On the Threshold
dog on the median - jasper sussman
cond. Fahad Siadat
Working with Catherine Jagoe’s poem “Dog on the Median of the Kennedy Expressway, Chicago” was a largely self-indulgent experience for me, not only because the work encapsulates a poignant epistemological struggle in sixty brilliantly positioned words, but also because Catherine herself was a member of the work’s premiere ensemble, providing us both with a rare opportunity for artistic exchange and voiced gratitude. As Catherine put it, and I paraphrase, our pairing was a much welcomed meeting of like minds — I intuitively approached her text, deciding to maintain its brevity, its no-frills authenticity (well, perhaps not tonally), its attention to rhythm and its ABA’-ish structure. Through careful use of the group’s four voice parts, I musically personify Jagoe’s relentless traffic, which subsumes and escalates the storyteller’s disquieted internal state. As the woman behind the wheel gets pushed along, the voices become delicate, exposed, each new line sung in quiet unison, while all along, the incessant tempo slogs on unchanged. - Jasper Sussman
TEXT
I keep coming back
to that dog
running west
next to the fast lane
along the concrete meridian
between eight
lanes of traffic
and wishing
I could have stopped
although it was impossible
four lanes of us
nose to tail
seventy miles an hour
that dog, thin, grey,
loping doggedly along
no Samaritan in sight
nowhere to go but on
I keep coming back
to that dog
running west
next to the fast lane
along the concrete meridian
between eight
lanes of traffic
and wishing
I could have stopped
although it was impossible
four lanes of us
nose to tail
seventy miles an hour
that dog, thin, grey,
loping doggedly along
no Samaritan in sight
nowhere to go but on
About the Composer: Jasper Sussman is a collaborative composer, performer, improviser, and scholar pursuing her Ph.D. in Music at the University of California, San Diego. Her current work involves discovering, archiving, mastering and composing for the myriads of expressive capabilities that the human voice possesses, and understanding these sounds musically, culturally, and anatomically.
1909 (from oublier) - TJ Sclafani
cond. Fahad Siadat
soloists: Molly Pease, Jocelyn Scofield, Ariana Stultz
soloists: Molly Pease, Jocelyn Scofield, Ariana Stultz
I wrote oublier (to forget) about two years ago during my second semester of graduate school. At the time, I was dealing with, and playing around with, the ideas of mourning and loss on a personal and societal level. I also wanted to write a choral piece in the French Modernist style a la Poulenc and Milhaud, because that music played such a formative development in my compositional career and frankly speaking, I wanted to get it out of the way so that I could explore more contemporary modes of writing. Considering these ideas, setting music to Apollinaire poems made sense, as I find him to be the more melancholic and pathetic of the French Symbolist poets.
The piece is structured in a way to work through different types of nostalgia and loss: the first movement ("Rosemonde") is about the longing and loss of a person, the second movement ("Hotels") is on the longing and loss of place, and the third movement ("1909"), which you are about to hear, concerns the loss of country and ideology. - TJ Sclafani
The piece is structured in a way to work through different types of nostalgia and loss: the first movement ("Rosemonde") is about the longing and loss of a person, the second movement ("Hotels") is on the longing and loss of place, and the third movement ("1909"), which you are about to hear, concerns the loss of country and ideology. - TJ Sclafani
|
TEXT
La dame avait une robe En ottoman violine Et sa tunique brodée d’or Était composée de deux panneaux S’attachant sur l’epaule Les yeux dansants comme des anges Elle riait elle riait Elle avait un visage aux couleurs de France Les yeux bleus les dents blanches et les lèvres très rouges Elle avait un visage aux couleurs de France Elle était décolletée en rond Et coiffée à la Récamier Avec de beaux bras nus N’entendra-t-on jamais sonner minuit La dame en robe d’ottoman violine Et en tunique brodée d’or Décolletée en rond Promenait ses boucles Son bandeau l’or Et traînait ses petits souliers à boucles Elle était si belle Que tu n’aurais pas osé l’aimer Cette femme était si belle Qu’elle me faisait peur |
TRANSLATION
The lady’s dress was Of purple corded silk And her gold-broidered tunic Was formed of two panels Fitted at the shoulder Her eyes danced like angels She laughed she laughed Her face showed France’s colors Blue eyes white teeth and lips of scarlet Her face showed France’s colors Her dress was scooped low front and back Her hair was raved à la Récamier And O the fair bare arms she had Will midnight never toll the hour The lady clad in the purple corded silk And the gold-broidered tunic Scooped low front and back Tossed her curls Her gold bandeau And trailed wee buckled shoes She was so beautiful You wouldn’t have dared love her That woman was so beautiful She frightened me |
For more about the composer, see our Members page.
