The Death of Tabitha (1843)
Jack W. Stamps
About this work:
Tabitha started with the text, which is by surrealist/satirist Donald Barthelme. It appears as a caption to an animation from one of his illustrated short stories. I am particularly interested in the setting of nontraditional text forms. The text, in its deadpan tone has a wonderfully musical release of humor in its last phrase. The music started as a simple pulsing E-D ostinato that slowly evolved into the more rhythmically complex line in the final version. There is a deliberate smooth delivery of the text, using the various shared tones of the E-D harmonic language. The largo features minor-mode variations on the A-section themes.
Incidentally, the recording has flute/flute/clarinet doubling the S-S-A respectively. This was done at my discretion for the performance to assist the choir with pitch and to create a broader texture. I haven’t yet decided whether I will create an alternate version with winds.
Year composed: 2003
Duration: 00:03:50
Ensemble type: Chorus, with or without Solo Voices:Chorus with Keyboard
Instrumentation: 1 Piano, 1 SS, 1 A
Instrumentation notes: traditional SSA voicing. soprano 1 calls for an optional high D and E-flat