Mickie Wadsworth, soprano and electronics

I’m So Cold came from a collaboration with poet Lily Eager. The texts drew me towards electronics in an effort to create a desolate and echoing environment. When we are trapped in our thoughts, our minds become distorted and we often lose sense of reasoning. The voice seeks to find logic within chaos of emotion. 

“Cold
June 4th, 2020

It’s my hormones, I swear,
I tell myself as I hold back tears
Thinking about being held.

Today I took a walk in the 90° sun.

I’m so cold.” 

— Lily Eager

I'm So Cold (2021) - Mickie Wadsworth (MM '23)

"seeking all that’s still unsung" (2023-2024) was commissioned by the Lydian Quartet. The work was made possible by the Chamber-Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This is the world premiere performance in Slosberg Recital Hall at Brandeis University on April 6, 2024.

The quartet contains three “remixes” of songs from The Sacred Harp Songbook; "504 Wood Street," "I’m Going Home," and "Can I Leave You?" 

The Sacred Harp Songbook approach to combining voices has intrigued me since I participated at an Old Time Music Festival in upstate New York in the Summer 2010 with my friends artists Jennifer Coates and David Humphrey. While there, I played viola in spontaneously formed fiddle groups, completely by ear, listening and contributing differently than I had been trained and previously practiced. One evening after getting stoned, I wandered the festival grounds with David and heard group singing that was decidedly NOT Old Time or Bach chorales. I came upon a group of about 30-40 people jamming on The Sacred Harp songs, music I had seen and heard many times before, but never live. It was miraculous. And it set in motion many things that to this day I find myself re-examining again and again: skill, desire, purpose, utility, intention, vulnerability, beauty, memory, absence, belonging. 

My 2nd Sacred Harp Songbook remix in the quartet, "I'm Going Home," was inspired by the words of artist Helen Frankenthaler:

"I think technique determines aesthetic as much as aesthetic determines a new medium."

seeking all that's still unsung - a collection of musings on circles & songs & tunes & speeches, IV

"seeking all that’s still unsung" is a string quartet that was written for and is dedicated to the members of the Lydian Quartet (past & present), an ensemble that has been extremely supportive and central to my creative life for more than three decades. I am especially grateful to Judy Eissenberg, who thought of this project, saw it through, and has always been truly generous, if not fully honest to the point of 'being real' about how life & art works. This work was made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The movements to the piece are:
I - chorale canons  00:00-05:58
II - 504 Wood Street (remix 1)  06:01-09:10
III - blah, blah, blah (after Greta Thunberg)  09:15-17:20
IV - I'm Going Home (remix 2)  17:24-21:43
V - the rub: die Torschlusspanik  21:47-26:14
VI - Can I Leave You? (remix 3)  26:15-30:21

seeking all that's still unsung, a collection of musings on circles & songs & tunes & speeches[FULL]

This song was written in dedication to two of the most important matriarchs in my life: my late grandmother Emma Jenkins Kale and my late great aunt Edith Jenkins Shear, also known as ‘The Twins.’ I wrote this song after my great aunt’s passing and before my grandmother’s passing. This song was an attempt to come to terms with life in a world in which only one of The Twins were living.

While the music for this song is original, the text for this song includes forgotten text from “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” as well as the line “to light its earthly sister all through the night” from the original Welsh text of the hymn “Ar Hyd y Nos” (All Through the Night), which honors of our family’s Welsh roots and was sung at my Great Aunt Edie’s funeral.

Light the way for those in your life who need a guiding light. Light the way for those who were never given that light. Light the way for your sister, your mother, your loves, yourself.

- Annika Socolofsky, 2019

Text
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
And you twinkle, twinkle, all through the night.
Light your earthly sister, all through the night.

- Text by Jane Taylor and John Ceiriog Hughes

Performed April 14, 2024 by Elizabeth Swanson and CU Boulder Choirs

I'm So Cold (2021) - Mickie Wadsworth (MM '23)

Ohio University Composition

Related tracks