Search Results for: iseult speaks
Hartford Courant Article on “Iseult Speaks”
Mike Hamad of the Hartford Courant has written a feature on the collaborations behind my new work Iseult Speaks. The full text of the article is available here, and it goes into the backstory of the work, discussing how the piece developed from a chance meeting. The work has been a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with poet Elizabeth Hamilton and mezzo-soprano Charity Clark, as well as the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra. It’s been a great roughly 18-month journey, and I’m excited for the work’s premiere!
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Countdown to “Iseult Speaks” Premiere!
In preparation for the premiere of Iseult Speaks on 2/20 by Charity Clark and the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra, I’ll be posting a new recording from the piano reduction each day. Nine of the thirteen movements were previewed by Charity with pianist Blake Hansen at my recital on 2/5/16, and the recordings will be posted to the playlist below. Follow me on social media to see announcements when new tracks are added, or listen to the full set of preview recordings here after Friday 2/19. Then, if you’re near Hartford, come check out the premiere of the chamber orchestra version on 2/20!
“Iseult Speaks” Premiere on 2/20/16
My new work, Iseult Speaks, for mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra will be premiered on 2/20 by Charity Clark and the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra. The concert will take place at 8pm in the auditorium of the Mark Twain House. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors/Lets Go Arts & MTH members, or $10 for students. They can be purchased online here.
Iseult Speaks is an extended song cycle for mezzo-soprano based on a retelling of the Tristan/Iseult myth. For those of you who might not be familiar with the story, the basic outline—and there are many variations on this skeleton—is that Tristan is supposed to bring Iseult to marry his uncle, but on the way they fall in love, usually because of a potion they accidentally ingest. Portrayals of Iseult range from passive cypher to tragic heroine to wanton seductress, but she is almost always cast as a one-dimensional accessory to Tristan.
Elizabeth Hamilton’s evocative and provocative poems reexamine the legend from Iseult’s point of view, here somewhat omniscient and shaded with a modern sensibility that links the tale to contemporary experiences. The text touches on questions of gender roles, societal pressure, and personal power as the narrator contemplates her life, rages against the unfairness of fate, wallows in memories of physical affection, condemns Tristan for his inaction, and vacillates between confidence, insecurity, hope, and despair.
The work was commissioned by HICO with generous support from the City of Hartford Arts & Heritage Jobs Grant Program.
New Recording Posted: “Twisted Blue”
A complete recording of Twisted Blue (in the clarinet and piano version) is now available! Alex Kollias and Elisabeth Tomczyk premiered the three-movement work on Feb. 5, 2016 as part of a composition recital I gave at the Hartt School. The recital also included preview performances of Iseult Speaks (to be premiered by the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra on Feb. 20, 2016) and Step No. 4: Know the Tuba Attitude (premiere TBA later this spring). Dr. Daniel D’Addio reprised My Father Was a Ventriloquist as well. Stay tuned for additional recital recordings coming soon!
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Vocal
Iseult Speaks (2016) – View in online store
Commissioned by the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra
Text by Elizabeth Hamilton
Instrumentation: Mezzo-Soprano and Piano (also available for chamber orchestra)
Duration: 36:00
Premiere: Feb. 5, 2016 | Charity Clark and the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra
Program Notes
Iseult Speaks is an extended song cycle for mezzo-soprano based on a retelling of the Tristan/Iseult myth. For those of you who might not be familiar with the story, the basic outline—and there are many variations on this skeleton—is that Tristan is supposed to bring Iseult to marry his uncle, but on the way they fall in love, usually because of a potion they accidentally ingest. Portrayals of Iseult range from passive cypher to tragic heroine to wanton seductress, but she is almost always cast as a one-dimensional accessory to Tristan.
Elizabeth Hamilton’s evocative and provocative poems reexamine the legend from Iseult’s point of view, here somewhat omniscient and shaded with a modern sensibility that links the tale to contemporary experiences. The text touches on questions of gender roles, societal pressure, and personal power as the narrator contemplates her life, rages against the unfairness of fate, wallows in memories of physical affection, condemns Tristan for his inaction, and vacillates between confidence, insecurity, hope, and despair.
