TRIO FOR FLUTE, VIOLIN, AND CELLO: Written in three attacca movements, this piece is part of the composer's search for an "American Sound." There are tuneful melodies, lean textures, and an exciting finish. THE THREE SEASONS: These three pieces came about through a year-long collaboration with Hingrid Kujawinski, the Brazilian director of the Voorhees Chapel Choir. Hingrid wanted to bring the poetry of her country to an American audience, so we worked closely together to choose these texts, all written by Mario Quintana. Translations by Jan Reinhart: I. Autumn Autumn turns the barrel organ In the courtyard of my life An old song always the same Beneath the falling window pane... Sadness? Delight? Desire? How could one possibly know? An uncertain joy, Of a caress against the grain... Setting forth, oh soul, what do you say? Harvest the hours, in short... But the roads of Autumn They lead nowhere! II. Winter The rushing wind whistles so coldly through the streets of my native city even while the rose of the winds is ceaselessly stripped of its petals.... I invoke a fiery and lively tone --the wax seal on the envelope? and the mists, then, of another century envelop me in their frigid cloak... I feel as though I am in old London where I wish that I could have gone strolling in the days of Sherlock - the Logician and of Oscar - that sorry Magician... I remember that other Mario surrounded by the ruins of Carthage but I alone inquire: Where will they go to dwell now there poor spirits of ours!? And forever losing itself in the byways of the New City, the wind attempts, without hope to read from the aging hand bills. III. Spring Spring Passes over the river Passes through the dream you are dreaming. In the slumbering city Springtime is coming. The weathercock has gone mad Has gone turning, turning And around the weathercock All of us dance in a flock. All of us dance, we dance The beloved, the Dead, the Friends, All of us dance until The purpose cannot be recalled... Until the floss silk trees have Blossomed over the ramparts FOUR CATALAN SONGS: Commissioned by the New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra, these songs were composed and performed in 2014 for Baritone Charles Schneider. The texts are all by Catalonia's greatest poet, Vicent Andrés Estellés. Translations by Jan Reinhart: I. Book of Wonders Here I was born and here I am. And as certain things have happened to me Here I sing them, here I say them. Here I was born and here I am. Here I work and I give kisses. Here I agonize and here I laugh. Here I defend the hillsides Ten truths and four myths. Here I was born and here I am, Poor of wealth and rich in experience, Poor in verse, rich in anticipation. Song of love and lovers who live, drink and leave... I sing a contraband love. Song of love, I sing the lovers I do now know if these too are songs. I say things that are coming, going, returning one day, going away another, The contraband hope. II. The Lover "Let's go to bed", I propose, kissing you, dusky, the skin, the breasts, the mouth. "Let's go to bed", I murmur, taking hold of you in a handful, tender, so lovingly, your hair, your earlobe, with great love and fear of loneliness. And with the nature of one who can yet, neither resist nor restrain himself further, already you are standing, inside my embrace, all consent, lover: "Let's go to bed." III. The Finger of Death This song was originally composed for Soprano and String Orchestra. In this recording you will hear a version that has been adapted for a male voice. Program notes from the original premier: (Finger of Death AboutFour in the Morning) addresses the death of Estellés’ infant daughter in 1956. Written at the outset of the poet’s career, the poem consists of three short lines: “Portes la nit, portes el dia, portes la clau que obri totes les portes,” translated “You bring the night, you bring the day, you bring the key that opens all the doors” – anguish transformed into wisdom, compassion and wonder. In an attempt to capture the many emotions present in the short poem, composer Edgar Girtain (b. 1988) begins his piece Finger of Death with a languid unsettled mood. A chromatic melody rises from the lowest strings to the violins, stirring the vocalist to action. The tension is broken on the last utterance of the word “portes” (doors,) when dissonance is resolved in an outpouring of tonal affirmation. IV. Foundations of Rage Slowly and grievously I build this song, which is a song, more than of love, of rage, of a rage that founds Biblical dynasties, of a rage that creates, more than verses, peoples. It is the rage of a people or the rage of some peoples crossed from side to side by the sign of war, a precarious life, a clandestine love, the words cautiously hidden in drawers, all that was not possible and is possible, And all that would have been possible, but wasn’t possible, As if only now water got into the attic. We could not kiss if it wasn’t in secret, and if uniformed Morality didn’t surprise us and if it was at the beach Morality on horseback. Men of authority watch sideways what your write, the men who have grown so large after the war. We have sinned for this, because they wouldn’t let us exist fully, love each other fully, with that shamelessness that life demands, that love able to melt all fuses, exploding the light bulbs, leaving the world in darkness. ISOLATION: DAY 253 The narrative behind the text is this: a woman is in a prison and telling herself a story to pass time. The story she tells is self-reflective; the transformation of the magician to a bird is a manifestation of her desire to be free from confinement. However, while she tells the story she can't remember the details because solitary confinement is beginning to take its toll on her mind. She tries to tell the story again but struggles to get through and begins yet again, with each repetition the story fragmenting and falling apart. This is why in the second verse the harmony shifts off track, she voalises on "oooo" to a previous melody, and why eventually the tonality completely breaks down. Each repetition of the character telling the story is signaled with the trombone chord motif.