OPERA
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The Embalmer's Daughter
an opera in one act (2021) 90' [Quincy Long, libretto] voices: mezzo, tenor, baritone, bass orchestra: cl (+Bcl), kbd (pf/org), pf (or kbd), string quintet (11111) SYNOPSIS
The Embalmer’s Daughter, a one-act opera inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s A Premature Burial, is a love story touched with horror, comedy and a bit of the fantastic. The story, as follows, is set in an imagined place and time. Magister, a mad mortician obsessed with the budding sexuality of his daughter Mirabella, has made her a virtual prisoner in his funeral home. When she rebels, her father makes plans to punish her by drugging her and displaying her ‘corpse’ to the public in an elaborate funeral before burying her alive as a gift to Death (much the same as he had done with her mother). Fortunately for Mirabella, her faithful dog Lugo (a tenor) awakens Mirabella from her drugged stupor with a lick of the tongue. Mirabella’s love and gratitude transform Lugo into the stalwart he was before Magister turned his former assistant into a dog. The two plot their revenge: Mirabella disguises herself as her mother’s ghost to lure Magister into a trap sprung by Lugo. Things are looking bad for Magister when Death shows up. Much to Magister’s chagrin, Death has come for him, but not to save him. Death has come to carry Magister below, leaving Mirabella and Lugo to the joys of their newfound love. Email [email protected] for more information and perusal scores A WORK IN PROGRESS
We finished the opera during the pandemic--hooray! Now we are looking for a partner to produce this opera. Email me at [email protected] for demo recordings. CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO LISTEN! Scene 3a: The Funeral Parlor; Magister's Aria (YouTube) Scene 3: Duet, "Goodbye to Funerals" Mirabella and Lugo, electronic realization |
Edvard Munch, The girl by the window (1893)
Scene 3, Magister's Aria
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Buried Alive
an opera in one act (2014) 40' [Quincy Long, libretto] voices: 2 soprani, mezzo, tenor, baritone, bass orchestra: 1(+picc),1,1(+Eb,Bcl),1(+Cbsn)/211(BTrb)/timp,perc,kbd/str (11221) Buried Alive was comissioned by American Lyric Theater for Edgar Allan Poe's Bicentennial in 2009. Fargo-Moorhead Opera premiered it on a double-bill with Soluri/Brevoort's Embedded as part of the "Poe Project" by ALT. Cast: baritone Christopher Burchett as Victor, soprano Sara Gartland as Elena, mezzo Jennifer Feinstein as Death/Doctor/Mortician, tenor Jonathan Blalock as Nurse/Assistant/Priest, soprano Caroline Worra as Nurse/Assistant, and bass Nathan Stark as the Gravedigger. Music director - Kostis Protopapis; Direction - Lawrence Edelson; Video design - Katy S Tucker; Stage design - Zane Pihlstrom. The opera had a second staging at Fort Worth Opera in 2016 with a slightly different cast, starring Maren Weinberger as Elena, Anna Laurenzo as Death/Doctor/Mortician, and Brian Wallin as the Nurse/Assistant/Priest, all the others being the same as the Fargo production. Music director Tyson Deaton conducted the Fort Worth Symphony in the pit. Email [email protected] to license this opera or to obtain more perusal materials |
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SYNOPSIS In moonlight, a gravedigger slowly prepares a fresh grave, ominously anticipating a death that is sure to happen… A sheeted corpse lies in a cold and silent morgue. Victor’s eyes open. He looks around, confused, not knowing what this place is or how he got there. The Mortician enters and tells Victor that he is dead and that even now his wife is choosing whether he is to be buried or cremated. A horrified Victor insists that he is alive. The Mortician suggests he’s going to be buried and exits, smiling. Victor screams for Elena. Elena enters in her nightgown. She reassures Victor that he is not in any morgue, but safe at home on his cot in his studio - that he’s had a nightmare. |
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Victor insists that it is no dream, that a voice had awakened him in the night and led him to his studio to work on a painting of a bridge over water that had somehow drawn him into it - actually inside of it - and that he had been swept underwater to some kind of hell. Elena tries to reason with Victor, telling him that this is pure nonsense, that he needs to leave his lonely studio and morbid obsession with death. Victor refuses. Elena encourages Victor to go back to work then, to paint this demon out of his soul and turn his terror into triumph. Alone and terrified, Victor receives a visit from the Mortician who encourages Victor to eat paint for inspiration, as did the artist Van Gogh.
