American Breakfast
VESPER SPARROW - MISSY MAZZOLI
cond. David Rentz
Missy Mazzoli has described her elegiac Vesper Sparrow, a setting of a text by Farnoosh Fathi, as an "eclectic amalgamation of imaginary birdsong and my own interpretation of Sardinian overtone singing." It is the opening track on Roomful of Teeth's 2015 CD Render.
TEXT
what will come so soon to my golden door
when asleep all sides
I am a shattered horse
asleep in the glass pajamas of man
(words assembled from "Home State" by Farnoosh Fathi)
what will come so soon to my golden door
when asleep all sides
I am a shattered horse
asleep in the glass pajamas of man
(words assembled from "Home State" by Farnoosh Fathi)
About the composer: Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980) was recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (The New York Times) and “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out New York). Her music has been performed all over the world by the Kronos Quartet, eighth blackbird, pianist Emanuel Ax, Opera Philadelphia, LA Opera, Cincinnati Opera, New York City Opera, Chicago Fringe Opera, the Detroit Symphony, the LA Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, JACK Quartet, cellist Maya Beiser, violinist Jennifer Koh, pianist Kathleen Supové, Dublin’s Crash Ensemble, the Sydney Symphony and many others. Her second opera, Breaking the Waves, a collaboration with librettist Royce Vavrek commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and Beth Morrison Projects, premiered to great acclaim in Philadelphia in September 2016 and as part of New York’s Prototype Festival in January 2017. The work was described as “among the best 21st-century operas yet” (Opera News), “savage, heartbreaking and thoroughly original” (Wall Street Journal), and “dark and daring” (New York Times). From 2012-2015 Missy was Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia, Gotham Chamber Opera and Music Theatre-Group, and in 2011/12 was Composer/Educator in residence with the Albany Symphony. Missy was a visiting professor of music at New York University in 2013, and later that year joined the composition faculty at the Mannes College of Music, a division of the New School.
Missy is the recipient of a 2015 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award, four ASCAP Young Composer Awards, a Fulbright Grant to The Netherlands, the Detroit Symphony’s Elaine Lebenbom Award, and grants from the Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, and the Barlow Endowment. She has been awarded fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Ucross, VCCA, the Blue Mountain Center and the Hermitage. She is also active as an educator and a mentor to young composers; in 2006 she taught composition in the Music Department of Yale University, and from 2007-2010 was Executive Director of the MATA Festival in New York City, an organization dedicated to promoting the work of young composers. Missy attended the Yale School of Music, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague and Boston University. She has studied with (in no particular order) David Lang, Louis Andriessen, Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, Martijn Padding, Richard Ayres, John Harbison, Charles Fussell, Martin Amlin, Marco Stroppa, Ladislav Kubik, Louis DeLise and Richard Cornell. Her music is published by G. Schirmer.
SINGING FOR WATER - BRENT MICHAEL DAVIDS
cond. David Harris
Morgan Woolsey, Flute
Morgan Woolsey, Flute
On www.singing4water.weebly.com Brent writes that "Human influence on global climate change requires worldwide solidarity and response. This need is seen profoundly in the Native American struggle against the building of antiquated oil pipelines across treaty-protected lands that threaten to contaminate crucial sources of fresh drinking water. The indigenous people are fighting on everyone’s behalf." During the peak of the Dakota Pipeline protest, I wrote to Brent and asked him if he had plans to write any music, knowing that he was deeply invested in the protests himself. He said that he had begun fashioning a piece whose intent it was to provide a vehicle for all people to sing about water conservation and the destructive influences across the planet that challenge this precious life source for the sake of corporate greed. The more complex version of "Singing For Water" that we sing tonight is intended for professional ensembles, but there is a four-part and a two-part version as well, crafted so that all people can sing the music in their ensembles, regardless of their ability level. Using Native American words, sounds and spirit, Davids hopes to provide a conduit between those of us around the globe and the people who have committed themselves to protecting the planet. Davids, a Mohican composer, writes, “The purpose of the new work is to give all people a chance to become allies with those protecting the water, and to sing lyrics that are the voice of Native Americans—to join the movement with an ever growing chorus of support.” The lyrics are adapted from the living voices of Native American Water Protectors who were present at the Dakota pipeline protests. The music communicates the strength and determination of a people who have faced profound, even genocidal, discrimination for centuries, woven into a tapestry of sadness, honor, and hope. If you would like to join the global chorus and perform this piece with your group, please visit www.singing4water.weebly.com for more information. Brent waved his personal composer fee for the life of the piece, hoping to inspire more people to participate, and to raise funds to help protect the globe and our precious water resources.
