Recipe For A Salad takes its text from a poem of the same name, by English writer, Sydney Smith (1771-1845). Its witty, playful imagery and rhythmic meter inspired this work composed for SATB choir, with piano accompaniment.
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“To make this condiment your poet begs The pounded yellow of two hard-boil’d eggs; Two boiled potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve, Smoothness and softness to the salad give.
Let the onion atoms lurk within the bowl, And, half-suspected, animate the whole. Of mordant mustard add a single spoon, Distrust the condiment that bites so soon;
But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault To add a double quantity of salt… And lastly o’er the flavour’d compound toss A magic soupçon of anchovy sauce. Oh, green and glorious! Oh, herbaceous treat! ‘Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat; Back to the world he’d turn his fleeting soul, And plunge his fingers in the salad bowl!
Serenely full, the epicure would say, ‘Fate cannot harm me, I have dined today.’”
Ere Sleep Comes Down takes its text from three verses of a poem (Ere Sleep Comes Down to Soothe the Weary Eyes) by African-American writer Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906). While the poetic imagery is vivid— encompassing the range of emotion and intensity of a fully-lived life—I was drawn to the sense of calm and peace found in the final verse. The soul finding a sense of peace is something I think is we hope to find at the end of any long journey. The music reflects this sense of calm, with its gentle 12/8 meter, as well as a sense of yearning with its harmonies inspired by traditional gospel and blues.
Ere Sleep Comes Down was composed for Chor Leoni Men’s Choir (Vancouver, Canada), in early 2019, in response to a call for new scores, and the piece tied for first place in the Chor Leoni’s national Canadian Choral Composition Competition. Elizabeth Knudson received a Barbara Pentland Award for Outstanding Composition (presented by the Canadian Music Centre) for this work. Ere Sleep Comes Down received its premiere on May 10th, 2019 by Chor Leoni Men’s Choir, directed by Erick Lichte, at the Orpheum Annex, Vancouver, Canada.
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"Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes,
Which all the day with ceaseless care have sought
The magic gold which from the seeker flies;
Ere dreams put on the gown and cap of thought,
And make the waking world a world of lies--
Of lies most palpable, uncouth, forlorn,
That say life's full of aches and tears and sighs--
Oh, how with more than dreams the soul is torn,
Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes.
Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes,
Where ranges forth the spirit far and free?
Through what strange realms and unfamiliar skies
Tends her far course to lands of mystery?
To lands unspeakable-- beyond surmise,
Where shapes unknowable to being spring,
Till, faint of wing, the Fancy fails and dies
Much wearied with the spirit's journeying,
Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes.
When sleep comes down to seal the weary eyes,
The last dear sleep whose soft embrace is balm,
And whom sad sorrow teaches us to prize
For kissing all our passions into calm,
Ah, then no more we heed the sad world's cries,
Or seek to probe th' eternal mystery,
Or fret our souls at long-withheld replies,
At glooms through which our visions cannot see,
When sleep comes down to seal the weary eyes."
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
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text by Rainer Maria Rilke; translated by Graham Good
The inspiration for this piece came in equal parts from the 1987 Wim Wenders film, Wings of Desire (Der Himmel Über Berlin), and from my maternal grandmother, Gudrun Joensen, who passed away in 2006. Wings of Desire appealed to me in its imagery and thematic use of angels existing alongside “earthly” beings; the film is based on the writings of poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926). The text of my piece is taken from Rilke’s Ninth Duino Elegy, which speaks of the transience of being “earthly”, and yet that the fact of having existed once on this earth is irrevocable. Ever since my grandmother passed away, I had been looking for an opportunity to incorporate her essence somehow into one of my compositions. She was a very gentle person, hence the whispered, hushed quality of the beginning of the piece. The very end of the piece uses a quotation of a Danish lullaby she used to sing. From the Ninth Elegy was written specifically for musica intima (12-voice conductorless chamber choir), and given its premiere on March 21st, 2009, as part of Vancouver Pro Musica’s Sonic Boom Festival, at the Western Front, Vancouver, B.C., Canada. It was also performed by DaCapo Chamber Choir, in Kitchener, ON, on February 27th, 2010, and by the Vancouver Chamber Choir (with guest conductor Michael Zaugg), on April 20th, 2018.
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“But because being here means so much, and because all of the transient things that are here seem to need us… They need us- us, the most transient. Once for each thing, just once. Once and no more. Just once for us too… But having been earthly just this once, even though it was only once, seems irrevocable.”
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), translated by Graham Good
This piece takes its text from a poem of the same name by 19th century American poet, Emily Dickinson. It draws upon the ideas of prismic light and colour– light waves, as well as the idea of sound waves, in the form of bell-sounds created by the human voice.
“At a suitable distance, church bells could be powerfully evocative, for the strident noises of their clappers are lost and they are given a legato phrasing which wind currents or water will modulate dynamically… Perhaps no sound benefits more from distance and atmosphere.” -Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, from his book, The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World (1977).
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“A Light exists in Spring Not present on the Year At any other period– When March is scarcely here
A Color stands abroad On Solitary Fields That Science cannot overtake But Human Nature feels.
It waits upon the Lawn, It shows the furthest Tree Upon the furthest Slope you know It almost speaks to you.
Then as Horizons step Or Noons report away Without the formula of sound It passes and we stay–“
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
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Premiered by Phoenix Chamber Choir (directed by Ramona Luengen), at Queens Avenue United Church, New Westminster, B.C., Canada, on April 16, 2005.
This piece was based upon a poem of the same name by Canadian maritime poet, Bliss Carman. It is a celebration of the vibrant colours and free-spirited feeling that the autumn season can evoke:
“There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood. Touch of manner, hint of mood; And my heart is like a rhyme, With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.
The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry Of bugles going by. And my lonely spirit thrills To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.
There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir: We must rise and follow her, When from every hill aflame She calls each vagabond by name.”
Bliss Carman (1861-1929)
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Winner of West Coast Amateur Music Society competition, 2004; winner of the Association of Canadian Women Composers’ choral composing competition, 2005.
Performed by DaCapo Chamber Choir at Open Ears Festival, Kitchener, Ontario, 1 May 2005
Performed by Massey Choir, at Massey College, University of Toronto, Ontario, 22 November, 2008