Libretto by David Cote
Aria Featuring Cree Carrico, soprano
Full Duration: ca. 24'/ Aria Duration: ca. 5'
Full Instrumentation: soprano, baritone, bass-baritone, flute, piano, 2 violins, viola, cello
Commissioned by Triphammer Arts Inc. with The Arts at Grace and Society for New Music
World Premiere Recording (Live Performance): American Modern Ensemble, featuring Cree Carrico, soprano; Steven Stull, baritone; David Neal, bass-baritone; Universal Preservation Hall (UPH), Saratoga Springs, NY, June 18-19, 2021
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: www.billholabmusic.com
For more information: robertpaterson.com/cocoa-cantata/
Full Video: TBA
View Online Perusal Score: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/paterson_cocoa_cantata__score-perusal_
Buy Full Score: TBA

ABOUT COCOA CANTATA
Cocoa Cantata is a 21st-century response to J.S. Bach’s Coffee Cantata, one of his secular cantatas, c. 1734. A mini-drama with colorful, comical roles for soprano, baritone, and bass-baritone, this work imitates Bach's instrumentation and explores politics and optics in the multibillion-dollar chocolate industry.

Two chocolate executives, one from a global brand, the other a boutique chocolatier, square off over a corporate takeover, when a food scientist introduces a scientifically engineered "Total Cacao." One bite of it, and each chocolate executive is transformed.

Cocoa Cantata runs approximately 22 minutes, incorporating arias for each character, duets, and a final trio. The tone is lightly satirical, with contemporary allusions to fair-trade practices, the chemistry and symbolism of chocolate, and the marketing of pleasure. Cocoa Cantata will be delicious to anyone who loves chocolate—or tries to control their craving for it!

PROGRAM NOTE
Cocoa Cantata is a 21st-century response to J.S. Bach’s Coffee Cantata. Written for soprano, baritone, and bass-baritone, the work explores politics in the multibillion-dollar chocolate industry. Musically, the piece imitates Bach’s instrumentation, but not his Baroque style. The paternalism of Bach’s secular cantata is replaced by a more evolved (yet humorous) attitude toward issues of patriarchy, fair-trade practices, and the marketing of pleasure.

Cocoa Cantata - Ambrosia (Soprano Aria)

Sometimes

Composed for week 9 of Z-I-v Summer Contest 2021: You Won't See This in DDR VI

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/0NR52Y5mwz6rPoKT25r0ZD?si=3cbeebb58c8b4052
Listen on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/113-cookie-tin-single/1580310009

113% Cookie Tin

"Interstate Dreamin"

No samples or splice.
All instruments played by me. 

Dedicated to the love I couldn't give to my love ones

Mixed by: Dexter Simmons

My Love You (Prod. by Shadik)

I was always fascinated by the Cilla Black song "Liverpool Lullaby", something very real and down to earth about it. I was surprised to find it was a cover, and that even the Judy Collins version predated Cilla's. Even more surprised to find that only the lyrics were contemporary and that the song had been updated from an original 1820's folk tune. With this new song I wanted to catch something of that same northern spirit, as well as give a sense of a whole lifetime passing by...


I’M ALL YOU NEED

then she turned and she said
first thing that came in her head
but it turned my heart instead
said to me
I’m all you need
anymore…

and I bathed in that light
as if nothing could burn so bright
as we kissed the last goodnight
and i agreed…
you’re all i need
anymore anyway
you’re all i need…

just look at you
what would we do
can’t live on
air and guarantees
keep the table laid
there’ll be bills to pay
and the world’s too
it’s just too big…

so the fears turned to tears
and the tears turned into years
and the years just drifted by…
eventually…
forgot all i needed
anymore, anyway
what did that mean?

lost a silver spoon
in the living room 
don’t kids grow
up too soon…
just look at you
what did you do?
and the world’s still
the world’s so big…

All You Need

A song about obsession

LYRICS:

Your mind is gone
And you're all alone again
Your time is up and you know
you'll be dining on the crumbs around the plate

My blood will boil
And my temper is a thorn inside my head
All the pain and toil, I know..