TEXT
They say we are violent. We are unarmed.
They say we are rioting. We are praying.
Love water not oil; people over pipelines.
We are singing for the 7th granddaughter.
Indigenous women offer tobacco
and sage to the police.
One officer accepts the braid of
sweet grass I hold out.
That officer gives me hope.
Honor the earth; planet over profits.
We are Water Protectors singing for water.
We can live without oil. We cannot live without water.
Love water not oil; people over pipelines.
We are singing for the 7th granddaughter.
Honor the earth; planet over profits.
We are Water Protectors singing for water.
Water invites a living ceremony.
Water is life, Mni Wiconi.
Water invites a living ceremony.
Water is life, Mni Wiconi.
They say we are violent. We are unarmed.
They say we are rioting. We are praying.
Love water not oil; people over pipelines.
We are singing for the 7th granddaughter.
Indigenous women offer tobacco
and sage to the police.
One officer accepts the braid of
sweet grass I hold out.
That officer gives me hope.
Honor the earth; planet over profits.
We are Water Protectors singing for water.
We can live without oil. We cannot live without water.
Love water not oil; people over pipelines.
We are singing for the 7th granddaughter.
Honor the earth; planet over profits.
We are Water Protectors singing for water.
Water invites a living ceremony.
Water is life, Mni Wiconi.
Water invites a living ceremony.
Water is life, Mni Wiconi.
About the composer: Brent Michael Davids (born June 4, 1959 in Madison, Wisconsin, United States) is an American composer and flautist. He is a member of the Stockbridge Mohican nation of American Indians. He has composed for Zeitgeist, the Kronos Quartet, Joffrey Ballet, the National Symphony Orchestra, and Chanticleer. He holds a B.M. degree in music composition from Northern Illinois University (1981) and an M.M. in music composition from Arizona State University (1990), and is currently pursuing an M.A. in American Indian religious studies from Arizona State University. In addition to concert music, Davids writes music for films. He composed music for the 2002 film The Business of Fancydancing and has composed a new score for the American 1920 film The Last of the Mohicans. In 2013, he was honored with a NACF Artist Fellowship in Music. Davids' Mohican name is Blue Butterfly. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota and is an active participant with the First Nations Composer Initiative. He has also served as Composer-in-Residence with the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project.
USA STORIES - MICHAEL DELLAIRA
Adagio Dancer (cond. Sauder Choi)
Art and Isadora (cond. Joseph Thel)
The Campers and Kitty Hawk (cond. Matthew Brown)
Molly Pease, Amy Golden, Elsa Lund, Morgan Woolsey, soloists
Art and Isadora (cond. Joseph Thel)
The Campers and Kitty Hawk (cond. Matthew Brown)
Molly Pease, Amy Golden, Elsa Lund, Morgan Woolsey, soloists
Dos Passos’s prose style in these portraits of Rudolph Valentino, Isadora Duncan, and the Wright Brothers, like other portraits which appear throughout the trilogy, is characterized by long sentences and irregular rhythms, witty alliterations and colloquialisms. As a former rock musician, I found them appealingly close to the spirit of pop lyrics, but of course without being lyrics at all. (The edited passages are listed below. Words between brackets [] are sung at the same time as other passages.] Dos Passos’s portraits of these three famous personalities represent, for me at least, three strands in American culture: in Isadora Duncan the tradition of “high art” (her snubbing of it itself a part of that tradition); in Valentino popular culture writ large – capricious, ephemeral, ultimately cruel; in the Wright Brothers, the promise of American progress, a blend of science, utility, and risk.
