Product Description
Score & Parts
williamneil.net
thecomposerstudio.com
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Audio from premiere performance by Trio Sureño: Nancy King, soprano; Laurent Estoppey, alto saxophone; Robert Nathanson, guitar.
I met Mark Strand at the American Academy in Rome when I was a fellow in composition.
I got to know the man before the poetry, his direct, observant, and concise articulation seasoning
our conversations at the Academy evening communal meals. During this time, while he was poet-in-residence,
he gave several talks where he read his poignant and revelatory prose and poetry.
After hearing him, I knew then that I would be interested in setting his poetry. Many years later,
when we met again when he was teaching at the University of Chicago, I made my interest known
to him and our collaboration began. I first set his Seven Poems for piano and digital acoustics that
included his recitation of the poem. While in the process of setting that poem, guitarist Rob Nathanson
and soprano, Nancy King heard an excerpt and immediately commissioned a version for soprano
and guitar. So, I have Mark Strand to thank for the beginning of my 17 years of knowing Rob and
Nancy and composing music for them and saxophonist, Laurent Estoppey. Indeed this trio is the instrumentation
that I composed for in this latest commission by Rob setting Strands poem, From a Litany.The poem alludes
to the liturgical prayer consisting of a series of petitions. In this poem, Strand
offers praise to a secular, sensorial world of personal observations and memories that have enriched
his life. He begins with a broad appreciation of the natural world around him, and with each
repetition of I praise the emotion intensifies and turns increasingly inwards reaching a full state
of catharsis in the final ines. I set the text with the power of Strands recitation in my ears; his
allusions and ironic juxtapositions inform the color and lyricism of my music. WGN
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