Sky, Sea, Birds, Trees, Earth, House, Beasts, Flowers
Dante Palmieri
About this work:
This song cycle uses as its text the work of the same name by Kenneth Rexroth. It is a collection of poems emulating the old Chinese style, each accompanied by a calligraphed drawing in the original printing. I dedicate it to Andy Mead, for all his advice on a multitude of areas, and to the memory of author.
This work is, in retrospect, my Pierrot Lunaire. I lack the ability to fully explain it as it took on a life of its own fairly quickly. It was my first work after my undergrad compositions at Wayne, and in it I sought to work past many compositional boundaries: how to make a large scale form of moments, free (and not so free) atonality, writing rhythms that don't feel like rhythms . . . I wanted to tackle everything.
For it I repurposed a jazz quartet. The poem is split into three sections by themes, with two interludes to punctuate the architecture. I sought to convey the delicate and precise nature of each poem; individual moments at themselves.
Each piece began with the voice. The accompaniment uses word painting, but isn't always apparent (e.g. Messiaen's color chords painting movement ten). Everything was a search for the quintessential musical representation of the poems. Motifs are repeated and developed in an abstracted form, haunting movements like ghosts . . . a subliminal thread of connection.
I soon found that the struggle was not in getting ideas but with their notation. Learning to edit myself was and is a challenge, but it opened new doors in my compositional technique.
The cover art is by Luke MacGilvray.
Year composed: 2012
Duration: 00:20:00
Ensemble type: Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble:Voice with Chamber/Jazz Ensemble, 2-5 Players
Instrumentation: 1 Vibraphone, 1 Piano, 1 Electric Guitar, 1 Baritone
Instrumentation notes: Electric guitar uses delay, flange, and Whammy effects.