Victor’s body lies on a slab in the mortuary. The Mortician and her assistants sing of their preparations to embalm him. As they begin, Victor wakes up screaming. Elena is summoned to reassure Victor that he’s been taken to an emergency room, not to a mortuary, that he has poisoned himself by eating his paints. The woman he takes for a mortician is a doctor; the others are nurses. Elena is worried for Victor, worried that his obsession with death is going to actually kill him. The Doctor agrees, warning Victor that a mind turned against itself in this way is capable of creating the very events it fears most. Elena begs Victor to allow the Doctor to administer a sedative that will promote rest and recovery. Victor refuses, recognizing the Doctor as the spirit death itself. Thinking him insane, Elena reluctantly signs a commitment order. The Doctor administers a sedative. She and Elena sing Victor to sleep.
A drugged Victor is led to his coffin in the cemetery where Elena and the mourners are gathered. Victor sings of his acceptance of death as he climbs into the coffin. The Mortician closes the coffin. Elena interrupts the Priest’s eulogy to say that she’s heard something. The Mortician tells her it’s only the wind. The coffin is lowered into the grave and Elena and the others exit. The Gravedigger returns to his song of death as he shovels dirt into the grave. Muffled thumps and screams of terror issue from Victor’s coffin. He is still alive. The Gravedigger smiles and continues shoveling as the cries weaken, then cease altogether.
Victor’s body lies on a slab in the mortuary. The Mortician and her assistants sing of their preparations to embalm him. As they begin, Victor wakes up screaming. Elena is summoned to reassure Victor that he’s been taken to an emergency room, not to a mortuary, that he has poisoned himself by eating his paints. The woman he takes for a mortician is a doctor; the others are nurses. Elena is worried for Victor, worried that his obsession with death is going to actually kill him. The Doctor agrees, warning Victor that a mind turned against itself in this way is capable of creating the very events it fears most. Elena begs Victor to allow the Doctor to administer a sedative that will promote rest and recovery. Victor refuses, recognizing the Doctor as the spirit death itself. Thinking him insane, Elena reluctantly signs a commitment order. The Doctor administers a sedative. She and Elena sing Victor to sleep.
A drugged Victor is led to his coffin in the cemetery where Elena and the mourners are gathered. Victor sings of his acceptance of death as he climbs into the coffin. The Mortician closes the coffin. Elena interrupts the Priest’s eulogy to say that she’s heard something. The Mortician tells her it’s only the wind. The coffin is lowered into the grave and Elena and the others exit. The Gravedigger returns to his song of death as he shovels dirt into the grave. Muffled thumps and screams of terror issue from Victor’s coffin. He is still alive. The Gravedigger smiles and continues shoveling as the cries weaken, then cease altogether.
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Maren of Vardø:
Satan's Bride (2008-2015) 90' (full length) [Royce Vavrek, libretto] voices: 3 soprani, mezzo, baritone, bass orchestra: fl, cl, bn, hn, pf (or kbd), perc, strings (21111) Genesis of the opera: After scouring Wikipedia for interesting ideas, Royce found an interesting subject which appealed to both of us: 17th Century Norwegian witch trials. Hungry for a second project, we endeavored to write an entire full length opera on speculation in 2009. He came to me with a libretto in short order, and I began to flesh out the music, scene by scene, aria by aria, duet by duet. After several concerts by The Coterie (co-founded by Royce and Lauren Worsham), Beth Morrison Projects, VOX (the now defunct New York City Opera's showcase), American Lyric Theater, an extensive workshop by the Yale Institute for Music Theater, and workshops with Vulcan Lyric (formerly Center City Opera) the opera was finally completed in 2015 for Vulcan Lyric's new festival. The opera takes place in Norway, but is sung in English. The characters and events are loosely based on original accounts (both fantastic and real). The premiere production included baritone Paul Corujo as Satan, bass Garrett Obrycki as the Priest and soprano Katherine Bell as Maren. The three witches were played by soprani Brenna Markey/Marecelle McGuirck (Karen), Robin Muse (Gunnhild), and Emily Snyder (Bodil). Sandra Hartman directed, Elizabeth Phillips did the video design, and the conductor was Andrew Kurtz, who also heads Vulcan Lyric. Email [email protected] to license this opera or to obtain more perusal materials 
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REVIEWS
"Jeff Myers... sets an appropriately grim mood, with the help of strong voices, particularly Paul Corujo's rich baritone, impressively projected as Satan. As Maren, Katherine Bell too revealed a lovely lyric voice; she also met the challenge of portraying an adolescent in Act I and an elderly woman in the finale."--Broad Street Review, Steve Cohen "Composed by Jeff Myers to a libretto by Royce Vavrek, Maren of Vardø is a promisingly viable opera about a 1621 witch trial in northern Norway. Bypassing predictable scenes of village hysteria, the opera zeroes in on the girls accused by a pious interrogator of consorting with the devil....The third act, in particular, has arresting colors suggesting Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, another opera about a demonic polygamist. But what makes the score viable are moments of self-revelation among the characters. There, Myers makes a claim to being an opera composer." --Philly.com, David Patrick Stearns |
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SYNOPSIS
ACT I After a woodland frolic, Maren, a twelve year-old Norwegian girl, walks into the crevice of a tree. She descends to the depths of the earth with a giant ocean of fire that condemns the space. Satan reveals himself, walking down the rocky steps, to sooth his feet in the burning sea. Maren is drawn to him. Seeing similarities between her beloved childhood gelding Ole, who was killed when he succumbed to hoof-and-mouth disease, and the handsome pony that stands before her, Maren feels a kinship with Satan; and she confides in him the emotional devastation of losing her mother. Unbeknownst to Maren, her mother resides in hell as a lonely hunchbacked figure doomed to domestic service. Maren sleeps the night in Satan’s embrace. |
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The next day, Maren and Satan travel to be with the girls for their celebration. It is during this time, filled with music, and dancing, and adoration for their idol, that one of the girls, 13 year-old Bodil, places a wayward kiss on Satan’s lips, an action that sends Maren into youthful madness, believing that he was hers to love. Running away from the proceedings, Maren is finally caught by Bodil who apologizes for any trespasses that she might have made against her friend. Maren seemingly accepts her apology. The girls are suddenly captured by a group of clergy who restrain them.
