if by yes
Frank J. Oteri
About this work:
if by yes, a cycle of nine songs for tenor and harpsichord completed in 1994, is the result of a year of reading through the remarkable poetry of e. e. cummings.
the guiding principle throughout the entire compositional process has been the metrical flow of the poetry and the meaning of the words, which are the source of all the musical structures built around them.
some of these structures are dictated:
i.e. (anyone)'s "down they forgot as up they grew" inspired the descending and ascending cascade of notes in the accompaniment
while (love's function)'s "while the whole moves and every part stands still"
demands a musical parallel where layers are added but no individual line ever develops
other structures were interpreted:
i.e. the enumeration of incongruities in (long enough and just so long)
suggested a musical incongruity
- a motif which simultaneously uses a normal and a flat leading tone,
likewise the impossibility to describe love in (nothing false and possible is love) is reflected in "impossible" alternating twelve and thirteen note configurations centered mostly around a high e which is unplayable on most harpsichords
although hailed today as an avatar of the avant-garde, e. e. cummings was often lyrical and romantic and many of his best poems adhere to conventional poetics, although he always managed to have something new to say within any framework.
three of the nine poems explored herein (the first, middle and last: 1, 5 & 9), in fact, are sonnets.
this symbiotic marriage of tradition and innovation was an underlying goal in the music created for these poems.
if by yes was premiered at the Work Space Gallery in the SoHo district of New York City in July 1996 by tenor Harlan deBell and harpsichordist Rebecca Pechefsky who helped to annotate the harpsichord registrations and articulations notated in this score. if by yes is ideally realized by a singer whose diction and tone production reflect idiomatic American English conventions accompanied on a double-manual harpsichord with an extensive range (to be able to play from to A'' to e''') although judicious modifications can be made to the score in order to adapt it for performance on other instruments.
The poetry used herein is from E. E. Cummings Complete Poems 1902-1962, Revised and Corrected Edition, edited by George James Firmage. Copyright 1926, 1931, 1935, 1939, 1940, 1944, © 1961 by The Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © George James Firmage. Used with the permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York. All Rights Reserved.
To obtain either a hard copy or a PDF of the score, please visit www.blackteamusic.com.
Year composed: 1994
Duration: 00:19:00
Ensemble type: Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble:Solo Voice with Keyboard
Instrumentation: 1 Harpsichord, 1 Tenor
Instrumentation notes: Although the score is notated with registrations for a double-manual harpsichord, it can easily be adapted for performance on a single-manual instrument.