It has been a pleasure setting these gorgeous poems, and I want to thank Elizabeth for trusting me with her words!
Thought (2015) – View in online store
Commissioned by the Riot Ensemble
Text by Walt Whitman
Instrumentation: Soprano, Alto Flute, Harpsichord, and Two Percussionists
Duration: 13:00
Premiere: Nov. 17, 2015 | The Riot Ensemble
Program Notes
Thought is based on a short eponymous text by Walt Whitman from his collection Leaves of Grass. He authored many epigrammatic writings of that name, each dealing with a different moral or philosophical issue that was important to him. He wrote on topics including nature, ownership, spirituality, justice, and more. This work, commissioned by the Riot Ensemble, is a meditation on one of those texts.
To Think on You (2012) – Available for purchase at MusicSpoke
Recipient of Boston Metro Opera’s Advocacy Award
Written for the 2012 Seasons Fall Music Festival
Text by: Walt Whitman
Instrumentation: Tenor and Piano (alt.: baritone and piano)
Duration: 8:30
Premiere: Oct. 19, 2013 | Robert Frankenberry and Anne Schilperoort
Program Notes
To Think on You is a setting of three poems by Walt Whitman. Each represents a snapshot of love, ordered to reveal a progression from the search for love to the exhilarating obsessiveness of infatuation and finally the deep warmth of a satisfying union.
Pictures of the Floating World (2011) – View in online store
Commissioned by Chad Walther
Text by: Amy Lowell
Instrumentation: Soprano and Tuba
Duration: 7:00
Premiere: May 17, 2012 | Sara Dougherty and Chad Walther
Program Notes
Amy Lowell’s collection of poems entitled Pictures of the Floating World (1919) is a set of poignant haiku-like works. The title of the book is a literal translation of the Japanese word “Ukiyo-e”, which is a genre of paintings and woodcut prints dating back to the seventeenth century. The subject matter of such art works often include landscapes, historical tales, and images taken from theater. In a sense, they are vignettes frozen in time, and Lowell’s poems capture that property magically.
In this eponymous set of songs for soprano and tuba, I have set seven of Lowell’s poems (with an interlude for solo tuba). Like the texts, the songs are brief, and the sparse textures reflect the simple power of the words.
The Sharp Edges of the Night (2011) – View in online store
Text by: Amy Lowell
Instrumentation: Soprano and Piano Four-hands
Duration: 10:30
Premiere: May 3, 2011 | Danya Katok, Bill McNally, and Oliver Markson
Program Notes
The Sharp Edges of the Night is a song cycle on four poems from Amy Lowell’s Swordblades and Poppy Seed (1914). Each text deals with love, though none of them (except possibly the third) are pure expressions of the positive aspects of that emotion. A number of shared images link the four poems, creating a unified exploration of the light and dark sides of narrator’s, or in this case the singer’s, need for her beloved.
The Man Who Wants You (2010)
Written for the 2010 Seasons Fall Festival
Text by: Sharon Cumberland
Instrumentation: Soprano and Piano
Duration: 7:15
Premiere: Oct. 15, 2010 | Gilda Lyons and Robert Frankenberry
Program Notes
Sharon Cumberland’s poem “The Man Who Wants You” immediately struck me when I read her collection Peculiar Honors. In her wryly humorous words, I see a struggle between realism and fantasy, between practicality and romance that underlies the lists of “reasons” why the narrator cannot make a lasting connection with the object of her affections. The most heart-breaking aspect of the poem is that many of the obstacles keeping the narrator apart from her potential lover are superficial, almost feeling like excuses for a deeper inability to connect that is never acknowledged. The real tragedy is not any of the situations described in the poem, but the underlying sense that if the narrator could come to terms with whatever truly prevents her from forming a deep relationship, she would no longer be blind to the love that is as close to her as her own nightstand.