ACT II
The girls are held in the trollkvinnefengeselhulle, or “witches-hole”, while Maren is being interrogated. A priest, who is testing the girls through ‘ordeals by water’, as well as through the forcing of recitations of the catechism, does not have enough evidence to convict Maren. Sure that the mark of Cain appears somewhere on her body, he begins to shear the head of her curls. When no mark results, he hits her with the back of his hand and exits the room in haste. The girls sing, scared in their metal prison. Ingeborg, the youngest girl at 8 years of age, questions the older girls if they think that they too will be burned alive like other witches who came before. Gunnhild, the pessimist of the bunch, and also the most resigned to her fate, tells the youngest that there is no hope for the wicked in the community, and that she ought to hope for a speedy engulfment in the stoked flames. Meanwhile, Maren sits with her head bowed, waiting to hear of her fate. When the priest returns, he sits behind her and tells her of her mother’s final hours. All the while he heats a large branding device. As the priest readies to brand a mark on the back of Maren’s head she confesses to visiting hell, but charges Bodil and the other girls with being intoxicated by him. She was but the vessel of their temptation. She claims Bodil to be Satan’s chosen bride. The four other girls are burned at the stake as the act concludes.
ACT III
Maren works, turning around to reveal herself as a frail sixty year-old woman, still forced to do menial woodworking. One day she cries out Satan’s name, and a stairway in the floor opens up, which she explores with a candle. She crawls down the steps that are carved into stone, and soon she is in a familiar place: the hell of her girlhood. When there, she is greeted by the girls she betrayed: Bodil, Ingeborg, Karin, and Gunnhild, who exit from the ocean of fire wearing white bridal gowns. They are beautiful, the same likeness of their young selves. Bodil hugs Maren and says that she forgives her. Satan enters, the hair on his withers grown long. Maren exclaims that she’s waited her entire life to return. She too wants to commit herself to the ocean of fire. Satan doesn’t recognize her; even though she attempts to jog his memory with the recounting of their night spent snuggled together on that very floor. He expels her from hell, forcing her back to her life in Vardø. When she is almost gone, he cannot control his sadness and calls back to her, telling Maren that she will be the eternal martyr. She will suffer forever knowing that her act of betrayal has led to Satan choosing her persecuted friends as the loves of his life. He questions whether she is doomed to an eternity in limbo, or maybe worse: heaven.
ACT II
The girls are held in the trollkvinnefengeselhulle, or “witches-hole”, while Maren is being interrogated. A priest, who is testing the girls through ‘ordeals by water’, as well as through the forcing of recitations of the catechism, does not have enough evidence to convict Maren. Sure that the mark of Cain appears somewhere on her body, he begins to shear the head of her curls. When no mark results, he hits her with the back of his hand and exits the room in haste. The girls sing, scared in their metal prison. Ingeborg, the youngest girl at 8 years of age, questions the older girls if they think that they too will be burned alive like other witches who came before. Gunnhild, the pessimist of the bunch, and also the most resigned to her fate, tells the youngest that there is no hope for the wicked in the community, and that she ought to hope for a speedy engulfment in the stoked flames. Meanwhile, Maren sits with her head bowed, waiting to hear of her fate. When the priest returns, he sits behind her and tells her of her mother’s final hours. All the while he heats a large branding device. As the priest readies to brand a mark on the back of Maren’s head she confesses to visiting hell, but charges Bodil and the other girls with being intoxicated by him. She was but the vessel of their temptation. She claims Bodil to be Satan’s chosen bride. The four other girls are burned at the stake as the act concludes.
