Commissioned by Wendy Holdaway and the
Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras
(gracias a Rodrigo Sigal)
First performance:
May 9, 2012
Morelia, Mexico
CMMAS Bassoon Festival
Wendy Holdaway, bassoon
Title from Octavio Paz: Ustica
(from Piedra del Sol – 1958-61)
Rocas color de azufre,
Altas piedras adustas.
Tü estás a mi costado.
Tus pensamientos son negros y dorados.
winter is when snakes
turn into garter belts and greater & greater wind
welts up in us in
creases of white
needles of ice seed in our eyes
sift ether into ditches
thats when air hardens
to whale bone wraps us up
in girdles and the sky rings
our lives in pewter & silver
plate irons our days smooth as Dresden
the blue-in-June lakes are eyes lidded shut
with silver coins or the czarina’s jewel
boxes clasped in the knuckle
popping cold of the winter
palace and its glass eyes
dangle from ivory lace
& the air tinkles like cut glass
Dennis Cooley
Commissioned by Esther Lamneck.
The first draft of Into Its Own Shadow was written during February and March of 2008, when I was an invited artist at the Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras in Morelia. The work was completed in Canada in May, and revised slightly in 2010. The title of the work comes from a poem by Theodor Roethke, The Far Field:
The river turns on itself,
The tree retreats into its own shadow.
I feel a weightless change, a moving forward
Into Its Own Shadow is dedicated to Ensamble 3:
Salvador Torre, Fernando Dominguez and Mauricio Nader.
Commissioned by the Mexican Center for Music and Sonic
Arts for Ensamble 3.
First performance: June 29, 2012,
Morelia, Mexico.
Other performances: July 13, 2012,
Mexico City.
Commissioned by the Mexican Center for Music and Sonic
Arts for pianist Duane Cochran.
Perdido en las transparancias
voy de reflejo a fulgor,
pero no veo al sol.
Octavio Paz
The bulk of Away, Tear Away was written between June and September of 2003. The title was inspired by a fragment of the poem Spell Against Sorrow, by British poet Kathleen Raine (1908-2003):
Black crow tear away
Rend away sorrow
Talon and beak
Pluck out the heart
And the nerves of pain,
Tear away grief.
There is a deep sense of spiritualism in the poem, which I believe is mirrored by the mood of the music.
The work is dedicated to the Mexico City Woodwind Quintet, who commissioned it through the Manitoba Arts Council.
The title is from a poem by Fernando Pessoa. “Bright bugle of morning on the outer edge/Of the horizon’s cold half circle/Tenuous distant bugle like hazy flags/Unfurled beyond where colors are visible…”
On the Outer Edge was realized in my studio in Winnipeg. I would like to acknowledge the University of Manitoba Faculty Research Grant and Research Development Funds for their assistance in the acquisition of equipment.
The title of this piece comes from the poem The Mummy by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935).
My anxieties tumble
Down a flight of stairs.
My desires swing
In the middle of a vertical garden
The Mummy’s position is absolutely exact.
Music in the distance,
Far off in the distance,
So that life will pass
And gathering forget its gathering.
Translation © 1998 by Richard Zenith
Vertical Garden was written for flautist Alejandro Escuer. The time to composer this work was made available with the assistance of a Major Arts Grant from the Manitoba Arts Council, whose support is gratefully acknowledged.
This work was commissioned by Ensemble Resonance for their 2000/2001 season. The commission was made possible with financial assistance from the Canada Council. Many thanks to Dennis Cooley for the use of his wonderful poetry; it is a recording of his voice which provides much of the source material for the electroacoustic sounds in this piece.
Texts
I
A few pebbles of
rain red dust & the
creak of hinges working hard & dark cracks
open cranks its shutters open & will
not close for the night
II
absent minded
find traces of you
till out of the jelly they will
come the heat of eyes
surprise me they are blond
blind with regret
the ache of blood in the head
in my whole body remembering you
III
it has
jumped down
upon her
the sun
has jumped
& soon now
the moon
strolls slow
beside her
low inside her
like a white
foot
(floating)
IV
when you die she sd
she sd
its like
ghosts
shucked off
the white
flesh in your teeth
the bones melt
sweet (as butter)
in your mouth
she sd
look
its like zippered
silk
shucked off
she sd
the white teeth
sweat in the flesh
the wet seeds
sweet (as
salt) in my mouth melt
when you die
she sd
V
so glad
just to
with
dance
to
just
so
to
dance
with
just
you
Excerpts from Bloody Jack, ©1984, Dennis Cooley. Used by permission.
The title of this piece comes from a poem by the Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni (1892-1938).
SIERRA
An invisible hand
silently caresses
the sad pulp
of the rolling worlds.
Someone, I don’t know who,
has steeped my heart
in sweetness.
In the August snow
the blossom of the peach tree —
early flowering —
opens to the sun.
Stretched out on the sierra’s
ochre ridge,
a frozen
woman of granite;
the wind howls
the grief of her lonely bosom.
Butterflies
of moon
sip
her frozen
breasts
by night.
An on my eyelids,
a tear swells
older than my body.(translated from the Spanish by Rachel Benson)
This work was commissioned by Harry Sparnaay, and is respectfully dedicated to him.
I wish
Plants in the fields
Could talk –
They must have tears!
They must have songs!
Tekkan Yosano (1873-1935)
To hatch a crow, a black rainbow
Bent in emptiness
over emptiness
But flying
Ted Hughes – Two Legends (1970-72)
This work was commissioned by the International Computer Music Association for their 1994 conference in Aarhus, Denmark. On that occasion the world premiere was given by soprano Therese Costes.
While existing as a separate concert piece, In Emptiness, Over Emptiness is also a part of a larger music theatre work, Madrugada. This larger work is based on texts by Patrick Friesen, and tells of the spiritual quest of an unnamed traveler, who over the course of the work has a series of symbolic encounters with wise yet enigmatic and challenging ciphers: a reader of cards, a rhyming savant, a mute healer, a barker of the carnival of life. Hovering over and moving through this world is an Old Woman, leader of the spirit/demons, a gatherer of bones, the animating spirit of human life. In In Emptiness, Over Emptiness, her opening song in Madrugada, the Old Woman sings awareness and language into the characters.
The tape part of In Emptiness, Over Emptiness was realized in my studio in Winnipeg. I would like to acknowledge the University of Manitoba Faculty Research Grant and Research Development Funds for their assistance in the acquisition of equipment.