TEXT
The three sections of U.S.A. Stories : Adagio Dancer, Art and Isadora, and The Campers at Kitty Hawk are based on texts borrowed from The Big Money, the third novel in John Dos Passos’s trilogy U.S.A.
Adagio Dancer
Rodolfo Guglielmi wanted to make good. A born tango dancer, he took the name of Rudolph Valentino.
[Waving hands autograph books tailored dress suits]
[Lazy, handsome, good tempered and vain he got his chance in The Four Horsemen.
Stucco villas, tiger skins and silk robes, limousines, night clubs and fine horses]
He wanted to make good in the bright lights. He wanted to make good in the glare of million dollar search lights. He wanted to make good.
He married his old partner, married the daughter of a millionaire, went into lawsuits with producers. The Tribune called him a pink powderpuff. It broke his heart.
He broke down. Doctors. Ether. Hospital swamped with calls. Corridors were filled with flowers. Crowds filled streets outside. Peritonitis. He was only thirty one when he died.
[He lay in state. Casket covered. A cloth of gold. Undertakers.]
[Muggy rain] [Tens of thousands men women and children. Hundreds trampled masses stampeded. Chapel gutted traffic tied up Broadway. Women fainted got into view the poor body of Rudolph Valentino]
[Many notables attended the funeral.] [America’s sweetheart sobbing bitterly in a small black straw with a black band. Black bow behind in black georgette followed. Coffin covered by a blanket of pink roses. The funeral train left for Hollywood.]
Shipped off to America, to sink or swim (Rodolfo Guglielmi) the family was through with him. To sink or swim, a born tango dancer. Women thought he was a darling, lazy, handsome, good tempered and vain. The Sheik made good.
Rodolfo Guglielmi wanted to make good. A born tango dancer, he took the name of Rudolph Valentino.
[Waving hands autograph books tailored dress suits]
[Lazy, handsome, good tempered and vain he got his chance in The Four Horsemen.
Stucco villas, tiger skins and silk robes, limousines, night clubs and fine horses]
He wanted to make good in the bright lights. He wanted to make good in the glare of million dollar search lights. He wanted to make good.
He married his old partner, married the daughter of a millionaire, went into lawsuits with producers. The Tribune called him a pink powderpuff. It broke his heart.
He broke down. Doctors. Ether. Hospital swamped with calls. Corridors were filled with flowers. Crowds filled streets outside. Peritonitis. He was only thirty one when he died.
[He lay in state. Casket covered. A cloth of gold. Undertakers.]
[Muggy rain] [Tens of thousands men women and children. Hundreds trampled masses stampeded. Chapel gutted traffic tied up Broadway. Women fainted got into view the poor body of Rudolph Valentino]
[Many notables attended the funeral.] [America’s sweetheart sobbing bitterly in a small black straw with a black band. Black bow behind in black georgette followed. Coffin covered by a blanket of pink roses. The funeral train left for Hollywood.]
Shipped off to America, to sink or swim (Rodolfo Guglielmi) the family was through with him. To sink or swim, a born tango dancer. Women thought he was a darling, lazy, handsome, good tempered and vain. The Sheik made good.
Art and Isadora
In San Francisco in eighteen hundred seventy eight Mrs. Isadora O’Gorman Duncan, a high-spirited lady with a taste for the piano set about divorcing her husband, the prominent Mr. Duncan. The whole thing made her so nervous she declared to her children she couldn’t keep anything on her stomach except a little champagne and oysters.
