David Biedenbender
"Shell" from Shell and Wing

Stephanie Lamprea, soprano
Tian Hui Ng, conductor
Boston New Music Initiative, ensemble

June 19, 2021

David Biedenbender: "Shell" from Shell and Wing

Although better known during his lifetime for his novels, Thomas Hardy always aspired to being a poet, claiming to have written novels solely to make a living in his early years. ‘Loving-kindness’ was one of his favourite expresssions, and it is a feeling which we find suffusing many of his poems, according to James Gibson, the editor of the complete collected poems, published by Palgrave Macmillan. This is certainly reflected in these three settings in which I was drawn to the fun, light hearted and witty nature of the poetry which is radical yet truly timeless.

The ‘instrumental interludes’ were written to sit alongside Midnight Closes, which may be performed by just soprano and piano. In these short instrumental pieces, which take their inspiration from the poems set in the cycle, small frag- ments from the songs were used as starting points in the creation of each.

Duration 11’
Instrumentation soprano, piano, (& clarinet, cello)
First Performance 22 November 2010, Wigmore Hall, London; Eleanor Dennis (soprano), Gary Matthewman (piano), William Stafford (clarinet), Tim Lowe (cello)
Commissioned by The Countess of Munster Musical Trust for their Monday Night Platform at Wigmore Hall

Midnight Closes

rapid change, anxiety, and exhaustion. 

ScoreFollower video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMoZCoctIGU

cello - Seth Parker Woods
Recorded at Northwestern University in November of  2021.

STRIX (2021, for cello and electronics)

Betsy Jolas: 5 Poèmes De Jacques Dupin. L'Aconit

In a six hours marathon I read the complete last chapter of Ulysses by James Joyce into the mic. Molly Bloom's Soliloquy. It was done for Dieter Schnebel's piece "Yes I will", which Johannes Fischer and I premiered in Hamburg in 2016. My apologies to all native speakers for a few strange faults in rhythm or melody  - after all we were in a hurry and it's not my mother tongue. I hope you will find some of it entertaining anyways :-)

David Biedenbender: "Shell" from Shell and Wing

Stephanie Lamprea

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