This is a stunning piece. Thank you for the beautiful & inspirational music.

The Sound Of Blood

For Simon H. Fell

Criseyde is my feminist revenge opera in which I re-wrote Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.

I used Chaucer's own Middle English and twisted it around to give the female character Criseyde a way out of the control and abuse.  

A chamber opera for 5 solo singers, ensemble of 3 singers, and 14 instruments, Criseyde was performed in concert by the New York City Opera VOX festival of contemporary American operas, and recorded by The American Virtuosi in 2008.  On this recording soprano Kerri Marcinko is the heroine Criseyde, baritone Richard Byrne is Troilus and bass Larry Long is Pandar, with conductor Kenneth Hamrick and the musicians of The American Virtuosi.  

They are singing in Middle English.  

The action: Troilus is in bed pretending to be sick.  Pandar tricks Criseyde into coming to see him. The Ladies watch.  Criseyde maintains her composure, but finds herself trapped into accepting Troilus as her lover.  

Published by The American Composers Alliance, Inc. (BMI)
info@composers.com
www.composers.com
© copyright 2006 Alice Shields All Rights Reserved

Engagement Scene from the opera Criseyde

On this episode, Charlotte and Laura speak with Bryan Jacobs in advance of TAK’s premiere of his piece ‘Organic Synthesis Volume 2’ on Thursday Dec. 7, 2023.  

To hear more of Bryan’s music, go to https://soundcloud.com/bryanjacobs-1

Please contribute to TAK’s year-end fundraiser at http://takensemble.com/support

Our upcoming concert, Machine Tongue, featuring ‘Organic Synthesis Volume 2’,  ‘In a Forest’ by Michelle Lou and ‘la quemadura es el lenguaje con que juro…’ by Andres Guadarrama will be on Thurs. Dec. 7 at 8pm, at 580 Sackett St. Brooklyn NY, tickets are pay-what-you-can.

038. Bryan Jacobs

Lars Into Limbo
25072024
Masha Dusapin 
Berlin

Confess

Lars Into Limbo

Noise1

Droneo 1.4 can randomly weave timbral changes into a continuous stream.  This is just four voices, blending harmonics from 16-32 of a C2 (130.8 or so Hz)Run through Droneo's native chorus and Vandelay. Sorry it's not in stereo!

Vandelic Yeah

s̶p̶o̶k̶e̶s̶ (2015) String Trio Chartreuse

This is the Koch International Classics recording with Dora Ohrenstein, soprano; Judith Pearce, alto flute and Masayo Ishigure, koto.  The photo by Seth Tillett is from the Dec.1, 2015 performance at Opera America with Martha Cluver, soprano; Sarah Carrier, alto flute and Mayuko Matsuda, koto.  You can see the video of this performance by the Aviva Ensemble on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOkke6F6lis&list=PLYEPrmRM36Vtubr5ibqwOucPm5ycZGToo

Komachi at Sekidera is a mini-opera for soprano, alto flute and koto based on the Japanese Noh play "Sekidera Komachi" by Kanze Motokiyo Zeame (1363-1443).  

The protagonist of the play, Ono no Komachi, was a woman of great literary gifts and beauty who lived at the Heian court in ninth-century Japan.  She became a legend after her death, and many apocryphal stories surround the few known biographical facts concerning her life.  In the present piece Komachi has lived into old age, beyond her beauty and her literary fame, and has been forgotten.  Confronted with age and mortality, she alternates between crying out for the days that are gone, and quieter sections in which she contemplates the bittersweet delight of still being alive.  

The structure of this little opera was influenced by the dramatic monologues of Monteverdi’s operas and 18th-century Japanese Kumiuta songs. The modal character of the melody, which often returns to the unstable interval of the tritone, mirrors Komachi’s existential state, as does the alto flute, which shadows her feelings with sounds reminiscent of the shakuhachi, the Japanese bamboo flute.  The koto reflects Komachi's passionate nature.

-- Alice Shields

s̶p̶o̶k̶e̶s̶ (2015) String Trio Chartreuse

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