Into a world of gaslit boarding houses, ruined southern belles and basques and bustles, she bore a daughter who she names after herself, Isadora. Mrs. Duncan turned into an atheist, the Duncans were always in debt, the rent was always due. The Duncans weren’t Catholic anymore or Presbyterian, Quaker or Baptist. They were artists.
Isadora had green eyes, reddish hair, a beautiful neck and arms. She could not afford lessons in conventional dancing so she made up dances on her own. She went to New York in a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream, the family followed her they rented a big room in Carnegie Hall, put mattresses in the corner and invented the first Greenwich Village studio.
They were always one jump ahead of the sheriff, they were always standing the landlady up for the rent. When the Hotel Windsor burned they lost everything they owned and sailed for London to escape the materialism of their native America. In London they discovered the Greeks.
Under the smoky chimneypots of London they danced in muslin tunics, they copied poses from Greek vases, went to lectures, art galleries and plays. Whenever they were put out of their lodgings Isadora led them to best hotel and sent the waiters scurrying for lobsters, champagne and fruit out of season. London liked her gall, her lusty American innocence, her California accent.
One day she picked up a good looking young mechanic who drove a Bugatti racer. She made him take her out for a ride. Her friends did not want her to go but she insisted. The mechanic put his car in gear and started. She got in beside him and turned back and said: “Adieu mes amis, je vais a la gloire.”
In San Francisco in eighteen hundred seventy eight Mrs. Isadora O’Gorman Duncan, a high-spirited lady with a taste for the piano set about divorcing her husband, the prominent Mr. Duncan. The whole thing made her so nervous she declared to her children she couldn’t keep anything on her stomach except a little champagne and oysters.
Into a world of gaslit boarding houses, ruined southern belles and basques and bustles, she bore a daughter who she names after herself, Isadora. Mrs. Duncan turned into an atheist, the Duncans were always in debt, the rent was always due. The Duncans weren’t Catholic anymore or Presbyterian, Quaker or Baptist. They were artists.
Isadora had green eyes, reddish hair, a beautiful neck and arms. She could not afford lessons in conventional dancing so she made up dances on her own. She went to New York in a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream, the family followed her they rented a big room in Carnegie Hall, put mattresses in the corner and invented the first Greenwich Village studio.
They were always one jump ahead of the sheriff, they were always standing the landlady up for the rent. When the Hotel Windsor burned they lost everything they owned and sailed for London to escape the materialism of their native America. In London they discovered the Greeks.
Under the smoky chimneypots of London they danced in muslin tunics, they copied poses from Greek vases, went to lectures, art galleries and plays. Whenever they were put out of their lodgings Isadora led them to best hotel and sent the waiters scurrying for lobsters, champagne and fruit out of season. London liked her gall, her lusty American innocence, her California accent.
One day she picked up a good looking young mechanic who drove a Bugatti racer. She made him take her out for a ride. Her friends did not want her to go but she insisted. The mechanic put his car in gear and started. She got in beside him and turned back and said: “Adieu mes amis, je vais a la gloire.”
The Campers and Kitty Hawk
On December seventeenth nineteen hundred and three Bishop Wright of the United Brethren received a telegram from his boys Wilbur and Orville, who’d gotten it into their heads to spend their vacation in a little camp out on the dunes of the North Carolina coast with a homemade glider they’d knocked together themselves. The telegram read: SUCCESS FOUR FLIGHTS THURSDAY MORNING AGAINST TWENTY ONE MILE WIND STARTED FROM ENGINE POWER ALONE.
The figures were a little wrong but the fact remains a couple of young bicycle mechanics from Dayton Ohio had designed and flown for the first time ever a practical airplane.
In those days flying machines were the big laugh of all the crackerbarrel philosophers. They were practical mechanics; when they needed anything they built it themselves.
They hit on Kitty Hawk on the great dunes and sandy banks that stretch south to Hatteras seaward. Overhead the gulls and swooping terns, fishhawks and cranes flapping across the salt marshes.