ACT III
Maren works, turning around to reveal herself as a frail sixty year-old woman, still forced to do menial woodworking. One day she cries out Satan’s name, and a stairway in the floor opens up, which she explores with a candle. She crawls down the steps that are carved into stone, and soon she is in a familiar place: the hell of her girlhood. When there, she is greeted by the girls she betrayed: Bodil, Ingeborg, Karin, and Gunnhild, who exit from the ocean of fire wearing white bridal gowns. They are beautiful, the same likeness of their young selves. Bodil hugs Maren and says that she forgives her. Satan enters, the hair on his withers grown long. Maren exclaims that she’s waited her entire life to return. She too wants to commit herself to the ocean of fire. Satan doesn’t recognize her; even though she attempts to jog his memory with the recounting of their night spent snuggled together on that very floor. He expels her from hell, forcing her back to her life in Vardø. When she is almost gone, he cannot control his sadness and calls back to her, telling Maren that she will be the eternal martyr. She will suffer forever knowing that her act of betrayal has led to Satan choosing her persecuted friends as the loves of his life. He questions whether she is doomed to an eternity in limbo, or maybe worse: heaven.
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The Hunger Art
a tragicomedy in one act (2008) 22' [Royce Vavrek, libretto] voices: tenor, soprano; chorus: bass, tenor, countertenor orch: 1(+picc),1,1(+bcl),1;hn.,tpt.,btrb.; perc,hp,pf, str (22221) The Hunger Art was developed and written as part of the American Lyric Theater's Composer/Librettist Development Program under the guidance of director Lawrence Edelson and composer/librettist Mark Adamo. The Biblical story of Adam and Eve was used as a given abstract template for the narrative of the opera. The librettist then took this template and fused it with material from Franz Kafka's "A Fasting Artist." Further changes were made for dramatic and musical purposes (i.e. the addition of the chorus of butchers.) The opera was workshopped at Symphony Space on January 7, 2008, and has been staged by Center City Opera, Bard College and others. Workshop Cast: ALFONS - Thomas Wazelle; IVONA - Amanda Pabyan; BRONISLAV - Bryce Smith; JAN - Edwin Vega; MILOS - David Korn; Piano - Keith Chambers View SCORE SAMPLE (Piano/Vocal) View ORCHESTRATION SAMPLE Email [email protected] to license this opera or to obtain more perusal materials |
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SYNOPSIS
Setting: The entire opera is set in Prague sometime in 1924 within the confines of a town square. Within a large cage, the two hunger artists Alfons and Ivona starve themselves and occasionally perform “hunger routines.” Hunger is their art and the townspeople their audience. Beside the hunger artists sit three butchers: Bronislav, Jan and Milos. Their job is to ensure that the hunger artists do not eat. They sit there all night, bored, eating giant slabs of cooked meat off of large barbecue forks.
Scene I: In the town square at midnight
The butchers sit and watch the hunger artists, all the while commenting upon their circumstances as well as the circumstances of the hunger artists. Alfons comes into view in his cage. He begins to search through a pile of things. Alfons interrupts his search with a caterwaul of hunger pain. The butchers engage Alfons with taunts as he resumes his searching. Alfons cries out once more. The butchers ask him “What is in the bag?” Alfons finds a soiled bag. Ivona, also in the cage with Alfons, wakes up and comes into view. Alfons ruminates upon the circumstances of his art as well as his relationship to Ivona. Alfons picks up the burlap sack he spotted before. Ivona, snatches it from Alfons and hides it behind her back. This sparks a quarrel between them regarding trust. Ivona tries to change the subject by propositioning Alfons. Alfons declines due to fatigue and lack of stamina. Ivona suggests that they perform a hunger routine to build up his energy. This excites the butchers. Alfons and Ivona perform a well rehearsed number (a performance within a performance). The number is cut short with a true wail of hunger—Alfons hunches over and has to lie down. The butchers express dissatisfaction. Ivona puts Alfons to bed. She retrieves the burlap sack and pulls out an apple. She expresses her desire to eat the apple, considers her relationship to Alfons, and then returns the apple to the sack without coming to a decision.
Scene II: Ivona leaves the cage
Alfons, Jan and Milos are now asleep. Ivona leaves the cage, holding the burlap sack. Bronislav shines a flashlight on her. Ivona tries to give her apple to Bronislav for fear of giving in to her hunger. Bronislav refuses to help her, derides her and finally convinces her to “take a nibble.” Ivona takes a bite of the apple and is overwhelmed with satisfaction. Bronislav forces her back into her cage.
