Lyric soprano Lilian Tong performs Gary Lloyd Noland's setting of Alexander Theroux's poem GHOSTS IN THE RAIN for soprano & alto (July 9th, 2023).

Poem GHOSTS IN THE RAIN by Alexander Theroux

I saw in that black slant of rain
the rising ghosts of the sheeted slain
from all my recollected pain

and recollecting all that pain
that rose with all the blackened slain
slanting through the ghosts of rain

brought back like black to me so slain
in the recollected sheets of rising pain
all the ghosts in the slant of rain.

Poem copyright © 2015 by Alexander Theroux from Collected Poems (published by Fantagraphics); Music copyright © 2023 by Gary Lloyd Noland • BMI

For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

GHOSTS IN THE RAIN for soprano & alto; poem by Alexander Theroux

CELLULITE SIREN SONG by GARY LLOYD NOLAND performed by the PIMPLETON PROCRASTURBATION ENSEMBLE. For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: https://composergarynoland.godaddysites.com/

CELLULITE SIREN SONG

Soprano Hayley Boggs and pianist Maryna Buksha perform Gary Lloyd Noland's setting of Alexander Theroux's poem "Autobiography," Op. 108. For more information on Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

Here is Alexander Theroux's poem "Autobiography":

My default reflex is to disappear.
My defect reflex is to default.
My appearance is to reflect default.
My despair appearance is to defect.
My reflex is to appear to default.
My reappearance is to reflect defect.
My refault defect is to reappear.
My defect reappearance is to despair.

Music by Gary Lloyd Noland, Op. 108
Poem by Alexander Theroux

Music copyright © 2019 by Gary Lloyd Noland
Text from Collected Poems copyright © 2015 by Alexander Theroux 
Permission to set this poem has been granted by the author.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY for soprano & piano, Op. 108; poem by Alexander Theroux

Soprano Hayley Boggs and pianist Maryna Buksha perform "Dropping Fleas Into a Glass of Water." Poem by Alexander Theroux; music by Gary Lloyd Noland, Op. 112.

Here is Alexander Theroux's poem "Dropping Fleas into a Glass of Water":

Wet fleas are three-fourths dead.
The way they despair is, oddly,
by activity. I find the way sunshine
illuminates their last agonies
by adding irony to pain the way
when desperately we try to pray
in struggling to save ourselves
our imprecations quickly take on
disbelief so used we are to God's
suffocating silence as we drown.
Their minuscule bagpipe bodies
brown and tiny as tobacco flakes
with snouts like Bosch's horns
as crazily they scissorleg and
thrash, bite for air, eat water
the way leaves gulp red light,
experience with each abdominal
exertion in the champagne night
of frying, sizzling bubbles
the dreadful fact that jumping
does not work, just as prayer reaching
for a similar height does not
in our despair. As to beseeching,
kicking, thrashing, madly humping
fleas in water likewise is our lot.

For VP Richard Cheney
and all monsters everywhere who advocate
and delight in torture.

Music copyright © 2019 by Gary Lloyd Noland
Text from Collected Poems copyright © 2015 by Alexander Theroux 
Permission to set this poem has been granted by the author.

For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

DROPPING FLEAS INTO A GLASS OF WATER for soprano & piano; poem by Alexander Theroux

Soprano Hayley Boggs and pianist Victor Hugo Morales perform Gary Lloyd Noland's setting of Heinrich Heine's poem "Im wunderschönen Monat Mai"  from FOUR HEINE LIEDER, Op. 19, No. 2 (1982). For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

IM WUNDERSCHÖNEN MONAT MAI from FOUR HEINE LIEDER, Op. 19, No. 2

Soprano Hayley Boggs and pianist Victor Hugo Morales perform composer Gary Lloyd Noland's setting of Heinrich Heine's poem "Aus meinen Tränen Sprießen" from his FOUR HEINE LIEDER, Op. 19, No. 1. For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

AUS MEINEN TRÄNEN SPRIESSEN from FOUR HEINE LIEDER, Op. 19, No. 1

Pianist Ruta Kuzmickas performs ETUDE, Op. 1, No. 10 (1983) by Gary Lloyd Noland. This was recorded in July of 2010 at Valley Community Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon. Ruta was only 14 years of age when she recorded this piece. For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

Pianist Ruta Kuzmickas has established herself as an avid performer in both traditional and unconventional settings. Her engagements span from solo recitals to chamber and new music concerts that have taken her to venues in the United States and Europe. She has participated in masterclasses with noted artists such as Emanuel Ax, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Philipe Bianconi, and Frederic Chiu.