They were alone there and figured out the loose sand was as soft as anything they could find to fall in, taking off again and again from Kill Devil Hill they learned to fly.
Aeronautics became the sport of the day, congratulated by the czar, crown prince, the King of Italy, King Edward for universal peace.
[Taking off again and again they learned to fly. In the rush of new names the Brothers Wright passed from the headlines: Bleriot, Farman, Curtiss, Ferber, Esnault, Petrie, Delagrange can blur the memory of the chilly December day two shivering bicycle mechanics first felt their homemade contraption soar into the air, above the dunes of Kitty Hawk.]
[“I released the wire that held the machine to the track. The machine started forward into the wind. Wilbur ran at the side holding the wing. The machine started slowly facing twenty seven mile wind, it lifted from the track. Wilbur was able to stay with it until it lifted from the track after a forty foot run. The course of the flight up and down was erratic, the first flight in the history of the world. The machine carried a man by his own power into the air in full flight forward without reduction of speed landed at a point as high as that from which it started.”]
[When these points had been firmly established we packed our goods and returned home, knowing that the age of the flying machine had come at last.]
On December seventeenth nineteen hundred and three Bishop Wright of the United Brethren received a telegram from his boys Wilbur and Orville, who’d gotten it into their heads to spend their vacation in a little camp out on the dunes of the North Carolina coast with a homemade glider they’d knocked together themselves. The telegram read: SUCCESS FOUR FLIGHTS THURSDAY MORNING AGAINST TWENTY ONE MILE WIND STARTED FROM ENGINE POWER ALONE.
The figures were a little wrong but the fact remains a couple of young bicycle mechanics from Dayton Ohio had designed and flown for the first time ever a practical airplane.
In those days flying machines were the big laugh of all the crackerbarrel philosophers. They were practical mechanics; when they needed anything they built it themselves.
They hit on Kitty Hawk on the great dunes and sandy banks that stretch south to Hatteras seaward. Overhead the gulls and swooping terns, fishhawks and cranes flapping across the salt marshes.
They were alone there and figured out the loose sand was as soft as anything they could find to fall in, taking off again and again from Kill Devil Hill they learned to fly.
Aeronautics became the sport of the day, congratulated by the czar, crown prince, the King of Italy, King Edward for universal peace.
[Taking off again and again they learned to fly. In the rush of new names the Brothers Wright passed from the headlines: Bleriot, Farman, Curtiss, Ferber, Esnault, Petrie, Delagrange can blur the memory of the chilly December day two shivering bicycle mechanics first felt their homemade contraption soar into the air, above the dunes of Kitty Hawk.]
[“I released the wire that held the machine to the track. The machine started forward into the wind. Wilbur ran at the side holding the wing. The machine started slowly facing twenty seven mile wind, it lifted from the track. Wilbur was able to stay with it until it lifted from the track after a forty foot run. The course of the flight up and down was erratic, the first flight in the history of the world. The machine carried a man by his own power into the air in full flight forward without reduction of speed landed at a point as high as that from which it started.”]
[When these points had been firmly established we packed our goods and returned home, knowing that the age of the flying machine had come at last.]
About the composer: Michael Dellaira’s music exploits the qualities of both speech and song, and encompasses genres from folk music to voice synthesis on computers. About Dellaira, who is widely praised for his “haunting harmonies”(newmusicbox.org), “eloquence and sensitivity” (New York Times) and “flair for vocal writing” (classicstoday.com), the noted American critic and composer Eric Salzman has said: “He has created a personal musical language that combines the harmonic vocabulary and rhythmic interest of rock music with the technical rigor of the best modern classical music. It is the combination and synthesis of these seemingly contradictory elements which gives surface tension and excitement, and deeper value to Dellaira’s music.”