The Lamp (2008)
Text by: Sara Teasdale
Instrumentation: SATB Choir
Duration: 4:00
Public Reading: Mar. 27, 2010 | Women Composers Festival of Hartford Chorus
Program Notes
Sara Teasdale’s poignant “The Lamp” (from her 1917 collection Love Songs) immediately caught my imagination from the moment I first encountered the poem. The work is brief and has the simple sort of eloquence found in hymn texts, yet speaks of earthly love rather than divine. Though this fact is not clearly stated in the first stanza, the second explains how the human love the author has experienced is profound enough to make life worthwhile even if there is no higher power.
There Will Come Soft Rains (2008) – View in online store
Text by: Sara Teasdale
Instrumentation: Voice
Duration: 2:20
Premiere: May 29, 2009 | Nancy Andersen
Program Notes
There Will Come Soft Rain is a setting of the Sarah Teasdale poem of the same name. The poem presents an eerily tranquil vision of a post-apocalyptic world where nature regains control. The free rhythms of the piece are designed to evoke a slightly unbalanced speech-like feel, while the slippery chromaticism underscores the unsettling mood of the text.
Teasdale Songbook (2008)
Text by: Sara Teasdale
Instrumentation: Soprano and Cello
Duration: 10:45
Premiere: May 29, 2009 | Claudia Rosenthal and Carlynn Savot
Program Notes
Teasdale Songbook is based on poems by Sarah Teasdale, an early twentieth century American writer who lived a dramatic life: she was connected romantically to poet Vachel Lindsay as a young woman, but eventually chose to marry another man. That marriage failed, and though she and Lindsay remained close, both poets eventually committed suicide.
The texts used in Teasdale Songbook were carefully chosen from the writer’s many works relating to that situation and create a disjointed story of a woman faced with the temptation to commit adultery. Most concretely, Teasdale’s “Guenevere” explores the emotions of the King Arthur’s legendary wife in a way that reflects the writer’s own experiences. Excerpts from this poem provide the structural framework for the composition and are juxtaposed against more subtle writings to suggest a surreal reading of Teasdale’s own life. The work cycles quickly through a number of different moods that often suggest contradictory thoughts or events, so that the division between true emotion, myth, and the fictional constructs created to mediate between the two becomes blurred and ultimately irrelevant.
All That Doth Flow (2007)
Commissioned by Russ Podgorsek
Text by: Lady Margaret Cavendish
Instrumentation: Voice and Viola
Duration: 1:30
Premiere: Nov. 17, 2007 | Russ Podgorsek
Program Notes
At the beginning of November, a friend of mine brought up the idea of writing a companion piece to a previous work for saxophone and voice entitled Epilogue. He sent me the text for What is Liquid?, a poem by Lady Margaret Cavendish (1623?-1673). Earlier this week, I spent an hour writing All That Doth Flow, putting great effort into giving the poem a setting adequate to its literary mastery. The piece can be performed by one person or as a duet.
Epilogue (2007)
Text by: Ovid
Instrumentation: Spoken Voice and Alto Saxophone (alt.: Viola)
Duration: 2:30
Premiere: Apr. 21, 2007 | Kate Dunphy and Joe D’Aleo
Program Notes
In 2007, two colleagues of mine at Hartt, Craig Biondi and Tom Izzo, organized a concert entitled “Momentum”. The idea was that composers would be randomly assigned performers and would need to write a piece for those performers within an hour. The players would then have an hour to learn the new works before presenting them on the concert.
For the project, I was assigned spoken voice and alto saxophone. Since a copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses was on my desk at the time, I used an excerpt as the text of the resulting piece, Epilogue.
For the project, I was assigned spoken voice and alto saxophone. Since a copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses was on my desk at the time, I used an excerpt as the text of the resulting piece, Epilogue.