Born to a Lithuanian family in Utah, Ms. Kuzmickas began her musical training at age six with Ekaterina Melkamini and made her debut as a concerto soloist with orchestra at age nine. While in Portland, her training continued with Dr. Jean-David Coen. Ms. Kuzmickas went on to obtain her bachelor’s degree in piano performance at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University as a student of Dr. Robert Roux. Other studies have included work with pianist Ann Schein during two consecutive summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School. In 2020, Ms. Kuzmickas completed her master’s degree at Rice University as a student of Dr. Jon Kimura Parker.

Ms. Kuzmickas is an active multidisciplinary artist with a focus in music, poetry, visual art/illustration, and photography. Her poems have been set by composers Alex Berko, Max Vinetz, Sarah Grace Graves, and Caroline Shaw. Recent projects include recordings of the complete Chopin Ballades as well as a guest appearance for pianist Hunter Noack’s In A Landscape series. Ms. Kuzmickas’ second book of poetry, Per Se Phone, has just been published by No Reply Press. Most recently, she has been songwriting and releasing music with Kenneth Edwards under the artist name Ru.

ETUDE for piano, Op. 1, No. 10 (1983); Ruta Kuzmickas, piano

Gary Lloyd Noland, piano, performs his HYPERSPACE CASE STUDY from his SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88, No. 42 (June 10th, 2023). For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

HYPERSPACE CASE STUDY from Sixty Lurid Albumblatts, Op. 88, No. 42

Gary Lloyd Noland, piano, performs SCISSBONE-LEGGED GRUNGEHOPPER from his SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88, No. 37 (June 11th, 2023). For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

SCISSBONE-LEGGED GRUNGEHOPPER from SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88, No. 37

Gary Lloyd Noland, piano, performs WITHERED, WRINKLED, AND LOATHSOME OF VISAGE from his SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88, No. 25. The title of this work is a direct quote from Oscar Wilde's PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GRAY. For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

WITHERED, WRINKLED, AND LOATHSOME OF VISAGE from SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88, No. 25

Gary Lloyd Noland, piano, performs RIBZUBA SHTUPPER from his SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88, No. 19 (June 12th, 2023). For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

RIBZUBA SHTUPPER from SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88, No. 19

Gary Lloyd Noland, piano, performs PARISH - PRIG SWAINING POLECATS from SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88 No. 51 (June 12th, 2023). For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

PARISH - PRIG SWAINING POLECATS from SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88 No. 51

Lyric soprano Lilian Tong performs the soprano & alto parts of MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?, a setting of Psalm 22, Op. 9, by Gary Lloyd Noland (1986). Recorded on June 13th, 2023. For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com.

Lilian Tong is a lyric soprano from Hong Kong. She earned her Masters Degree in Vocal Performance at Codarts Rotterdam, under the tutelage of Henk Neven. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2016. She is now a student of Maartje Rammeloo.

She has been an active performer in Hong Kong and The Netherlands. She participated in various opera productions. In August 2021, she has sung the role Serpina in the opera La Serva Padrona by Pergolesi in Muziektheater Hollands Diep Zomer Opera. In March 2017, she performed the world-premiere opera Seconds of Fear as the major role in Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. She then sang as the role Irene in San Antonio de la Florida with Codarts Opera Lab in April 2017, and performed in the Operadagen Rotterdam 2017 in May. In February 2018, she did the role Despina in a staged Così fan tutte production with Codarts Opera Lab.
 