AMERICAN BREAKFAST - SAUNDER CHOI
cond. Fahad Siadat
The function of American Breakfast is to reflect on the transformation of an abnormal occurrence into a daily one. The events at Pulse in Orlando would have, at one time, challenged the assumptions once held dear about America’s tolerance and relative security. But now, the basic assumption is this: an American day will include gun violence. This is a piece about accepting the parameters of a forced American ritual, one in which we must partake, even if we succumb to numbness or deny its reality.
The setting the text relies on color contrast and timbral dissonance rather than the "blend" that choirs traditionally go for, with particular interest in how these different ways of producing sound with the voice interact with each other. The combination represents the hybridity in today's culture, not only in art, but in the people around us. Constant globalization and immigration are issues that continually cause us to question what the true America is and challenge the deeply-held notions of many Americans.
The setting the text relies on color contrast and timbral dissonance rather than the "blend" that choirs traditionally go for, with particular interest in how these different ways of producing sound with the voice interact with each other. The combination represents the hybridity in today's culture, not only in art, but in the people around us. Constant globalization and immigration are issues that continually cause us to question what the true America is and challenge the deeply-held notions of many Americans.
TEXT
Every morning I drink tea.
A dash of sugar, from sweet liberty --
A pinch of ash, from the bitter dead.
A hint of smoke from a semi-automatic.
I steep the leaves til over-fired,
the water boils as my blood.
I drink it black. I read the leaves.
Another mourning. A child grieves.
Love (of fear) is love (of guns) is love (against) is love (against) life (against life).
Its body ruined, the taste run dry,
I drink it again. Another mourning.
-Michael Yarsky
A dash of sugar, from sweet liberty --
A pinch of ash, from the bitter dead.
A hint of smoke from a semi-automatic.
I steep the leaves til over-fired,
the water boils as my blood.
I drink it black. I read the leaves.
Another mourning. A child grieves.
Love (of fear) is love (of guns) is love (against) is love (against) life (against life).
Its body ruined, the taste run dry,
I drink it again. Another mourning.
-Michael Yarsky
About the composer: Saunder Choi is a Los Angeles-based, Filipino composer and performer. His works have been performed globally by groups such as the LA Master Chorale Chamber Singers, Philippine Madrigal Singers, BYU Singers, LA Choral Lab, the Crossing Choir, Singapore Youth Choir, and more. As an arranger and orchestrator, he has written for Tony Award-winner Lea Salonga, the ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra, Maestro Gerard Salonga, the Tim Janis American Christmas Carol Show at Carnegie Hall, Ballet Philippines, and the Hong Kong production of Pippin. He completed his BM in Composition from Berklee College of Music, and his MM in Composition from USC. For a more comprehensive bio and list of works, please visit www.saunderchoi.com.
TABLE GRACE - MATTHEW BROWN
cond. Diana Woolner
Philip Brunelle and Garrison Keillor asked for a simple, doxology-like melody for the setting of “Table Grace,” with the desire that it could be easily learned by a congregation or audience. As most composers realize, to write a melody that is at once simple, memorable, tuneful, and yet remains true to one’s own compositional style is no easy matter. Another structural challenge was presented by the poem itself, which is a sonnet, and which at fourteen lines contains “stanzas” of unequal lengths. Since my challenge was to write an easily-learnable melody, I needed to have it repeat in some way and yet not become truncated at the beginning or end.
My solution was to base the melody on one of the pentatonic modes (which are frequently used in much of the world’s folk music) in the hopes of retaining the elegant simplicity and directness of the poem. To compensate for the stanzas of unequal lengths, I constructed the melody in small “cells”; each subsequent section of the poem starts on the second melodic cell of the last section’s melody, and adds one or more cells to the end. Thus the melody develops a forward progression and continues to rise throughout the piece, as if the prayer is gaining in intensity or wafting skyward.
