Choral

Green Mountain Madrigal (1985)is for eight women’s voices. It was inspired by and loosely based on a madrigal by Monteverdi, Lamento d’Ariana, using it as a source for pitch and syllables. I have always loved Monteverdi’s close harmonies, the tension in them, and I wanted to extend them. Green Mountain Madrigal is Monteverdi with the sustaining pedal down. It is slow-paced, with the melody passing from voice to voice, much as in a handbell choir, the previous voice sustaining the “dissonant” interval, usually seconds. I originally wrote it to perform myself, using 8-track tape (hence, the 8 voices singing in the range of my voice, which is high)

Green Mountain Madrigal

Bruckstück (1989)is a piece for eight sopranos that was commissioned by the Kulturamt in Köln to coincide with the opening of an exhibition of paintings by Jack Ox that were organized using an analysis of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. I chose a ten measure section from the “Adagio” of Bruckner’s Eighth as the source material. The lowest parts (relatively speaking, since all of the singers are sopranos) represent the string section, using the same basic rhythm, and set up the tonality throughout the piece. The rest of the voices represent the wind instruments. The piece is polyphonic, with a lot of closely resolving intervals, primarily major and minor seconds. Rather than writing linear melodies for one voice, I wrote melodies that are passed from voice to voice.

Bruckstück

Mountain Echoes (1987) is for eight women’s voices. They were inspired by and loosely based on a madrigal by Monteverdi, Lamento d’Ariana, using it as a source for pitch and syllables. I had always loved Monteverdi’s close harmonies, the tension in them, and I wanted to extend them. Mountain Echoes uses antiphony and a wider range of dynamics than Green Mountain Madrigal. After the initial section, in which the singers pass off the notes in decreasing volume, moving the sound around the space, it becomes more “singerly.” The singers sing melodic phrases that are passed from singer to singer in changing configurations.

Mountain Echoes

Ariel’s Song (1987)is an antiphonal piece for eight sopranos. There are four upper and four lower parts. The upper parts usually move in clockwise patterns while the lower parts move in counter-clockwise patterns, and vice versa. The piece has sections of contrasting textures. At one point in the piece sixteenth note patterns appear as resultant tones before they are actually notated – I didn’t intend it to specifically happen, but because I work so often with sound phenomena, it just happened subliminally in my writing process.

Ariel's Song

Night Blossoms (2001), for vocal quartet, was commissioned by Kiitos. It uses a haiku by Yofu translated by Lucien Stryk (Night cherry blossoms tinted by the bonfire.).

Night Blossoms

A mashup of phrases from Monteverdi. Written for the Rooke Chapel Choir in 1995.

Mary Jane Leach-Song of Sorrows

O Magna Vasti Creta is the first section of a work-in-progress, Ariadne of Knossos, exploring the pre-Hellenic origins of the Ariadne myth. I have used lyrics from several languages, which reflects the many different strands of the Ariadne myth. This piece is an evocation of the power, majesty, and mystery of Ariadne before her eclipse by the conquering Greeks.

O Magna Vasti Creta

Minos, for tenor soloist and mixed chorus (SSAATB, is the sixth section of a work-in-progress, Ariadne of Knossos, a piece exploring the pre-Hellenic origins of the Ariadne myth. I have used lyrics from several languages, which reflects the many different strands of the Ariadne myth. This section is an evocation of the bull, which was sacred in Crete before the Greeks conquered it.

Minos

"Ceremony of the Bull" is the third section of a work-in-progress, Ariadne of Knossos, which is a theatrical musical piece exploring the pre-Hellenic origins of the Ariadne myth. It is for mixed chorus (SSAATB) and string quartet. I have used lyrics from several languages, which reflect the many different strands of the Ariadne myth. This section is an evocation of the bull, which was sacred in Crete before the Greeks conquered it.

Ariadne of Knossos

Ceremony of the Bull

"Call of the Dance," for soprano soloist and 8-part women's chorus, is the second section of Ariadne of Knossos, a work-in-progress, which will be a theatrical musical piece exploring the pre-Hellenic origins of the Ariadne myth. I have used lyrics from several languages, which reflects the many different strands of the Ariadne myth. This refers to the ancient tradition of all-women choirs, many of which also incorporated movement.

Call Of The Dance

"Ariadne’s Lament" is a piece for eight sopranos. It is the third and final piece of works for eight women's voices inspired by and loosely based on a madrigal by Monteverdi, "Lamento d’Ariana," using it as a source for pitch and syllables. I have always loved Monteverdi’s close harmonies, the tension in them, and I wanted to extend them. "Ariadne’s Lament" is the culmination of the first two pieces. It uses more obvious phrases from Monteverdi and more contrasting sections and writing techniques.

Ariadne's Lament

The Crane Dance is a dramatic solo for soprano and women's chorus describing the holy dance of Crete. In ancient Crete there was a form of choral dance using choruses of girls who accompanied dancers, called the hypercheme, in which a dancing and gesticulating chorus was reinforced by a stationary group of singers. There are no dancers in this piece, but the singers describe a dance. The piece starts fairly serenely and builds in intensity as the dancing becomes more frenzied, which is reflected in the choral accompaniment.

The Crane Dance

MARY JANE LEACH is a composer/performer whose work reveals a fascination with the physicality of sound, its acoustic properties and how they interact with space. In many of her works Leach creates an other-worldly sound environment using difference, combination, and interference tones; these are tones not actually sounded by the performers, but acoustic phenomena arising from Leach’s deft manipulation of intonation and timbral qualities: “an acoustic Through the Looking Glass world based on sound that the performer is not making.” (The New Yorker).

Choral

mjleach