Ancestral hunt
Karen P. Thomas
About this work:
Ancestral Hunt was commissioned and premiered by mezzo-soprano Louise Marley. It exists in versions for all voice types (high, medium, low, male, female.)
Poem:
"In this mirrored heritage, my face, I look for ancestors.
Stalking reflection, the possibilities are sniffed:
the slope of cheek, the nose, the chin's borrowed individualism drawing a covert.
Hounds eject from the brain's base, away on a fix
across ditches, hedgerows and scrub...
a lift of walled recognition
and down into the canter of smoky history.
As if they could be found, all those souls.
Closer to the mirror it seems this mouth could have barked any language.
The vagaries of scent are heaped and the hounds risk running riot
if I lose myself in the pools of these two eyes.
The horses snort vapor and I shift from a saddled height.
there is spittle on my bright red coat.
The hounds cast around, tongues hang, fresh air,
something familiar across the fence,
a gesture, once lost, flexes,
the ghostly smile,
a whisp of hair.
Now the line's struck again and the hounds give tongue.
Three short blasts of the horn,
yoick, yoick, yoick...
a shot of gallp and there, above my eyes,
a copse where the fox breaks cover,
an auburn slash, a whisk of inheritance,
straight back to the mirror,
where my face breaks into a million lives."
Molly McGee
Year composed: 1996
Duration: 00:06:00
Ensemble type: Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble:Solo Voice with Keyboard
Instrumentation: 1 Piano, 1 Other Voice
Instrumentation notes: Voice (high, medium or low) & piano