Through my anger I cant speak
I'm full of bile, black and bleak
If time allows, I'll write your vows in blood and tears
Across the broken back of me
(I wanna be with her)
She moves into position, I feel the friction, waiting to begin
Her look so sharp it leaves a scar and her eyes reel me in 
I wanna be with her
It's poison served in sultry tones,
and I'm so drunk that many meanings go unknown

Now your mind is gone
And you're all alone again
Oh, your time is up and you know
You'll be dining on the crumbs around the plate

(We're not running for a worthy cause,
We're attracting attention from the corporate whores)

Through my anger I cant speak
I'm full of bile, black and bleak
If time allows, I'll write your vows in blood and tears
On the broken back of me
I'm growing parasites
a new one every night, I feel within
A version of myself I cant control, who deals in sin
Undressed and cold I shed my skin
My honour sold, I wish to God I'd never let her in

I wanna be with her
Across the broken back of me

The Broken Back Of Me

I Want You (Elvis Costello cover)

People naturally follow, conform the majority, and this has allowed us to evolve and survive together as a species.  Throughout history it has also made groups of people vulnerable to totalitarian rule that tends to help the ruling class more than the people, when the people are complacent and don't realize their position until it is too late.  While there may be some parallels to governments in the world today, this song is inspired by this "cost of complacency" throughout history rather than any specific events today.

Lyrics:
Verse 1
No time being patient
It takes too long
rewrite history

You shall be programmed
And truth dictated
Don’t ask any questions

Chorus
(backing chorus)
Fill your mind
Or it will be filled for you
It’s the cost of complacency
And mindless conformity

Open your mind
And open your eyes
Get your head out of your ass
Avoid the cost of complacency

(over chorus)
Control what they see
Control what they read
The masses will conform
and shutdown the opposition

Each has their own truth
In their own reality
The war has started
Better run for your life (2nd time only)

Verse 2
Sides are assigned
believe as you’re told
Oppose and be censored

pawns are suppressed
Divided and conquered
Blindly fighting the war

[Chorus]

Cost of complacency

“But I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is... to tell the truth.”
― Howard Zinn, Marx in Soho: A Play on History

Deja Coup

Who's Invited

Music by Nihil Sperantes.
Performed by Leagan & Tatane.
Drums by Laurent Nedja.
Mixed and mastered by Matthieu Budin.
Artwork by Robin Suiffet.

Leagan & Tatane - Spring

American composer Robert Paterson is a true New Yorker—born and bred in Buffalo, he lived in Rochester and Ithaca for over ten years, in New York City for over twenty years, and now lives in Saratoga Springs, near the Adirondacks. Paterson’s colorful music embraces a wide variety of themes, everything from goddesses and online dating to mathematics and the environment. His music is filled with emotion and fierce rhythmic energy, marked by elegance, wit, and meticulous craftsmanship. Named Composer of The Year by the Classical Recording Foundation at Carnegie Hall, Paterson is the winner of the Alfred I. DuPont Award, and his opera Three Way won the Grammy® under Best Classical Producer of the Year. His music is often a Best of the Year pick on National Public Radio. His orchestral tone poem, Dark Mountains, regularly airs on NPR’s Performance Today. Three Way premiered with Nashville Opera, then BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), and across the United States. Minnesota Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, The Oratorio Society of New York, Buffalo Philharmonic, Albany Pro Musica, Albany Symphony, Musica Sacra, Austin Symphony, Vermont Symphony, and ensembles worldwide perform his works. Paterson gives masterclasses at the Curtis Institute of Music, New York University, the Aspen Music Festival, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and more. He is the Artistic Director and house composer for Mostly Modern Projects. Robert is a lifelong vegan and advocates for animals and the environment, celebrating the natural world with ground-breaking works such as his Triple Concerto, A New Eaarth, Listen, and I Go Among Trees.

Cocoa Cantata - Ambrosia (Soprano Aria)

Robert Paterson Composer