The choir (and/or congregation) sings this melody through once in unison. Upon the repetition, an eight-part choir surrounds the melody with a halo of harmony, humming and singing on various vowels. This harmony provides reinforcement to the words of the poem and dispels any stasis arising from the repetition of melodic figures. The piece is practical for church use in that it may also be performed as unison choir/congregation plus organ (providing the harmony) or as unison/choir/organ.
My solution was to base the melody on one of the pentatonic modes (which are frequently used in much of the world’s folk music) in the hopes of retaining the elegant simplicity and directness of the poem. To compensate for the stanzas of unequal lengths, I constructed the melody in small “cells”; each subsequent section of the poem starts on the second melodic cell of the last section’s melody, and adds one or more cells to the end. Thus the melody develops a forward progression and continues to rise throughout the piece, as if the prayer is gaining in intensity or wafting skyward.
The choir (and/or congregation) sings this melody through once in unison. Upon the repetition, an eight-part choir surrounds the melody with a halo of harmony, humming and singing on various vowels. This harmony provides reinforcement to the words of the poem and dispels any stasis arising from the repetition of melodic figures. The piece is practical for church use in that it may also be performed as unison choir/congregation plus organ (providing the harmony) or as unison/choir/organ.
TEXT
Here we sit as evening falls
Like old horses in their stalls.
Thank you, Father, that you bless
Us with food and an address
And the comfort of your hand
In this great and blessed land.
Look around at each dear face,
Keep each one in your good grace.
We think of those who went before,
And wish we could have loved them more.
Grant to us a cheerful heart,
Knowing we must soon depart
To that far land to be with them.
And now let’s eat. Praise God. Amen.
-- Garrison Keillor
Here we sit as evening falls
Like old horses in their stalls.
Thank you, Father, that you bless
Us with food and an address
And the comfort of your hand
In this great and blessed land.
Look around at each dear face,
Keep each one in your good grace.
We think of those who went before,
And wish we could have loved them more.
Grant to us a cheerful heart,
Knowing we must soon depart
To that far land to be with them.
And now let’s eat. Praise God. Amen.
-- Garrison Keillor
About the composer: California native Matthew Brown completed his master’s and doctoral studies in music composition at the USC Thornton School of Music, where he studied with Morten Lauridsen, Frank Ticheli, Donald Crockett, Frederick Lesemann, Randy Newman, and Tamar Diesendruck. His awards include the 2007 VocalEssence Welcome Christmas! Carol Contest, 2010 VocalEssence Essentially Choral Commission, and 2011 C4 Composition Competition. His works have been performed throughout the United States and internationally by groups such as The Crossing, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, VocalEssence, Antioch Chamber Ensemble, Young New Yorker’s Chorus, Cincinnati Boychoir, Balsai (Lithuania), Kantorei, Chor Obandes (Japan), Coro de Cámara Ainur (Spain), L.A. Choral Lab, GMCLA, C4, USC Chamber Choir, Los Robles Master Chorale, De Angelis Vocal Ensemble, and the USC Thornton Symphony. He remains active in Los Angeles as a composer, arranger, performer, and professor, session singer, and tenor with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. His choral works, described by the New York Times as “quietly mesmerizing,” are featured on the Antioch Chamber Ensemble’s 2013 album (though love be a day) and published by Schott, G. Schirmer, and Hal Leonard.
Lip Service - Diana Woolner
cond. Alexandra Grabarchuk
Carol Binion, Diana Woolner, Saunder Choi, Matthew Brown, soloists
There are two overarching organizing patterns in LIP SERVICE: the mechanical processes and inherent hostility of firing a missile in parallel to the temporality determined by the criminalization of immigration and its holding patterns: waiting in indefinite detention, suspense and immobility. The work isolates and reorganizes selected musical and linguistic elements from the nostalgic anthem "America the Beautiful" in patterns and combinations in which language never fully forms. The anthem is further presented via fractured rhythms rather than treated lyrically or melodically, a manifestation of how fractured families, and ultimately our nation, can become as a result of this complicated issue.
