- Miss Furr and Miss Skeene (2012)
-
Linda Dusman
for narrator and percussion
ca. 15'15"
The text used in the piece was written by Gertrude Stein.
The linked recording was performed by Wendy Salkind, narrator, and Tom Goldstein, percussion.
Click here to listen to the recording. (YouTube)
- Thousand Year Dreaming (1990)
-
Annea Lockwood
for oboe/english horn, A clarinet/contrabass clarinet, two tenor trombones, percussion, four didjeridu, voice, and slide projections
To me the didjeridu is the sound of the earth’s core, pulsing serenely - an expression of the life force. When I started working on the score images from the Lascaux cave paintings came to mind as in some way connected with that resonating pulsing. Dated to the Aurignacian Paleolithic period (ca 17,000 BC), they contain recurring symbols such as checkerboards and tridents which are not yet well understood. However, the intense awe and love with which the animal images have been created are vividly clear. Like sound, they also manifest the life force.
From discussions of Korean musical traditions with composer Jin Hi Kim came ideas about cyclically unfolding structures which helped greatly as I tried to work out a natural shape for these sounds and images - four sections with the following subtitles: breathing and dreaming; the Chi stirs; floating in mid-air; in full bloom.
- Luminescence (2004)
-
Annea Lockwood
for baritone voice, flute, trumpet, viola, cello, piano, percussion, and speaking voice
Luminescence was commissioned by Thomas Buckner, and is based on poems from Etel Adnan's SEA, which evoke the Lebanese coast of the Mediterranean, her birthplace. The Pacific Ocean is also a strong presence in her life as in Thomas Buckner's and mine, and so the piece celebrates our three-way friendship and our shared love of that ocean, which influenced the first song: here, the phrase lengths match the timing of long Pacific waves which I recorded in New Zealand, some years ago.
Click here to listen on Annea Lockwood's website.
- Vision of Blue (1999)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
for flute, oboe, B-flat clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, violoncello, ocean drum, and voice
ca. 14'00"
There is the blue we feel
in the presence of human suffering and separateness
[stylish, solo voices, self-important melodies interrupting, competing]
And there is the blue we see from above
peaceful, swirling speck of beauty on the soul of our universe
[gentle voices reminding, connecting us to life before and beyond]
There are those who carry us from the one blue to the other.
I have written this piece in honor of them--
it is time to share in and realize their Vision of Blue
- Red Mountain Note (2004)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
flute/piccolo, B-flat clarinet, voice, violin, violoncello, contrabass, and tape
ca. 11'00"
Note to performers and listeners: written in celebration of my cousin Jerry Leon who made the last of his many adventures on earth while skiing in February of 2004.
Note to self: Find the Hawaiian chant secretly embedded on the ‘Ulalena’ CD; And on ‘The Master Chanters of Hawaii’ use “e ulu, e ulu, kini o ke akua” (Inspire us, inspire us, O gods).
Note to Jerry: whispers of other times and places
both mythic and real
souls and gypsies
long passed and yet to come
but I see you
bright, strong, and clear
like water
atop, within, above, and beyond
Red Mountain.
- Color Prayer (1998)
-
Patricia Ann Repar
for B-flat clarinet, piano, and voice
ca. 7'15"
The text of Color Prayer is comprised of excerpts from the following sources: Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman, the Islamic Call to Prayer, Mexican folk sungs as sung by Linda Ronstadt, the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass, and Memoirs from the Women's Prison by Nawal El Saadawi.
