘This is not you. I hardly know you anymore. This is not the man I married. I didn’t ask for this.’ All of those are lyrics in the song.”
During the lyric-writing process, Nath drew upon his biblical knowledge from religious school as a child, his personal text study over the past 25 years and the clergy at Washington Hebrew Congregation and Chabad at Potomac Village, who provided him with midrashim on the Exodus story.
Putting this performance together is one of the most enjoyable things Nath said he’s gotten to do.
“I had no idea it would be such fun,” he said. “It is so fulfilling. It is delightful. It is deep and soul-stirring in so many different ways, both lyrically and musically and particularly working with somebody like Jeff and the brilliant artists he’s assembled for this song cycle.”
“My Name is Moses” will be performed in Potomac on March 29 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Register by March 27 at whctemple.org/event/my-name-is-moses-besters.
