79th St. Boat Basin, from Voices
Katharine O'Connell
About this work:
Voices (1998)
The inspiration for these songs came from a from faculty at Phillips Exeter Academy, who commissioned a song for voice, viola, and piano. I chose a poem entitled Voices, by F.D. Reeve, and expanded that work into a trio of songs with texts by the same poet. The two songs here are from that cycle.
Harbor Fog opens with sounds inspired by my childhood in California, where I often woke on foggy mornings to the sounds of distant buoys and the foghorn near the harbor. A constant pulse in this song reflects the movement of the sea, and as the images in the poem grow brighter, a quote from Handel’s Water Music, both in the poem and in the song, brings the music back to the quiet mood with which it began.
The poem, 79th Street Boat Basin, made a nice pair with the water imagery of Harbor Fog, and depicts a small harbor on the Hudson River in Manhattan. The wonderful feeling of spring arriving in New York is reflected in the playful opening to the poem and the song. The first stanza’s music returns intact in the second half of the piece, over which a new vocal line appears. In the middle of the piece, a strange, circus-like atmosphere is conjured up with more dissonant harmonies and a quotation of circus music. The peacefulness and warmth of the final lines of the poem bring the song and the cycle to a close.
--Katharine O’Connell
Year composed: 1998
Duration: 00:03:25
Ensemble type: Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble:Voice with Chamber/Jazz Ensemble, 2-5 Players
Instrumentation: 1 Piano, 1 Viola, 1 Soprano