Scene III: Ivona re-enters the cage
Ivona re-enters the cage, inadvertently waking Alfons. Alfons takes the bag and pulls out the bitten apple. He chastises her for betraying him and breaking the fast. Ivona argues that they can go on sneaking food without anyone being the wiser. Alfons is too ethical for this and does not accept this proposition. The butchers chime in with their comments while Alfons and Ivona lament this unfortunate turn of events. Alfons, totally disgusted, screams at Ivona, “Eat Ivona, eat!” and throws her out of the cage.
Setting: The entire opera is set in Prague sometime in 1924 within the confines of a town square. Within a large cage, the two hunger artists Alfons and Ivona starve themselves and occasionally perform “hunger routines.” Hunger is their art and the townspeople their audience. Beside the hunger artists sit three butchers: Bronislav, Jan and Milos. Their job is to ensure that the hunger artists do not eat. They sit there all night, bored, eating giant slabs of cooked meat off of large barbecue forks.
Scene I: In the town square at midnight
The butchers sit and watch the hunger artists, all the while commenting upon their circumstances as well as the circumstances of the hunger artists. Alfons comes into view in his cage. He begins to search through a pile of things. Alfons interrupts his search with a caterwaul of hunger pain. The butchers engage Alfons with taunts as he resumes his searching. Alfons cries out once more. The butchers ask him “What is in the bag?” Alfons finds a soiled bag. Ivona, also in the cage with Alfons, wakes up and comes into view. Alfons ruminates upon the circumstances of his art as well as his relationship to Ivona. Alfons picks up the burlap sack he spotted before. Ivona, snatches it from Alfons and hides it behind her back. This sparks a quarrel between them regarding trust. Ivona tries to change the subject by propositioning Alfons. Alfons declines due to fatigue and lack of stamina. Ivona suggests that they perform a hunger routine to build up his energy. This excites the butchers. Alfons and Ivona perform a well rehearsed number (a performance within a performance). The number is cut short with a true wail of hunger—Alfons hunches over and has to lie down. The butchers express dissatisfaction. Ivona puts Alfons to bed. She retrieves the burlap sack and pulls out an apple. She expresses her desire to eat the apple, considers her relationship to Alfons, and then returns the apple to the sack without coming to a decision.
Scene II: Ivona leaves the cage
Alfons, Jan and Milos are now asleep. Ivona leaves the cage, holding the burlap sack. Bronislav shines a flashlight on her. Ivona tries to give her apple to Bronislav for fear of giving in to her hunger. Bronislav refuses to help her, derides her and finally convinces her to “take a nibble.” Ivona takes a bite of the apple and is overwhelmed with satisfaction. Bronislav forces her back into her cage.
Scene III: Ivona re-enters the cage
Ivona re-enters the cage, inadvertently waking Alfons. Alfons takes the bag and pulls out the bitten apple. He chastises her for betraying him and breaking the fast. Ivona argues that they can go on sneaking food without anyone being the wiser. Alfons is too ethical for this and does not accept this proposition. The butchers chime in with their comments while Alfons and Ivona lament this unfortunate turn of events. Alfons, totally disgusted, screams at Ivona, “Eat Ivona, eat!” and throws her out of the cage.
VOCAL MUSIC
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LISTEN to the premiere - Ekmeles (2021) YouTube livestream
View SCORE SAMPLE Full scores available at [email protected] Written for Ekmeles, Advice to a Migraineure is a setting of Jennifer de Guzman’s poem by the same name. I wanted to create a soundscape portraying the slow, but ominous creep of a migraine headache. The vocal ensemble, in conjunction with the electronic drone, narrate this experience in the context of a continuously scintillating aura of sound. I created the drone sound by stretching out my own sampling of piano harmonics, using the cheapest software techniques possible to layer and process the sound. The voices sing along with this electronic field in just intonation with the fundamental pitch, which only changes once in the piece. I have had a couple migraine headaches—It is definitely unlike any other headache! My first experience happened after listening to Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera. I suddenly felt confused and tried to write something on paper. Then I had immense pain at the base of my skull and had to go to bed. Afterwards, I Iooked at the paper and it was all scribbles. Migraines are visually strange as well, you can see wiggles and weird squiggles in the corner of your eye. If you can somehow get it to stop, you can avoid the severe pain that comes after. It’s kind of a trip. From the poet: Migraines can be baffling to people who have never experienced them. The pain and otherworldly-ness of aura are almost transportive, making you feel like you exist in a different space from everyone else and are cut off from human understanding. That’s how it feels to me, anyway. There’s a stoicism -- or perhaps even fatalism -- in “Advice,” I realize: There is nothing you can do to stop them entirely, so you must accept that and fortify yourself. |
 Ekemeles
Jennifer de Guzman
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View SCORE SAMPLE
Full scores available at [email protected] Boy was written for mezzo Anna Laurenzo to sing in the 2019 Chicago songSlam competition. Here is how it came to be: I found this adorable poem by writer Jennifer de Guzman (called "Boy," of course) and I really wanted to set it to music. Jennifer and I go way back--way, way back--she was my classmate in 1st grade! The poem is about a young boy, a child, and all the work a parent has to do just to keep up with him. Any parent can easily relate to this verse: You are not my tangle
to unsnarl, to work, starting at the center and then outward, until a clean, smooth length of thread is in my hands and I can wind it through my finger After discovering the poem, I sent it to Anna as a prospective song for her own "Year of song" project in which she planned to learn a new song every week for 2019. A few weeks later she found out about the song slam and suddenly we had a project! Anna is good like that.