Two Poems (2005) – Available for purchase at MusicSpoke
Texts by: Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats
Instrumentation: SSA Choir
Duration: 4:30
Premiere: Mar. 29, 2008 | Women Composers Festival of Hartford Chorus
Program Notes
The texts for Two Poems, by Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats respectively, both use celestial imagery to convey two very different views on love. For me, the juxtaposition of the two poems adds to their expressiveness and brings out undercurrents that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Orchestra
Iseult Speaks (2016) – view in online store
Commissioned by the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra
Text by Elizabeth Hamilton
Instrumentation: Mezzo-Soprano | 1.1.1.1 | 1.0.0.0 | 1 perc. | harp | strings (also available for piano)
Duration: 36:00
Premiere: Feb. 20, 2016 | Charity Clark and the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra
Program Notes
Iseult Speaks is an extended song cycle for mezzo-soprano based on a retelling of the Tristan/Iseult myth. For those of you who might not be familiar with the story, the basic outline—and there are many variations on this skeleton—is that Tristan is supposed to bring Iseult to marry his uncle, but on the way they fall in love, usually because of a potion they accidentally ingest. Portrayals of Iseult range from passive cypher to tragic heroine to wanton seductress, but she is almost always cast as a one-dimensional accessory to Tristan.
Elizabeth Hamilton’s evocative and provocative poems reexamine the legend from Iseult’s point of view, here somewhat omniscient and shaded with a modern sensibility that links the tale to contemporary experiences. The text touches on questions of gender roles, societal pressure, and personal power as the narrator contemplates her life, rages against the unfairness of fate, wallows in memories of physical affection, condemns Tristan for his inaction, and vacillates between confidence, insecurity, hope, and despair.
It has been a pleasure setting these gorgeous poems, and I want to thank Elizabeth for trusting me with her words!
Still I Rise! (2015) – view in online store
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 | 2.2.1.0 | timp.+2 | harp | piano | strings
Alt. Instrumentation: 3.3.3.3 | 4.3.3.1 | timp.+3 | harp | piano | strings
Duration: 10:00
Premiere: TBA
Program Notes
Still I Rise! is named after Maya Angelou’s eponymous poem. Her words express a profound sentiment of perseverance: they reflect not only surviving hardships, but coming out of them with one’s spirit in tact. The narrator’s sassiness, quirky humor, and energy are manifested in the music’s grooves, flirty lines, and vibrant colors. Angelou’s theme of endurance is expressed as the main motive or “protagonist” travels through periods of confidence, adversity, manic excitement, questioning, and catharsis. Even when the identity of the main motive is almost obliterated by the heavy, static chords of the climax, it emerges to close the piece with a wink and a flourish – always rising again.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (2011) – view in online store
Winner of the 2012 NewMusic@ECU Orchestra Composition Competition
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 | 2.2.2.0 | timp. | strings
Duration: 6:30
Premiere: Oct. 16, 2011 | Yakima Symphony Chamber Orchestra
Program Notes
Seasonal Affective Disorder was written in 2011 for the Seasons Fall Music Festival. The condition for which the piece is named generally involves the connection of some negative mood with a particular season – an ironic reference, since I have particularly fond memories of the time I spent at the Seasons Festival in 2010 and am quite partial to fall in general (being both the season in which I was born and that which contained my favorite holiday, Halloween). Still, the nervous excitement and chaotic outbursts of the music do reflect some of the emotions I associate with autumn, albeit taken to a (possibly unhealthy) extreme.
Twisted Blue (2011, rev. 2013) – view in online store
Commissioned by the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra
Instrumentation: 1.1.1.1 | 1.1.1.0 | 2 perc. | strings (alt.: clarinet and piano)
Duration: 14:00
Premiere: April 20, 2013 | HICO with Alexander Kollias, clarinet
Program Notes
Twisted Blue was written for clarinetist Dan Liptak to perform with the Hartt Independent Chamber Orchestra conducted by Erberk Eryilmaz. The title comes from the bluesy progression that forms the basis of the second movement, which was in fact composed first in a few frantic fall afternoons. The opening movement followed, and then the finale.
