Patricia Ann Repar

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Patricia Ann Repar

for soprano, alto, tenor, baritone saxophones and digital accompaniment

1 iridium flare: a surge of light

                      marking the revolution in satellite telecommunication

                      (wire shattered and adrenals gone mad)

launching us forward to do it faster, spread it further, say it louder, push it harder,

leaving us dark in the night and cold on the ground

like the hard, dense, silvery-white metallic sheen of iridium.

2 iridium flare: a surge of light

                      marking the call to remember

                      (even if in the midst of desolation)

the overwhelming vulnerability of clouds reconfiguring, kisses colliding,

and human hearts floundering in the space between life and death

like the deep lustrous yellow of iridium gone gold.

Thanks to Willie Johnson for ‘Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground’, one of the 27 samples of music included on the Voyager Golden Record launched into space in 1977.

Click here to view the score.

Click here to view the performance notes.

Click here to view a performance (YouTube).

Patricia Ann Repar

fixed media

Based on field recordings from Uganda and South Africa

Erupting; evoking provoking; enveloping, enlivening, enraging; exploding like fireworks and popcorn, anywhere and anytime, songs, and songs and more songs, all recorded in Africa:

• in the Kazinga Channel on the west side of Uganda bordering Congo home to 612 species of birds and their songs
• in a small tin-roofed shack in one of the all-black townships where fifty children escape sexual abuse through song
• in the chapel at Mosvold Provincial Hospital rockin’ and rollin’ away, songs for a dead woman, along with 2.4 million other South Africans who’ve died of AIDS; 
• in the District Six Museum in Johannesburg where Manisha is embroidering the names and stories of those who suffered under apartheid, singing her own song of truth and reconciliation
• in a living room in Kampala Uganda, a surgeon and health educator, their friends and four year old son burst out in song, with harmonica and spontaneous harmonies, proclaiming “I have seen music bring healing to this nation”;
• in a song and soup kitchen started by a single mother, mourning the passing of her baby sister—-one in every six South Africans infected with HIV;
• in one of the small thatched huts beside the isibhayi where cows and ancestors dwell, on the road to Mozambique young women singing in beautiful four part harmony, dancing, Zulu clicking and stepping, yearning and hoping the hot afternoon away;
• in the opening ceremonies of a medical conference the nurses are singing “chosen by God, we have been chosen to be nurses” and traditional singing, dancing, and cacophony ensue making it the most non-traditional opening of an academic conference ever;
• in the operating room at Bethesda Provincial hospital in Mkuze, patient and nurse are singing together tracking the flow of anesthetic in the spinal canal; they know if she stops singing she has stopped breathing; 

And I know, that when any of us stop singing, when any of us refuse to answer the call — we too stop breathing.

Patricia Ann Repar

fixed media

Patricia Ann Repar

Solo Trombone and Fixed Media

ca. 14'00"

"The main misconception about the bones, then, is that they are made up of dead tissue."

-- Dr. D.R. Johnson, Centre for Human Biology

Jawbone chatters away, singin' the blues of ocean and rock,

skeletal bits of earth

imprinted with birds and star beings.

Sara sings the joik--banned but alive--her Saami, Lapplander voice

chanting essences of someone or something

ever changing, no beginning on end.

Mourning Dove sings the story of Coyote who got down safely

by turning himself first into a pine needle--falling fast--

and then into a leaf floating gently to the ground.

I dance to Julia and Debbie sings Danny Boy,

our bones compressing and stretching

pulsing with and responding to neuropeptides, cellular receptors, and

memory upon memory-alive-

and enmeshed with the songs of Jawbone and Sara and Mourning Dove.

Click here to view the score.

Patricia Ann Repar

for five performers, body percussion, junk metal, tape

Darkness--thin air--tight spaces--twelve-hour shifts--Day in day out.

Working in the gold mines of South Africa black labourers developed a body percussion sequence, the Gumboot, as a way of surviving the intense physical and emotional stresses imposed upon them. Musically demanding and highly entertaing this piece is now internationally known and appreciated.

The Unseen Gumboot, however, reminds us of that which we would probably rather not remember--the context in which the piece was born--the harsh realities of Apartheid and our own potential (yours and mine) for creating horrific moments in human history.

Click here to view the score.

Patricia Ann Repar

for oboe, viola, and tape

ca. 9'45"

it's endless weeping

one slowly descending tear at a time

with a hint of tenderness

hovering in the sweet echoes of lullaby

but mostly it's thunder and rigor and passionate commitment

for nothing more than a

single moment of connection

and an unremarkable knowing

that somewhere the weeping has stopped

Special thanks to the artists and producers of the CD The Thula Project: An Album of South African Lullabies. The digital accompaniment for Alex includes short excerpts from 3 of the cuts on the CD- Homolela Ngwanaka, Umlolozelo and Rhaliwent.

Click here to view the score.