The song is a bit of a departure for me, being much more tonal and straightforward. I wanted to take the earnest tone of the poem and apply it to my music--less experimentation and technical fuss and more of a basic approach to hit the emotional points squarely and effectively. |
Anna Laurenzo
Jennifer de Guzman
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see SCORE SAMPLE here including texts
Email me for a perusal score at [email protected] I interpreted this traditional text as a romantic love song, possibly about love making. The shark (mano) is an obvious symbol of love or romantic ecstasy. There is a dialogue between the singer and the clarinet--something like a courtship. The piano represents the emotion and the ebb and flow of the ocean in this love-making episode. The trio was premiered at the University of Hawaii at Hilo in March of 2017, by Rachel Schutz (soprano), Jonathan Korth (piano) and James Moffit (clarinet). |
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Islands of Death
for mezzo-soprano and violin (2016) 23'
for mezzo-soprano and violin (2016) 23'
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I. Isla de las Muñecas (Island of the dolls)
II. Ilha da Queimada Grande (Snake Island) III. North Brother Island (Typhoid Mary) IV. Île de la Cité (The Viking siege of Paris) V. Nazino Island (Остров Назино) VI. Shark Island (Namibian Concentration Camp) see SCORE SAMPLES here Email me for a perusal score at [email protected] Islands of Death was written for my dear friends Duo Cortona (Rachel Calloway and Ari Streisfeld). They premiered the song cycle in Cortona, Italy in the summer of 2016 at the Cortona Sessions for New Music. This set of songs is a further exploration of my fascination with themes of death and the unique, closed-off worlds that are islands. Each musical island has its own feeling, its own sound and its own style. Each island has its own language. In this set, I took islands which had some kind of death incident, death story or potential for death. |
Duo Cortona at New Music New College (New College of Florida) (2017)
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The first two songs in Spanish and Portuguese, form a two-song set which treats death as a curious event, something scary and mysterious, based on real life events and places. In the first song, a man lived on a small river island in Mexico, hanging dolls (that he found in the river) from trees as an homage to a girl that had drowned in the same river (or so he said). The second song deals with death by venom, on an island covered by snakes—scary, but not unethical, simply a natural phenomenon one should avoid.
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The second two-song set takes death into the social realm: disease outbreaks and defensive warfare. While these are difficult situations which have a potential for massive body count, they are inevitable and not considered unethical deaths. In fact, the heroism of death in the face of disease and the protection of your home are very useful constructs for those that must deal with grief. Both songs are very different in style, but serve to act as a musical contrast—rhythmic and fast, these songs portray the excitement and anxiety of death.
The final two-song set takes a somewhat different approach, dealing with mass death as the result of evil and systematic cruelty. The subject matter: mass extermination, cannibalism and starvation is almost too extreme to portray with music. I decided to let the text and the listener's imagination paint an image in contrast to the banal music in Nazino Island. The same aspect of dehumanization is explored in last song, Shark Island. At the turn of the century German empire attempted to destroy two tribes of Africans, the Herero and the |
Nama of what is now called Namibia. With orders from commander von Trotha to annhiliate the tribes, German solders rounded them up into concentration camps on Shark Island where they were debased, starved and worked to death.All of the island texts are based on real events. I wrote the lyrics for songs I, II and V. The middle set has texts from a letter by Mary Mallon aka Typhoid Mary—a diatribe she intended to send to a journalist, which she eventually sent to her lawyer. While she was only a carrier for typhoid, she was responsible for getting many other sick with the then fatal disease. Forced to live the rest of her life on a small island next to New York, she was given a death sentence for being infectious. Abbo Cernuus, a Parisian monk from the 9th Century, documented the Viking siege of Paris (which was only a small island fortress on the Seine) with great detail in poetic Latin. I took textual fragments from each source to piece together my own lyrics for the purpose of concision. I wrote the lyrics to Nazino Island, basing my lyrics on a story told by a survivor. The texts from Shark Island were all found texts: a German lullaby, texts from a Eugenics study, and an account from an English contractor in Nambia.