Besides operatic productions, she is also an active performer in church music. She has been the soprano soloist for Petite Messe Solennelle by Rossini, Cantata BWV 138 Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz, Weihnachtsoratorium, Messiah, The Armed Man, Requiem by John Rutter and Solemn Mass by César Franck.

She has also performed with various ensembles and choirs, including Groot Omroepkoor, Opera Society of Hong Kong, SingFest Chorus and Hong Kong Voices.

MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?, setting of Psalm 22 for soprano & alto, Op. 9

Gary Lloyd Noland, piano, performs I GREW UP IN A HEADBOX AS AN AIRHOLE FREAK from his SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88, No. 34 (June 14th, 2023). Other performers featured are his five anagrammatic alter-egos: Orlan Doy Glandly, Darnold Olly Yang, Lon Gaylord Dylan, Dolly Gray Landon, and Arnold Day Longly, all of whom together(the composer included)unite to form the redoubtable Pimpleton Procrasturbation Ensemble. For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

I GREW UP IN A HEADBOX AS AN AIRHOLE FREAK from SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88, No. 34

Gary Lloyd Noland, piano, performs CRAZY QUILT REMEDY from his SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88, No. 14 (June 16th, 2023). For more information on the composer, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

CRAZY QUILT REMEDY from SIXTY LURID ALBUMBLATTS, Op. 88, No. 14

Lyric soprano Lilian Tong performs Gary Lloyd Noland's setting of Alexander Theroux's poem ARCHAEOPTERYX for soprano & alto, Op. 147, No. 5 (2023). Recorded on June 25th, 2023. For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com.

Poem ARCHAEOPTERYX by Alexander Theroux:

A cantankerous mix
Of scales but no flix
That’s riddled with ticks,
With teeth just like picks,
Tail-feathers like wicks,
A head thick as bricks
Wherein little clicks
For its IQ of six.
It worries with tricks,
Wingbeats and kicks,
And raspy-tongued licks
The prey which it sics
With claws sharp as picks
Can shred into sticks
All its eye can affix,
And to add to the fix
With its name so radix
You can’t spell it quix.

Copyright © 2015 by Alexander Theroux from his Collected Poems. Permission granted by the author to the composer to set his poem to music.

Lilian Tong is a lyric soprano from Hong Kong. She earned her Masters Degree in Vocal Performance at Codarts Rotterdam, under the tutelage of Henk Neven. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2016. She is now a student of Maartje Rammeloo.

She has been an active performer in Hong Kong and The Netherlands. She participated in various opera productions. In August 2021, she has sung the role Serpina in the opera La Serva Padrona by Pergolesi in Muziektheater Hollands Diep Zomer Opera. In March 2017, she performed the world-premiere opera Seconds of Fear as the major role in Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. She then sang as the role Irene in San Antonio de la Florida with Codarts Opera Lab in April 2017, and performed in the Operadagen Rotterdam 2017 in May. In February 2018, she did the role Despina in a staged Così fan tutte production with Codarts Opera Lab.

Besides operatic productions, she is also an active performer in church music. She has been the soprano soloist for Petite Messe Solennelle by Rossini, Cantata BWV 138 Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz, Weihnachtsoratorium, Messiah, The Armed Man, Requiem by John Rutter and Solemn Mass by César Franck.

She has also performed with various ensembles and choirs, including Groot Omroepkoor, Opera Society of Hong Kong, SingFest Chorus and Hong Kong Voices.

ARCHAEOPTERYX for soprano & alto, Op. 147, No. 5; poem by Alexander Theroux

Soprano Hayley Boggs and pianist Victor Hugo Morales perform Gary Lloyd Noland's setting of Eduard Mörike's poem VERBORGENHEIT, Op. 1, No. 11 (June 26th, 2023). Upon hearing a recording of this Lied at the composition seminar he taught at Harvard back in 1984, Pulitzer prize winning composer Leon Kirchner declared before his students that this song was "as great as anything by Wagner." Noland's setting of VERBORGENHEIT has been performed by a number of singers and pianists over the past forty years and now, finally, the composer is delighted to present a recording that meets his standards for release on one of his upcoming CD albums. For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

VERBORGENHEIT for soprano & piano, Op. 1, No. 11; poem by Eduard Mörike

Lyric soprano Lilian Tong performs Gary Lloyd Noland's setting of Alexander Theroux's poem MARRIAGE for soprano & alto, Op. 147, No. 1 (July 7th, 2023).

