Iseult Speaks is an extended song cycle for mezzo-soprano based on a retelling of the Tristan/Iseult myth. For those of you who might not be familiar with the story, the basic outline—and there are many variations on this skeleton—is that Tristan is supposed to bring Iseult to marry his uncle, but on the way they fall in love, usually because of a potion they accidentally ingest. Portrayals of Iseult range from passive cypher to tragic heroine to wanton seductress, but she is almost always cast as a one-dimensional accessory to Tristan.

Elizabeth Hamilton’s evocative and provocative poems reexamine the legend from Iseult’s point of view, here somewhat omniscient and shaded with a modern sensibility that links the tale to contemporary experiences. The text touches on questions of gender roles, societal pressure, and personal power as the narrator contemplates her life, rages against the unfairness of fate, wallows in memories of physical affection, condemns Tristan for his inaction, and vacillates between confidence, insecurity, hope, and despair.

This is the sixth of 13 movements. The work exists in two versions: one for piano accompaniment and the other for singer plus 12 instrumentalists.

Purchase Sheet Music

Iseult Speaks: This is What I Know About Choice

World Premiere Performance, University of Akron, September 22nd, 2017.  The first concert of the University of Akron New Music Series! Composed for Holly Roadfeldt.

I love this beautiful piece!  Willow is one of my favorite characters of all time! :)

Ross Crean: Willow from the Buffy Miniatures (2017), World Premiere Performance

Words and music by Rosśa Crean. Premiered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY, April 8, 2019.

Commissioned and performed by The New Consort.
Agnes Coakley Cox - Soprano
Caroline Olsen - Alto
Jeffrey Cutts - Countertenor
Steven Caldecott Wilson - Tenor
Brian Mummert - Bass

Since I was 18, I have had a fascination with the 16th Century experiments of John Dee and Edward Kelley’s with angelic communication. Dee, a mathematician, occult philosopher, and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, employed Kelley, a medium, to help him discover the secrets of nature and the supernatural through obsidian scrying. Their activities, inspired by the conjurations of King Solomon, lent a new perspective to what I had previously been educated about otherworldly communication. The events led to a remarkable amount of documentation, resulting in several tablets that named the angels that existed within each level of the hierarchy, as well as the documentation of Enochian, the language of the angels. While Dee and Kelley’s experiments may have very well been a figment of imagination, their extensive output has made many interfaith believers of Enochian Magick, be it Christian, Pagan, Jewish, or otherwise.

When Brian Mummert approached me to compose a piece for The New Consort, I knew that this was the topic on which to base the work. I immediately created text that followed style and structure of the Old Testament psalms, and in turn, created a different kind of liturgical piece, delving into secrets that ideologically are not considered any part of the religious canon. I wanted to create a sense of a different world beyond our own, one that might evoke fear, but also shows a sense of reverence, where we see a light of hope in a path not often turned down.

The Watchtower Psalms is the embodiment of the ceremony where the practitioner calls the four corners, otherwise known as the watchtowers. Each quadrant has an elemental angel assigned to it: EXARP (Air), HKOMA (Water), NANTA (Earth), and BITOM (Fire). Each of these angels has many classifications of other angels underneath them. Collectively, the four watchtowers form the Tablet of Union, a symbol of the Quintessence, the spiritual amalgamation of the quadrants becoming one. When the Watchtowers are all called, it is then that our divine natures can be found.

The Watchtowers each have an assigned direction, element, and color. As a synesthete, I composed each movement based on the colors and emotional reactions I had from each element. Their symbolism goes as follows:

EXARP - East/Air/Yellow 
HKOMA - West/Water/Blue 
NANTA - North/Earth/Black 
BITOM - South/Fire/Red

Many thanks to Brian Mummert and The New Consort for their commissioning of this work. I have had a blessed journey creating this piece for them.

I. Blood is the Spring (EXARP - East - Air)

Soft and whispering winds,
We stir and call you up,
Stir and call you up.
Blow clear, fresh, and free!
The blood is the Spring:
Sanguine, mercurial, and inspiring. It is the mind, the sword.
Our logic and reason
Whirl around, to and fro,
To the East
To the East
To the lessons we pray are bestowed. Stir and call you up,
Stir and call you up.
We are your travelers.

"Blood Is The Spring" from "The Watchtower Psalms"

From the monodrama "The Priestess of Morphine: A Study of Marie-Madeleine in the Time of the Nazis"
Libretto by Aiden K. Feltkamp
Music by Rosśa Crean

Premiered June 28th, 2019 at the International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, IL.

Katherine Bruton, Soprano
Chuck Evans, violin
Stephen Hudson, cello
Ben Zucker, vibraphone

IV. Tumbling
(inspired by “Das Fieber,” “Kokaïn,” and “Der letzte Rausch”)

In darkness, in this terrible place
completely removed from the world, 
he approached without a sound, without warning... 
this monster, my uninvited guest…

My tired heart drags hotter
until the dream-clouds about me are violent red.
Shine, ever effervescent, 
fill me with a marrow-deep delight!

More! More!
Burn me inside
until wings sprout on my savage soul
and I fall 
headlong 
into the beckoning bottomless pit. 

I am always -- still! -- so long! -- stuck
in this cursed place,
this city so heavily damned
that it will never rise again. 
I can only groan with desire --
take me down, Thanatos!

I can’t breathe in these streets,
I can’t find a living body,
they’ve all forgotten----

My lips, worn down by fever,
cradle my last screech:
I need to get out!
I’m penned in all around--
these walls will outlast me. 
I have nothing left but you:
my most beloved, my very last ecstasy!

Copyright 2019 Rosśa Crean/Knight & Thorne Music/ASCAP. All Rights Reserved.
Text Under Ownership of Aiden K. Feltkamp.

The Priestess of Morphine, Mvt. IV - Tumbling

Composed, Performed, and Recorded by Rosśa Crean on May 3, 2020 at Room 13 of Lakeside Inn, Lakeside, MI.

Other than reverb, all effects are produced naturally by the human voice. No other electronics are added or involved.

Chaennuna (for Solo Bass Voice)

Rosśa Crean

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