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The Hula Pa-ipu
for soprano and cello (2015) 4' LISTEN to an excerpt - One Quiet Plunge live at Bard College (Lucy Dhegrae & Nicholas Finch)
Email me for a perusal score at [email protected] This setting of the Hawaiian chant The Hula Pa-ipu was written for soprano Lucy Deghrae of One Quiet Plunge. This song is part of my Book of Islands--a series of pieces informed by islands, using texts about islands, set in island languages, or referencing islands. Having lived in Hawaii, I tend to gravitiate toward Hawaiian texts like these. The text is explained in Nathaniel Emerson's Unwritten Literature of Hawaii:The scene of this mele is laid on one of the little bird-islands that lie to the northwest of Kauai. The iwa bird, flying heavily to his nesting place in the wiry grass (kala-pahee), symbolizes the flight of a man in his deep-laden pirogue, abducting the woman of his love. The screaming sea-birds that warn him off the island, represented as watch-guards of the shark-god Kuhai-moana (whose reef is still pointed out), figure the outcries of the parents and friends of the abducted woman. After the first passionate outburst (Puni’a iluna o ka Halau-a ola) things go more smoothly (ola * * *). The flight to covert from the storm, the cove at the base of Lehua, the shady groves, the scarlet pompons of the lehua--the tree and the island have the same name--all these things are to be interpreted figuratively as emblems of woman's physical charms and the delights of love-dalliance. I chose to reference Hawaiian music in various ways. The ipu is a gourd that is used to accompany chants like these. Usually it is played like a drum, having a low tone and a high tone. The cello imitates this by drumming on the strings. Another famous Hawaiian instrument, the ukelele, is referenced in the frequent 4-string strumming. The excitement of the storm is represented by string tremolos. The metaphorical subjects of the poem (birds) are referenced in the vocal line's birdsong-like warbling pitch alternations. These chants are often very robust in performance and include heavy vibrato at times, a declamatory presentation, and a rough blend of tonal and atonal (or gestural) pitch expressions. All of these elements factor into the music in different ways. This duo was written for One Quiet Plunge for thier Hudson Valley series, in New York. |
He mele no Kane
for soprano and piano (2014) 6' LISTEN to an excerpt - Rachel Schutz and Jonathan Korth (premiere)
Email me for a perusal score at [email protected] From "Unwritten Literature of Hawaii," by Nathaniel B. Emerson [1909]:If one were asked what, to the English-speaking mind, constitutes the most representative romantico-mystical aspiration that has been embodied in song and story, doubtless he would be compelled to answer the legend and myth of the Holy Grail. To the Hawaiian mind the aspiration and conception that most nearly approximates to this is that embodied in the words placed at the head of this chapter, The Water of Kane. One finds suggestions and hints of this conception in many passages of Hawaiian song and story, sometimes a phosphorescent flash, answering to the dip of the poet's blade, sometimes crystallized into a set form; but nowhere else than in the following mele have I found this jewel deliberately wrought into shape, faceted, and fixed in a distinct form of speech.This mele comes from Kauai, the island which more than any other of the Hawaiian group retains a tight hold on the mystical and imaginative features that mark the island also which less than any other of the group was dazzled by the glamour of royalty and enslaved by the theory of the divine birth of kings. This song was written for soprano Rachel Schutz and her husband, pianist and teacher Jon Korth. I met them while I was teaching at the University of Hawaii. I plan to write more of these songs for them in the future as part of my Book of Islands series. |
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E----
for bass cl., baritone, trumpet, trombone & electronic drones (2014) 10' LISTEN to an excerpt - loadbang live at National Opera Center, NYC
Email me for a perusal score at [email protected] With lyrics by Royce Vavrek (my librettist on two occasions), E----takes the abstract notion of the island as an individual and creates a personal narrative from that point of departure. E----, the eponymous love interest is yearned for in the way that a distant homeland is imagined from a remote island. "I am an island in a lake in an island" sings the marooned baritone. He is stranded in a Dante-esque hell behind several moats. The island is both a haven and a trap. Floating in a musical sea of drones and floating harmonies, one can only search in the distance for someone who is long gone. |
loadbang
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The melancholic attitude of the text reminded me of the tone of Morrissey, the rock singer known for singing sad and disgruntled ballads (i.e. "How soon is now?"). I didn't want to recreate Morrissey, but I think I came pretty close with the vocal writing and overall tone. E---- was written for loadbang in the summer of 2014.