alchemy - david rentz
cond. Diana Woolner
"Alchemy" is the concluding piece in a collaborative triptych by poet Alexandra Grabarchuk and composer David Rentz. The first two works, "Holy" (2017) and "Mandala" (2018), were also premiered by C3LA.
TEXT
And who
am I?
I never wanted
to have to say.
And yet
I never missed
an opportunity
to build it:
turning and twisting,
I grew in equal measure
outward and in.
Alexandra Grabarchuk (2018)
For more about the composer, see our Members page.
he would not stay - peter walters
cond. Diana Woolner
"He would not stay, and who can wonder" is a 4 line poem by the celebrated English writer, AE Houseman. Almost all the poetry published in his lifetime, most notably "A Shropshire Lad," was set to song by significant early twentieth century English composers. There were though other hidden poems, published only after his death in 1936, which explored his love for the man who shared his Cambridge rooms as a student: a love unexpressed, unrealised, and unrequited, that he carried with him all his life. This poem is one of these, and is a searingly honest expression of longing and loss. A contemporary of Oscar Wilde, he, though, concealed his homosexuality at a time when openness was dangerous, and only revealed his true self in these poems.
Peter Walters is an English doctor and composer, writing for voices of all ages, with published song-books and carols, and musicals for schools, including an authorised setting of Roald Dahl’s The Witches. This piece was workshopped with the C3LA choir last summer as part of their VoiceScienceWorks sessions and developed into the 8 voice piece you now hear. The setting seeks to musically express the sorrow and desire, universal human emotions, running though these lines. Repetition is used throughout exploring the obsession driving this, and other’s of his late poems.
TEXT
He would not stay for me, and who can wonder?
He would not stay for me to stand and gaze.
I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder,
And went with half my life about my ways.
He would not stay for me, and who can wonder?
He would not stay for me to stand and gaze.
I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder,
And went with half my life about my ways.
About the composer: Peter Walters writes in many styles and flexibly for different audiences and performers. Adaptations of children's picture books have been followed by SATB works for Community Choirs, dance pieces for theatre groups, or scores for short films. Much has been created collaboratively, or written for specific performers.
i cannot attain unto it - nico muhly
cond. Adam Goins
"I Cannot Attain Unto It" is a setting of a section of Psalm 139 arranged such that certain syllables repeat and cycle around each other. The passage itself speaks in awe of the truly unknowable breadth of the Lord’s reach and understanding. The harmonic motion of the piece is through common tones, a method in which a single note is sustained through two related or unrelated keys. The use of the repetition is meant to be at once devotional and hypnotic.
TEXT
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there:
if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
– Psalm 139, 6-8
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there:
if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
– Psalm 139, 6-8
About the composer: Nico Muhly is an American composer and sought-after collaborator whose influences range from American minimalism to the Anglican choral tradition. The recipient of commissions from The Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Philadelphia Orchestra and others, he has written more than 80 works for the concert stage, including the operas Two Boys (2010), Dark Sisters (2011), and Marnie; the song cycles Sentences (2015), for countertenor Iestyn Davies, and Impossible Things (2009), for tenor Mark Padmore; a viola concerto for violist Nadia Sirota; the choral works My Days (2011) and Recordare, Domine (2013), written for the Hilliard Ensemble and the Tallis Scholars respectively and most recently Looking Up (2017), a work for choir and orchestra for the Cathedral Choral Society.
he saw a skull - michael gordon
cons. Adam Goins
"He Saw a Skull" was initially written for a chorus of 12 voices. The chorus is divided into four groups of three voices, with each group singing major and minor harmonies that are approached by glissando. The text is taken from a short saying by Rabbi Hillel found in the Talmudic tractate Pirkei Avot: He saw a skull floating on the water. He said to the skull, “Because you drowned others, they drowned you. And they who drowned you will themselves be drowned.” The cyclical cause and effect of these words are echoed in the layering of the offset harmonies, as if creating a most unsettling feedback loop.