Vortices (2010) – view in online store
Winner of the IAWM’s 2011 Libby Larsen Prize
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 | 2.2.2.0 | timp. | strings
Duration: 5:15
Premiere: October 16, 2010 | Yakima Symphony Chamber Orchestra
Program Notes
When I was very young, I became interested in astronomy – particularly in the planets of the solar system. Vortices for orchestra was inspired by images I remember seeing of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a gigantic storm that has existed for hundreds of years. This ironically brief perpetual motion romp is based on chaotic fragments and swirling ostinatos (or repeated patterns). Volatile, bubbling textures are contrasted with bombastic tuttis to reflect a child-like vision of the storm. The work was written for the 2010 Seasons Music Festival in Yakima, WA, where it was premiered in October 2010.
Black Satin Triptych (2010) – view in online store
Commissioned for the Sgt. Katherine E. Brunnelle Memorial Concert
Instrumentation: 1.1.1.1 | 1.0.0.0 | timp. | strings
Duration: 9:15
Premiere: April 17, 2010 | Sgt. Katherine E. Brunnelle Memorial Concert Orchestra
Program Notes
Black Satin Triptych is a tango fantasy: tango because that was what conductor Noah Glynn requested when commissioning the work, and fantasy because other musical styles kept creeping in, making the piece a very non-traditional sort of tango. The three main sections of the composition follow a medium – slow – fast scheme and share certain themes and gestures, though each explores a unique subset of the varied moods and emotions that can be expressed through tango. This work was composed for the third annual Sgt. Katherine E. Brunnelle Memorial Concert in Lincoln, NH, where it was premiered in April 2010.
Gyre Variations (2009)
Commissioned for the Sgt. Katherine E. Brunnelle Memorial Concert
Instrumentation: string orchestra
Duration: 7:30
Premiere: March 28, 2009 | Sgt. Katherine E. Brunnelle Memorial Concert Orchestra
Program Notes
The Gyre Variations are based a theme built from arpeggiated chords. Initially, these chords are dissonant augmented triads. As the theme recurs throughout the piece, the harmonies shift from dissonant to consonant and vice versa. Between the appearances of the theme, other ideas are introduced to create a rondo form. The music thus spirals outwards from the opening theme, constantly moving forward yet never really leaving its origin. To me, such a circular form seems to be a metaphor for the human experience: one will constantly grow and evolve through difficult times and then achieve moments of repose or joy, yet always be rooted in their previous experiences.
Scenes from Battleship Potemkin (2008) – view in online store
Instrumentation: 1.1.1.1 | 1.1.1.0 | timp.+1 | harp | strings
Duration: 9:40
Premiere: April 16, 2008 | The Hartt Contemporary Players
Program Notes
Battleship Potemkin was written to accompany scenes from the silent film of the same title. The movie depicts an uprising triggered by the murder of a sailor by one of his officers. This score was written for the Hartt Contemporary Players Ensemble, who premiered the work on April 16, 2008.
Fantasy Variations on a Forgotten Myth (2007) – view in online store
Instrumentation: 1.1.1.1 | 1.1.1.0 | timp.+1 | piano | strings
Duration: 13:00
Premiere: Aug. 3, 2007 | Bard Conductor’s Institute Composers’ Chamber Ensemble
Program Notes
The inspiration for this work came in the form of a myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. A brief passage in the text recounts the story of Ocyrhoe, a half-divine woman who was able to tell the future with startling accuracy. While entertaining at first, the prophetess soon became a nuisance to some of the gods who did not appreciate her doomsday foretellings. In the end, she was silenced when a god transformed her into a horse. The work does not strictly follow the narrative of the myth, but contains impressions based on the imagery it contains.
To Bind the Sweet Influences (2007)
Instrumentation: 3.3.3.3 | 4.3.3.1 | timp.+3 | harp | strings
Duration: 28:00
Premiere: N/A
Program Notes
To Bind The Sweet Influences was written in 2006 – 2007. Each movement is designed to function as an integral part of the entire work, while also being able to stand alone as an individual piece. The movements can be played together in the order given in the full score or in any other arrangement.
The title of this work comes from Job 38:31 as translated by the King James Version of the Bible: “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion?” That line is from an extended passage about the limits of human ability despite an ever-present need to try to break free of those limits.
The sub-title of the fifth movement, ‘Eternity Falls from My Feet’, is inspired by William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence”:
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.