Poem MARRIAGE by Alexander Theroux:

"Any enjoyment is weakened when shared."—DeSade

What holds down a carpet? Tacks.
Theory's nice, but not facts.
And while sweetness surely attracts,
Remember, honey makes wax.

The composer has received permission by the author to set this poem to music. Poem published in Collected Poems (Fantagraphics), copyright © 2015 by Alexander Theroux.

For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

MARRIAGE for soprano & alto, Op. 147, No. 1; poem by Alexander Theroux

Lyric soprano Lilian Tong performs Gary Lloyd Noland's setting of Alexander Theroux's poem GHOSTS IN THE RAIN for soprano & alto, Op. 147, No. 2 (July 9th, 2023). 

Poem GHOSTS IN THE RAIN by Alexander Theroux

I saw in that black slant of rain
the rising ghosts of the sheeted slain
from all my recollected pain

and recollecting all that pain
that rose with all the blackened slain
slanting through the ghosts of rain

brought back like black to me so slain
in the recollected sheets of rising pain
all the ghosts in the slant of rain.

Poem copyright © 2015 by Alexander Theroux from Collected Poems (published by Fantagraphics); Music copyright © 2023 by Gary Lloyd Noland • BMI

For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

GHOSTS IN THE RAIN for soprano & alto, Op. 147, No. 2; poem by Alexander Theroux

Lyric Soprano Lilian Tong performs Gary Lloyd Noland's setting of Alexander Theroux's poem "What Was The Peach To Nellie Melba?" for soprano & alto, Op. 147, No. 7.

Poem by Alexander Theroux

Since you won’t be my lover,
I refuse to be your friend.
It may be vulgar, this
Hideous female trend,

But I’m one, like God, in number,
Choose to be unique;
You’re with me or against me.
I all or nothing seek.

Don’t ask me to be generous.
Pragmatism’s me;
Show me love and friendship?
Antithesis I see.

I’m a modern woman,
Of this please have no doubt:
I stick around with someone
Only if things work out.

If nothing’s finally in it,
What’s a visit or a drink
To a woman who wants marriage?
I go by what I think

And can measure in a man
Who’ll commit himself to me.
I go by what is solid,
Not by what I see.

No dyads or dichotomies
For such as me, my friend;
To me a value’s what
I’m holding in the end.

Don’t talk to me of grace,
You go from bad to worse.
Winter’s round the corner.
Put money in thy purse.

No parts for me, come round
When ready with the whole.
Bugger drinks and dinner.
I want to own your soul.

Poem copyright © 2015 by Alexander Theroux from Collected Poems (published by Fantagraphics); Music copyright © 2023 by Gary Lloyd Noland • BMI

For more information on composer Gary Lloyd Noland, please visit his website at: garynolandcomposer.com

WHAT WAS THE PEACH TO NELLIE MELBA? for soprano & alto, Op. 147, No. 7; poem by Alexander Theroux

Soprano Hayley Boggs and pianist Maryna Buksha perform Gary Lloyd Noland's setting of Alexander Theroux's poem "All Roys are fat," Op. 106 (2019) 

All Roys are fat but tubbiness can’t hurt
in everything that life presents of choice.
Don’t push away that wet dessert.
Doesn’t size allow a fuller voice?

Portliness by definition makes a ring.
I say eat the head off anything.

If a belt’s too short around your waist, try string.
What is comic usually can sing.

Music by Gary Lloyd Noland, Op. 106
Poem by Alexander Theroux

Music copyright © 2019 by Gary Lloyd Noland
Text from Collected Poems copyright © 2015 by Alexander Theroux 
Permission to set this poem has been granted by the author.

