Osvaldo Golijov’s Falling Out of Time

What happens when the natural order of things is upended?

Falling Out of Time is a new work from Grammy Award-winning composer Osvaldo Golijov, a song cycle featuring 10 members of the Silkroad Ensemble and three voices in English and Hebrew. Rooted in David Grossman’s novel of the same name, this infinitely nuanced tone poem in voices narrates a profound journey of grief and solace, a journey “out of time” as parents grieve the death of a child, a quest to comprehend a loss with no name.

This collaboration is born out of the conviction that, in the words of David Grossman, “there is one place, or rather, one dimension, where we can feel, if only for an instant, both the absolute nihility of death and the full abundance of life. That dimension is art.”

It so happens that we all are, as a world, living in a moment in which the “natural” order of things has been upended. More than ever, we are in need of stories that help us make sense of the broken pieces. Falling Out of Time is one such story. The New York Times said, “Harrowing and hallucinogenic, this song cycle about bereavement and isolation has unintended resonance in a year that has familiarized so many with trauma and loss."