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Requiem Aeternam
for mezzo or soprano and string quartet (2014) 50' PART I: GRIEVING
I. Kyrie eleison II. Nay, Lord, not thus (Oscar Wilde) III. Nebeltag (Frida Schanz) IV. Di me non pianger tu (Petrarch) V. Momento Mori PART II: DYING VI. Christe eleison VII. Pagtulog na, Nene (Philippine traditional) VIII. Go and Die (Rumi) IX. Kyrie eleison II – Ma Vie (Henri Michaux) – Requiem aeternam WATCH the full concert on the Trinity Church website View the TEXTS here After the sudden death of a close family member, I decided to embark on a project that could help me express and articulate my response to death and the grieving process. As a composer, I wanted to use my creative capacity to create a memorial. The Requiem has long served as the classical composer's medium of choice for large-scale funeral works. In the past, works would use the traditional texts form the Catholic Mass. As a person without any religious affiliation, I wanted to create something that explored death from multiple perspectives (different cultures, languages, eras). This relativistic approach to death expresses my cultural agnosticism: since I do not wholly embrace any of the traditional death narratives, I wanted the audience to experience multiple perspectives and draw their own conclusions.I chose poems from Oscar Wilde, Frida Schanz, Petrarch, Rumi, and Henri Michaux, as well as phrases from the Catholic Mass, and a Filipino lullaby. The texts range in subject: the end of days, a funereal morning, the grieving process/speaking to the departed, sleep as death/the death of a child, the ecstasy of entering heaven, profound sadness, and cries of despair. My musical style changes from song to song, but there is a close relationship to choral church music from the Renaissance and Medieval eras. The use of microtones and other unusual harmonic techniques appear throughout, depicting the spectre and mystery of death. With such a personal project, I wanted to work closely with friends: Rachel Calloway and the JACK Quartet. I wanted an intimate concert with artists that could sing and play my music with the sensitivity that it requires. I also wanted new music specialists that could interpret my music with musicality and knowledge of special techniques such as just intonation tuning. |
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The Age of Assassins
for tenor, horn and piano (2008) 18' LISTEN to excerpts below (click on titles)
The Age of Assassins I. Chanson de la plus haute tour II. Veillées III. L'Éternité IV. Matineé d'Ivresse V. Sensation-Mémoire BUY THE RECORDING ON AMAZON! View SCORE SAMPLE |
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The Age of Assassins was written for hornist Laura Klock and commissioned in part by the International Horn Society's Meir Rimon Fund. Each of the five songs is set to a poem by Arthur Rimbaud: I. Chanson de la plus haute tour, II. Veillées (III), III. L'Éternité, IV. Matineé d'Ivresse, V. Sensation-Mémoire. The title of the piece comes from Matineé d'Ivresse and refers to the Arabic hashshashin. The second song makes use of natural horn overtones to convey a sense of imbalance and drunkeness.
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Rosamounde
for treble voice and viola (2008) 6' LISTEN below (click on titles)
Rosamounde - H. Davis; K. Swanson - live at The Lily Pad, Cambridge, Mass. (2008) View SCORE SAMPLE |
Kirsten Swanson
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Rosamounde was written for violist Kirsten Swanson and soprano Heather Davis. The text comes from the poem "Rosamounde" by the medieval author of the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer. The work is sung using the original Middle English text. Click here to read the full poem.
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Baudelaire Songs
for soprano and piano with assistant (2005) 17' OTHER VERSIONS:
The songs are each available separately Baudelaire Songs I. À celle qui est trop gaie II. Obsession III. La Beauté - Rachel Schutz, sopr.; Jonathan Korth, pno; Grant Carvalho, asst. View SCORE SAMPLE |
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Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du Mal," was written from 1845-57 in Paris. The over 150 poems cover a range of topics including beauty, death, love, evil, animals, landscapes, Greek myth, sexuality and many more unusual poetic topics such as prostitutes, vampires, fountains of blood and other macabre scenes. Due to much of Baudelaire's bawdy and grotesque language, many French readers were offended. The poem À celle qui est trop gaie, was banned by court order due to its use of blatant sadism. In my settings of À celle, Obsession, and La Beauté, I attempted to capture the rich emotionalism and sensuous expressivity that I found in Baudelaire's texts. The last song uses piano harmonics inside the piano to expand the palette of the piano.
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Zamrażane Słowa
for SATB chorus and piano (2002) 6' |
Email [email protected] for bulk purchase rates |
Zamrażane Słowa (Frozen Words) was written at the Tanglewood Music Center as part of a choral project. The text comes from anonymous polish fragments which I reassembled to create a theme of love in the face of the unknown. The texts are set so that they are stretched out over such a long period of time that the timbre of the words becomes musically significant. The music is expansive, having solos in each vocal section, divisi into three parts per section, and a bass part that reaches down to low C. Zamrażane Słowa was premiered at the Tanglewood Music Center in July of 2002 by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (chamber singers) with Michael Djupstrom conducting.