ALL ROYS ARE FAT for soprano & piano, Op. 106: poem by Alexander Theroux

Resides in Portland, Oregon. Grew up in Berkeley, CA. Born in Seattle.  PhD, Harvard. “Gary Noland is one of the great composers of the 21st century.”—JACK RUMMEL, KGNU 88.5 FM, Boulder CO, “...iconoclastic, stylistic potpourri standards of giddy humor, no holds barred soup to nuts and high spirits.”—ROBERT LEVIN, pianist, musicologist, composer, "...a fleet-fingered, ebullient performer ... bright, witty and engaging.”—CHRISTIAN CAREY, SPLENDID MAGAZINE, “...distinctive, inventive ... subversive ... You can hardly be indifferent to Noland’s music and so I would urge you to try it.” —ROGER BLACKBURN, MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL, “...set in a dizzying harmonic language that loops uncontrollably through a wide-ranging gamut of possible and impossible tonalities ... The general effect is like watching wet paintings of 19th Century musical memorabilia drip into frazzled 21st Century oblivion...” —ALLEN GIMBEL, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, “Mr. Noland writes as a ‘time traveler’ in styles long abandoned by most composers as well as styles so new as to not have been imagined but by him. This he accomplishes naturally, convincingly, with originality and true passion. His command of all musical languages and his ability to traverse musical time is nothing less than remarkable. Listen!”—DONALD MARTINO, Pulitzer Prize winning composer, “...mind-bending spiraling of focus which is truly breathtaking ... spectacular...”—CHARLES AMIRKHANIAN, composer, sound poet & radio producer, “I'm amazed at your harmonic skill. Haven't seen or heard anything like it from any one else—except yours truly—certainly not from your generation. It falls somewhere between Strauss and Mahler. Especially like how you are able to slip in and out from the tonal to the atonal—or near atonal...”—GEORGE ROCHBERG, American composer, Pulitzer Prize finalist, “...court jester to the classical establishment...”—PAYTON MACDONALD, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, “...florid and juicy...” —RICHARD BUELL, THE BOSTON GLOBE, “...an incredible aural web ... a great ostinato of American kitsch. Sul pont never sounded so good.”—RUSSELL STEINBERG, composer, conductor of the LOS ANGELES YOUTH ORCHESTRA, “...I am bowled over by the expertise of your music: you use certain elements from the 19th century and from jazz, etc., and just at the moment when I am about to say, OK, what else is new?, you do a number of things, such as speeding up, becoming wildly dissonant, modulating to a distant continent, stopping completely and throwing some kind of total surprise ... you seem to know exactly when to do what and how much. I don’t know anybody else who can do it!” —ANDREW IMBRIE, American composer, Pulitzer Prize finalist, “... remarkable stuff...”
—MAX MORATH, American ragtime pianist, composer, actor & author, “...a loony composer from Oregon...” —MAX SHEA, WMUA 91.1FM, Amherst, MA, “Gary Noland is one of those 21st Century composers seeking to forge a new aesthetic based on older models that do not traffic in serialism or minimalism ... Zany waltzes, ragtime riffs, chorales, toccatas, and much else romp and tear through these depictions of superheroes and villains from his ‘chamber novels’; other pieces spoof serial music ... to grand operas ... and Jewish guilt.” —JACK SULLIVAN, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, “...Paranoid Ravel...”—ALEX DUNN, KZSU FM90.3, Stanford, CA, “...It’s a romantic romp, rhythmically robust yet melodically flirting with the nostalgia of cabaret, minus the sleazy diminution of spilled drinks and smelly ashtrays. Its elegance recalls Elgar, and the serious sides, a synthesis of those strange bedfellows Schubert and Ives. Composers hate it when their music reminds you of someone else’s, but writing within a tradition, Noland has incorporated divergent styles that, woven together, work. Cosmopolitan without snobbery, it’s intelligent, pleasurable and convincing.” —ROCKY LEPLIN, THE BERKELEY VOICE

GHOSTS IN THE RAIN for soprano & alto; poem by Alexander Theroux

Gary Lloyd Noland, composer