Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Notes on Elliott's music

Here are some musings from Elliott Grabill on the two pieces he's written for us:

Young Sycamore

I must tell you
this young tree
whose round and firm trunk
between the wet

pavement and the gutter
(where water
is trickling) rises
bodily

into the air with
one undulant
thrust half its height—
and then

dividing and waning
sending out
young branches on
all sides—

hung with cocoons
it thins
till nothing is left of it
but two

eccentric knotted
twigs
bending forward
hornlike at the top

William Carlos Williams lived from 1883 to 1963. Although he spent some time abroad, he lived most of his life in Rutherford, New Jersey, a suburb very close to New York City. He worked a full career as a pediatrician. Not surprisingly, his poetry is quite observational. I also suspect he was a people person, judging from both his day job and some of his poems.

His poetry contrasts the Romantic Movement that came before him. While I think Whitman, Byron, Wilde, and other Romantic poets directly address broad emotional issues like love and grief, Williams captures beauty and subtly in physical objects and mundane, everyday things.

Also different is the way the poetry appears on the page. Notice the complexity of the language in “Not Heat Flames up and Consumes,” (from “We two,” which we are also singing), compared with Zen-like appearance of Williams’ “Young Sycamore.”

from “Not Heat Flames up and Consumes”
O none, more than I, hurrying in and out:
--Does the tide hurry, seeking something, and never give up? O I the same;

Due to Williams’ text layout, I get an experience much different from when I read Whitman. With so many line breaks in “Young Sycamore,” I focus more on the words themselves. While it may take several words to create an image in my mind in a Whitman poem, it takes me only one word in a Williams poem.

This affected the way I set this poem to music, because I wanted to do justice to each word. In his poem, Williams shows the reader how many beautiful things can be found in a single tree. Note how he jumps around from image to image, and theme to theme: “pavement and the gutter,” “one undulant thrust,” “young branches,” “eccentric twigs.” Because of this, I wanted to write a piece that shifts in tempo, style, and emotion. I chose a recitative format to allow me this flexibility.

Diction is important in the performance of this piece. The audience needs to hear the poetry speak—and not just hear it as a nice piece of music. Dynamics are also important for this piece and need to be exaggerated (but not over the top). This is so listeners can distinguish different sections of the poetry. I find youth a major theme in this poem, so feel free to have a sense of humor when performing it.


Nantucket

Flowers through the window
lavender and yellow

changed by white curtains—
Smell of cleanliness—

Sunshine of a late afternoon—
On the glass tray

a glass pitcher, the tumbler
turned down, by which

a key is lying—And the
immaculate white bed


A number of personal experiences came to mind when reading this poem. First of all, look at the title: “Nantucket.” I’ve never been to Nantucket, but I know America’s wealthy elite—people who have been made legendary by authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald, owns much of it. For those of us not “old money,” it’s a tourist destination. Since the whaling industry would have died down by Williams’ time, I’m assuming that the narrator of this poem is probably a visitor—either of a bed and breakfast, or a private estate. The “smell of cleanliness,” “flowers through the window,” and “tumbler turned down” are all images that I’ve personally experienced either by the sea, or at a bed and breakfast. There’s a certain luxury to the images in this poem, with subtle hints of romance that I find intriguing.

I decided to write this piece in the form of a song. The nostalgia and luxury in this poem reminded me of old standards like “The Shadow of your Smile” and “All the Things You Are.” This piece should be sung with the same warmth and sentimentality as these songs.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Composer Kudos

Here are a couple of thank you notes from composers whose music we recorded on our new CD. First, a note from Lee Hoiby (click the note to enlarge it, click the name to go to the composer's web site):

And here's one from Joe Gregorio:

Thursday, April 2, 2009

New music on the spring concert

Hi guys,

Here are a few YouTube videos of choirs singing the new/newer pieces on our spring concert. First up, the excellent Amabile Choirs of London, Ontario singing Jonathan Quick's arrangement of "Loch Lomond." For some reason, the Amabile video was removed, so here's the Southern California Vocal Association 2007 Men's Honor Choir instead. No, we're not going to do the beat box stuff at the end.



Here's a little-known collegiate group, the Cornell Glee Club under the direction of assistant conductor John Rowehl, singing Steven Sametz's "Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes."



Here's an unidentified high school district honor choir singing Dwight Bigler's challenging arrangement of "Blue Tail Fly." I'm guessing the video was shot by Zachary B. Krause's mother...



Here's the Massillon, Washington High School Men's Chorus singing "Daemon Irrepit Callidus." It was the only clip I could find of a men's choir singing it. If you can find another one, let me know and I'll post it.



And finally, here's "Away From the Roll of the Sea" sung by the MMEA All-State Men's Chorus. I don't know which "M" it is, though. It could be Missouri, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota or Maine.



Enjoy!