About the composer: Michael Gordon has produced a strikingly diverse body of work, ranging from large-scale pieces for high-energy ensembles and major orchestral commissions to works conceived specifically for the recording studio and kaleidoscopic works for groups of identical instruments. Transcending categorization, his music represents the collision of mysterious introspection and brutal directness.
second coming - alice dryden
cond. Drew Corey
This apocalyptic text was originally written by Yeats in the immediate aftermath of World War I. Now, at the hundredth anniversary of the Armistice, this poem once again speaks directly to our current times. The world is chaotic and divided, barreling helplessly onward as things unravel. So many follow the loudest, shrillest voices in the search for truth - “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
An occasional musical quote from the World War I song "Keep the Home Fires Burning" emphasizes the historical parallels and sense of misguided nostalgia, as the “rough beast” heralding the end times approaches and shatters everything. The monster is described in an aleatoric musical section, as all voices split apart, battle with each other and finally emerge from the chaos into an ominous and unknown ending.
We once again live in interesting times; my intention in working with this text is not to despair about where things stand, but hope that by understanding the past we can understand our current times and find a new way forward.
TEXT
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming!
Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight:
Somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming!
Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight:
Somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
For more about the composer, see our Members page.
banner of youth - adam goins
cond. Drew Corey
"Banner of Youth" is a setting of a poem by Daisaku Ikeda, President of the lay Nichiren Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International. It is inspired musically by Claude Debussy’s "Hommage à Rameau", which upon hearing I immediately felt was a choral piece. Mr. Ikeda’s words are meant as encouragement to young people who are the successors of the world peace movement of the organization, and to be the hope for the unknown future in the fight for the happiness of all people. It is said that if you want to know what results will be manifest in the future, look at the causes that exist in the present. The reality of your future self is forged by your current action, in your behavior now.
For more about the composer, see our Members page.
THE WISHING TREE - JOBY TALBOT
cond. Fahad Siadat
"The Wishing Tree" takes a mysterious poem and breaks it into a chant like hocket with the lines and words tossed back and forth between the different sections of the chorus. The hocket creates a ricocheting effect, not unlike that of thrown coins bouncing off an object. The poetry is from the perspective of a ‘wishing tree’, an object that receives human desires and longing in the form of coins. The tree thrives on these desires while simultaneously poisoned by the metal of the coins being ‘drawn into its slow wood’. And yet, it continues to endure, with new mysterious buds, formed from human longing and greed, on the verge of sprouting anew.
TEXT
I stand neither in the wilderness
nor fairyland
but in the fold
of a green hill
the tilt from one parish
into another.
To look at me
through a smirr of rain
is to taste the iron
in your own blood
because I hoard
the common currency
of longing: each wish
each secret assignation.
My limbs lift, scabbed
with greenish coins
I draw into my slow wood
fleur-de-lys, the enthroned Brittania.
Behind me, the land
reaches towards the Atlantic.
And though I’m poisoned
choking on the small change
of human hope,
daily beaten into me
look: I am still alive--
in fact, in bud.
© 2004 Kathleen Jamie
I stand neither in the wilderness
nor fairyland
but in the fold
of a green hill
the tilt from one parish
into another.
To look at me
through a smirr of rain
is to taste the iron
in your own blood
because I hoard
the common currency
of longing: each wish
each secret assignation.
My limbs lift, scabbed
with greenish coins
I draw into my slow wood
fleur-de-lys, the enthroned Brittania.
Behind me, the land
reaches towards the Atlantic.
And though I’m poisoned
choking on the small change
of human hope,
daily beaten into me
look: I am still alive--
in fact, in bud.
© 2004 Kathleen Jamie
About the composer: Joby Talbot was born in Wimbledon in 1971 and studied privately with Brian Elias, before attending the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Simon Bainbridge. Works include operas, concerts, choral works, dance and ballet, as well as and film and television.