The body was now a broken, twisted piece of meat. Carrion, birds, rodents, insects and worms came to feed on the decomposing flesh [Allahu akbar] that I had once imagined to be me. Time passed faster [Mata me cielo] and faster and the days flashed by and the sky became a rapid blinking, an alternation of light and darkness [A donde estas?] flickering faster and faster into a blur. The seasons changed and the remains of the [Hablan me montes y valles] body began to dissolve into the soil enriching it. The frozen snows of winter preserved my [Christe eleison] bones for a [Speak to me valleys and mountains] moment in time but as the seasons flashed by in evermore rapid cycles even the bones became dust. From the nourishment [Donde?] of my body [Lord have mercy. Gritenme piedras del campo] flowers and trees grew and died in that [A donde?] meadow. Finally even the meadow disappeared. I had become part of the carrion birds that had feasted on my flesh, part of the insects [Kyrie eleison] and rodents, and part of their predators in a great cycle of life and death. I became their ancestor—
- Folios (1980)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for concrète tape, voice, glass harmonica, bells, bird call, toy piano, piano, clarinet, recorders, and double plastic pipes, dancer
- Firefall (1974)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, voice, double bass, and dancer
- Embermusic (1978)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for voice and piano
- Swash (1994)
-
Lois V Vierk and Anita Feldman
with choreographic contributions by Rhonda Price
for 2 tap dancers and 2 high voices
Swash is one of six music/tap dance works co-created by tap dance choreographer Anita Feldman and composer Lois V Vierk during the 1980s and 90s. From the very beginning, choreographer and composer worked together on all major aspects of each piece. They have always felt that in their work, music and dance are one. It's impossible to say where one leaves off and the other begins. The piece was named for the movement of water splashing up from an ocean wave onto the sand of the beach. This concept of "swash" inspired a wide variety of visual and sound ideas in the creation of the work.
Besides the above, some of the movement/sound materials are influenced by Hambone, an African-American music and dance form that uses the whole body as a percussion instrument to be slapped, brushed, etc. with one's hands. Hambone was originally developed by enslaved Africans in the US, Guyana and the Caribbean. In the US, use of percussion instruments by slaves was banned in most places, starting in the mid 18th century. This was done out of fear that people would be able to transmit messages via drum patterns that would incite revolution against the system of slavery. Hence the body itself became the source of percussive sounds.
In Swash the slapping, clapping and sliding of the hands not only contributes to sound rhythms, but also propels the body’s movements. As the piece progresses, the action of one foot hitting the other both contributes to the rhythms and propels the foot movements of the tap dancing in a similar way. The costumes in Swash were designed by Denise Mitchell. They were sewn from a vinyl type fabric, which permits hand slaps and brushes to be clearly audible. Dancers also wear hand “instruments” made of velcro to further augment the sound.
Some of the vocal sounds in Swash derive from the South African Zulu language, which is rich in musical slides and in a variety of tongue clicks. Adelaide Ngoneni Cele was the language consultant. The two singers in the piece, one on either side of the stage, are amplified, so that their percussive sounds blend with the dancers' taps and body slaps, and their sustained sounds and long glissandos can be heard flowing over the taps, enveloping the stage. The American folk form Eephing, a folk form that developed in the Appalachians during the 19th century, is also an influence in this piece. Eephing, incorporating both exhaled and inhaled sung syllables, was used to holler to farm animals. The last part of Swash brings out four women's names, American and Zulu: Anita (for Anita Feldman), Nokuthula (for Ms. Cele's mother), Nora (for the composer's mother) and Ngoneni (for Ngoneni Cele).
Swash was premiered at Woodpeckers Tap Dance Studio in New York City in 1994. Subsequent performances include Dance Theater Workshop (NYC), SUNY Albany, SUNY Buffalo and Columbia Festival of the Arts (MD). The tap parts have been performed by Anita Feldman, Rhonda Price and Sheri Laroche. Vocal parts have been performed by Dora Ohrenstein, Susan Botti and Lisa Bielawa.
Swash was made with a New State Council on the Arts Composer Commission and a New York Sate Council on the Arts Company Grant. Special thanks to the Foundation for Contemporary Arts for additional support.
Audio recording is of vocal parts only (no tap), plus there is a demo of Zulu language click sounds. Recording is in three parts: 1) Vocal parts plus click track. 2) Vocal parts only. 3) Zulu demo. Singers are Lisa Bielawa (voice 1) and Katie Geissinger (voice 2). Zulu language demo by Adelaide Ngoneni Cele. -------------------------------- Video recorded live in concert (a good look at the choreography but sound quality is mediocre) Tap dance performed by Sheri Laroche and Rhonda Price Singers are Lisa Bielawa and Katie Geissinger Video recorded June 20, 1998, at The Kitchen (NYC)
Click here to view the video recording.