Patricia Ann Repar

video documentary

Ripples: Artists In Collaboration is a 50 minute film highlighting the collaborative approaches developed by the following artists: visual artists Barbara Kendrick and Sara Krepp; composer Carla Scaletti and computer scientist Alan Craig; composer/percussionist Michael Udow and choreographer/dancer Nancy Udow; and bass-baritone Philip Larson and trumpeter Edwin Harkins.

Click here to view the film Ripples: Artists in Collaboration

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

Click here to view the score.

Patricia Ann Repar

for two snare drums

Click here to view the score.

Click here to view a performance (YouTube).

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.

Click here to view the score.

Patricia Ann Repar

for flute, violin, cello, percussion, and piano

ca.9'15"

"In the pampas, down a tree lined lane, live three people who once saw the names of loved ones and strangers burned out life, yet they keep those names alive in memory. They give the names of those who vanished to birds so that the sky above their estancia is always alive with flying names."

--Lawrence Thornton

Imagination, memory, and breathing, all tend to be illusive in our lives--that is--until a moment of crisis when they become more real than all the Wheels of Fortune spinning us round about in our oh-so-busy lives. In Imagining Argentina Lawrence Thornton describes one of those critical moments and how the power of memory, imagination, and human breath, recreated and transformed it--ultimately dismembering the military dictatorship of Argentina. The performers and myself offer this piece in honor of Thornton --in honor of those many Argentinians who adamantly and courageously refuse to forget their own dreams and desires for beauty--in honor of you, may you hear the birdsong, remember the names, and re-imagine the moments of your lives.

Click here to view the score.

Patricia Ann Repar

for bass marimba and piano

The percussionist is performing a character who is wholly engaged by and delighted in the sound of his or her instrument. The character seems unreachable at times, almost unreasonable - uninterested in extremes with regard to speed, volume and various other forms of complexity. Entirely committed to every sound s/he makes, no matter how simple, his/her physical gestures may change tempo but are never dramatic or flamboyant or employ more energy than required. The pianist-percussionist is performing a character who fluctuates rapidly in feelings and behavior.

Click here to view the score.

Click here to view a performance (YouTube).

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—

Click here to view the score.

Patricia Ann Repar

for flute, oboe, alto saxophone, vibraphone, violoncello

ca. 10'15"

(out)(in)...the OPEN is written in honor of the legendary jazz singer/songwriter Billie Holiday. On the liner notes of Billie's 1956 recording The Essential Billie Holliday--Carnegie Hall Concert, Gilbert Millstein wrote that "Billie was the victim of a world which really could not have cared much less--either for her or for any artist whose talent might be grudgingly acknowledged or eagerly exploited, but who made society uncomfortable or uneasy." Billie's way of singing defiantly exposed herself and her listeners-- an experience they yearned for and resented all at the same time. As a way of highlighting Billie's courage to be open, to say it and sing it how it is (not how we might want to hear it), (out)(in)...the OPEN is structured entirely around breath sounds. It is hoped that concentration on breath, by both performers and audience, will evoke some of this vulnerability that Billie and her listeners longed to experience.

Click here to view the score.

Canadian composer/performer Patricia Ann Repar has collaborated with artists in contemporary theatre, dance, sculpture, and videoand her ethnomusicological interests have been pursued through travel and research abroad: South Africa and Uganda; Ecuador; Northern, Eastern and Western Europe; Cuba; the Middle East; Central and South-East Asia. Repar’s pieces have thus come to reflect not only an interest in multimedia but in multiculturalism. Searching for new timbres she employs a wide array of musical instruments including her own designs, as well as various electronic technologies. Searching for new forms and creative processes her compositions reflect explorations in sound, gesture, and image; clinical observations on sound and healing; experiments in performance and technology; and studies on the relationship between creativity and collaboration.  Repar has been featured as a guest composer, performer, and educator throughout the United States and Canada as well as in Great Britain, South America, Eastern Europe, parts of Africa and Australia. As an Assistant Professor in the departments of Music and Internal Medicine (section of Integrative Medicine) at The University of New Mexico Dr. Repar teaches composition, computer applications in music, and arts-in-medicine.  She founded and currently directs Arts-in-Medicine at UNM which is a nationally recognized program of clinical service, research, and education.  Sometimes referred to as a ‘living installation’ the program includes musicians, dancers, writers, visual artists and body workers who engage patients, their families, and medical professionals throughout UNM Hospitals in creative encounters of a rejuvenating, transformative, and educational nature.  

Along with several other musicians, Repar performed her most recent compositions, Red Mountain Note(contemporary chamber music), Navajo Grandmother (storytelling through sound and movement), From Keppler to Cage (reflections on composition, sound, and healing) and Tuning Forks/Tuning Bodies (a demonstration) in Keller Hall on March 31st, 2007.  The multimedia event entitled Ridin’ the Wave:  Perspectives on Composition, Sound, and Healing drew an enthusiastic and large audience of artists, health care professionals, and members of the Albuquerque community.  Dr. Repar is currently working in collaboration with artists and medical professionals from South Africa and Uganda to explore the potential for health education and promotion through the arts in African communities.