Why don't you
show me a place where I can sun you
show me a face where I can burn you
show me a disgrace, and I'll turn you around

Boy whistles
Trees bristle...
In the breeze

I am young 
but growing old 
young growing old

show me a place where I can sun you
where I can stun you
show me a face where I can burn you
show me a disgrace, and I'll turn you around

The Tenth Muse

I am a ghost
Or at least you can see through my skin 
(it's thin)

I am the most 
undigestible vestige of linen
(the kind you spin in)

Let the water widen 
and I will ride in
You will sigh and 
I will try again
You will lie and 
I will die again

I am the lowest
yet above all the carvings of man

Today I am the slowest
yes, I sing to the fleece of a lamb


Let the water widen 
and I will ride in
You will sigh and 
I will try again
You will lie and 
I will die again

Predictions

Written for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Memex (2014), for symphonic orchestra

Recorded by Solaris Vocal Ensemble, Giselle Wyers, conductor, Bastyr University Chapel, Kenmore, WA.  Full CD available through Albany Records.

Water Moccasin by Anne LeBaron

Bound Ghost; Marie invokes Voodoo Pantheon

The Bound Ghost

The Catastrophe

The first acid trip ever experienced, now celebrated annually as Bicycle Day (Music by Anne LeBaron, libretto by Gerd Stern, Ed Rosenfeld, Anne LeBaron; rough mix from First Take 2015, at the Wallis Annenberg in Beverly Hills). Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who first synthesized LSD on April 19 in 1943, intuitively returns to his abandoned research with LSD-25 when he ‘hears’ LSD (a soprano trio: Lysergic, Saüre, and Diethylamide) calling his name. He ingests a tiny amount in his laboratory. Riding his bicycle home, accompanied by LSD, he hallucinates during the journey, crash-landing at his house. Desperate for an antidote, he calls out for milk from his neighbor, Mrs. R., who arrives (played by Lysergic, Saüre, and Diethylamide, bearing two bottles of milk. Albert hallucinates her visage as that of an “evil, insidious witch.” She commands him, “Drink!” (Ashley Faatoalia, Anna Schubert, Laura Bohn, Suzanna Guzman)photo: Zalman Stern

LSD: The Opera - Bicycle Day scene

The ethereal, breath-infused sounds of the shakuhachi served as the initial inspiration for the central subject of Breathtails, namely, the breath. Commissioned by Mutable Music for Thomas Buckner, it is scored for baritone, shakuhachi, and string quartet. The poet Charles Bernstein wrote the libretto, divided into twenty-one sections, with thirteen distinct poems and seven text-less breath interludes. As an exploration of different ways of conceiving, listening to, and imagining the breath, the libretto references sources as diverse as Buddhist writings connected to the ‘minding of breath,’ the yogic discipline of pranayama, Rudolph Steiner’s musings, and the poetry of Osip Mandelstam---all treated with Bernstein's uncanny ability to infuse playfulness into gravitas. The premiere took place in New York at Roulette, Nov. 2013, and featured Thomas Buckner with the Flux Quartet, and Ralph Samuelson on shakuhachi. This performance, from REDCAT in Los Angeles, Apr. 2014, is with the baritone Ian Walker and the Formalist Quartet, with Ralph Samuelson performing on shakuhachi.

Breathtails

alebaron

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