Lip Service was conceptualized and commissioned by multi-disciplinary artist Jimena Sarno as part of "from sea to shining sea", a sculpture, video and sound installation that takes a site-specific choir performance as a departure point. The C3LA Choir performed at White Point Military Reservation, within a decommissioned long range naval gun casemate where guns were never fired for their intended purpose. The final installation has moved into Angels Gate Cultural Center, reconstructing the spatial and theatrical context of the live performance piece as a sculpture, video and sound installation.
There are two overarching organizing patterns in LIP SERVICE: the mechanical processes and inherent hostility of firing a missile in parallel to the temporality determined by the criminalization of immigration and its holding patterns: waiting in indefinite detention, suspense and immobility. The work isolates and reorganizes selected musical and linguistic elements from the nostalgic anthem "America the Beautiful" in patterns and combinations in which language never fully forms. The anthem is further presented via fractured rhythms rather than treated lyrically or melodically, a manifestation of how fractured families, and ultimately our nation, can become as a result of this complicated issue.
Lip Service was conceptualized and commissioned by multi-disciplinary artist Jimena Sarno as part of "from sea to shining sea", a sculpture, video and sound installation that takes a site-specific choir performance as a departure point. The C3LA Choir performed at White Point Military Reservation, within a decommissioned long range naval gun casemate where guns were never fired for their intended purpose. The final installation has moved into Angels Gate Cultural Center, reconstructing the spatial and theatrical context of the live performance piece as a sculpture, video and sound installation.
TEXT
Select syllables and stanzas from America the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bate
Verse 1, 2, 3 and title, 1911 version: by[u] (of "beautiful")
Verse 1: th[i] (of "God shed his grace on thee)
Verse 1, 2, 3: [o] (of "O")
Verse 2: liber / ating (of "liberating strife")
Verse 1, 2, 3: foe (first syllable of "for spacious skies")
Verse 2, from 1904 and 1911 versions: God mend thy every flaw
Verse 3, from 1985 only: Till selfish gain no longer stain
Verse 4, from 1895, 1904, and 1911: Undimmed by human tears!
Archival material of the casement
Coordinates of Battery 127 W 12,948.00 S 2,332.00
Maximum firing distance 26 miles
Verse 1, 2, 3 and title, 1911 version: by[u] (of "beautiful")
Verse 1: th[i] (of "God shed his grace on thee)
Verse 1, 2, 3: [o] (of "O")
Verse 2: liber / ating (of "liberating strife")
Verse 1, 2, 3: foe (first syllable of "for spacious skies")
Verse 2, from 1904 and 1911 versions: God mend thy every flaw
Verse 3, from 1985 only: Till selfish gain no longer stain
Verse 4, from 1895, 1904, and 1911: Undimmed by human tears!
Archival material of the casement
Coordinates of Battery 127 W 12,948.00 S 2,332.00
Maximum firing distance 26 miles
About the composer: Diana Woolner seeks out high-quality, thoughtful performance opportunities—as director, composer, conductor, arranger, performer, and more. Her roles have varied, from Choir Director at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Queens, New York; on-set Music Coordinator for Steven Soderbergh’s television series The Knick; 3rd prize winner with NYC-based ensemble GHOSTLIGHT CHORUS at the 14th International Chamber Choir Competition in Marktoberdorf, Germany; premiering original compositions during Vassar College’s ModFest; and performing across the tri-state area, including MOMA, Symphony Space, and David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. Diana’s compositions range from (but are not limited to) vocal ensembles works, electro-acoustic soundscapes, film scores, choreographed dance, and radio plays. Her music often has a magical quality, and her vocal works are known to utilize unconventional texts. Diana is the Alto II Section Leader at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in the Pacific Palisades, and a member of ARETÉ, a professional ensemble of vocal artists based in Thousand Oaks, CA. www.dianawoolnermusic.com
