Two Bienen School ensembles came together for a program of music by Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang, including the premiere of a work commissioned by the Bienen School of Music to celebrate the opening of the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Center for the Musical Arts.

Lang’s “a house” premiered by the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Donald Nally, on Sunday, April 17, 2016 in the Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall of the Ryan Center for the Musical Arts.

In his program notes, Lang said that he started thinking about the piece as a kind of benediction, and as a wish for the future, for all the good work that could now happen in the Bienen School’s new environment.

Lang wrote, “I remembered the proverb: Through wisdom is a house built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge are the chambers filled with all precious and pleasant riches. That seemed very appropriate for the opening of a new building at a university, since, ideally, the ‘precious and pleasant riches’ with which the chambers would be filled would be knowledge itself.”

In composing the piece, Lang found 19 different translations of the proverb, each slightly different. He separated out only the individual words necessary to be able to create all 19 versions and arranged them alphabetically. Then he divided each of the 19 versions into their smaller phrases, arranging them alphabetically as well.

“I wondered if I could mirror in my piece the building of a building, if I could lay out my bricks and my mortar, and then painstakingly assemble them into chambers, filled with riches,” Lang explained.

The April 17 all-Lang concert also featured “where you go” (2015), performed by the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble, as well as “forced march” (2008) and “increase” (2002) performed by the Contemporary Music Ensemble and conducted by Alan Pierson.

Prior to the concert, Lang spoke about his compositional style and “a house” at a meet-the-composer event in the David and Carol McClintock Choral and Recital Room.

David Lang is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can.