Another downtempo experiment. A very straightforward melody accompanied by somewhat cheesy pads and shifting rhythms. The angelic vocals and the ever rising energy move from dreamy to bombastic without losing the friendly vibe .

Ascension

Spring Songs
Duration: ca. 20'
Instrumentation: tenor and piano
Performers: American Modern Ensemble - Alok Jumar, tenor; Geoffrey Burleson, piano
Recorded at Opera America's National Opera Center, Marc A. Scorca Hall, New York, NY, USA, June 4, 2019
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?keyword=spring%20songs%20-&main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/spring-songs-version-for-tenor-and-piano

I. English Sparrows (Washington Square) (Edna St. Vincent Millay)
II.  April 5, 1974 (Richard Wilbur)
III. Done With (Ann Stanford)
IV. The Widow’s Lament in Springtime (William Carlos Williams)
V. Spring Rain (Sara Teasdale)

PROGRAM NOTES
Spring Songs for tenor and chamber ensemble or piano is my third song cycle celebrating the seasons. As with the first two, Winter Songs for bass-baritone and Summer Songs for soprano, this cycle contains settings of poems by various American poets.

Whereas both Winter Songs and Summer Songs end with scenes in New York City, Spring Songs begins with New York: a setting of English Sparrows (Washington Square) by Edna St. Vincent Millay, a poem about a scene that takes place in the morning in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood in New York City where Millay lived in the early 1900s. The second movement is a setting of April 5, 1974 by Richard Wilbur, a poem Wilbur wrote in honor of Robert Frost’s one-hundredth birthday, and I interpret as being about overcoming self-doubt through wisdom, and about understanding the change of seasons, but also a change of mind. The third movement, Done With by Ann Stanford, I interpret to be about death and rebirth. Stanford symbolizes this by a house being torn down and the ground paved over, the now suffocated plant life yearning to break through. The Widow’s Lament in Springtime, the fourth movement, is a setting of a poem by William Carlos Williams. I interpret this poem as a modernist, pastoral elegy that uses images of nature to lament the death of a loved one. The final movement, a setting of the poem Spring Rain by Sara Teasdale, is about a happy memory of a lover brought about by an evening thunderstorm.

Spring Songs was commissioned by Rick Teller and Kathleen Rogers and was premiered at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall by the American Modern Ensemble, Alok Kumar, tenor, and Geoffrey Burleson, piano.

Spring Songs (Piano/vocal) - V. Spring Rain (Sara Teasdale)

Trouble

Divorce is quite a taboo topic. I would read the Bible, and it would describe divorce in horrible ways. I thought such a thing could never happen to me, but it did. It might be a stretch to say that it felt like my wife died that day, but as far as I was concerned, that's what really happened. My pain is something I now carry forever, no matter how much and how loud I yell, I'm trapped and engulfed here in the most desolate place in the universe: Ophelia's Void.

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Lyrics:

You, set that there
Bring, bring up the lights
Okay, no, I said there, not there
Break a leg everybody, break a leg
Okay wait, where's Ophelia?

Remind me of the happy days
This void used to be full
Memories of her swirling around me
This void used to be full
Her words only haunt me now
Phelia, feel me in here, heal me soft, you now
She used to love me and touch me now I'm in her void and destroyed
Phelia, feel me in here, heal me soft, you now
Maybe there's something good about knowing there's no way out
Phelia, feel in me here, heal me soft, you now
No, I need her, this can't be real
Yes, my mind is gone, and it's so surreal
Ophelia, feel me in here, heal me soft, you now
The fair, Ophelia
The fair, Ophelia
Ophelia
The fair, Ophelia
Ophelia
You are gone

Remind me of the happy days (Ophelia)
This void used to be full (Ophelia)
Memories of her swirling around me (Ophelia)
This void used to be full (Ophelia)
Her words only haunt me now (Ophelia)
Phelia, feel me in here, heal me soft, you now (Ophelia)
She used to love me and touch me now I'm in in her void and destroyed (Ophelia)
Phelia, feel in me here, heal me soft, you now (Ophelia)
Maybe there's something good about knowing there's no way out (Ophelia)
Phelia, feel me in here, heal me soft, you now (Ophelia)
No, I need her, this can't be real (Ophelia)
Yes, my mind is gone, and it's so surreal 
Ophelia, feel me in here, heal me soft, you now (Ophelia)

The fair, Ophelia (Ophelia) (Ophelia)
The fair, Ophelia (Ophelia) (Ophelia)
Ophelia, Ophelia (Ophelia) (Ophelia) (Ophelia) (Ophelia)
The fair, Ophelia (Ophelia) (Ophelia)
Ophelia 
You are gone
You're really gone

I loved Ophelia
40,000 brothers could not
With all their quanity of love
Make up my sum

Ophelia's Void

Hubble

The FoCUS

Flight of Neptune

One of the things I love about writing music is when you have an idea that sits for ages, quietly, waiting for you to figure it out. This was such a piece - I'd almost forgotten about it, then messed around with it and realised it was great. Title inspired by reading Stephen King on my back step.

Riot Yards

Do you fear that dark abyss ? All your deeds laid bare, all your sins punished? I can offer you... an escape.

Flight of Neptune

cgjm