https://www.serpamusic.com/an-invocation-string-orch

Anna Lampidis, oboe
Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Niccoló Muti, dir.
February 17th, 2019

Tone poem for oboe and string orchestra after the poem "An Invocation" by Jeffery Beam https://jefferybeam.com

An Invocation, for oboe and string orchestra (2012)

http://serpamusic.com/product/thyrsis-amaranth/

Thyrsis & Amaranth is a short opera based on a story by baroque fabulist Jean de la Fontaine. In writing this work, I was influenced by the serenettas and pastorales of Marc-Antoine Charpentier and George Friederic Handel, particularly in the choice of voice types. Both characters in my opera, male and female, are treble voices. This brings the beautiful sensuality of that period to the music with the voices of the would-be lovers intertwining in the same octave. Thyrsis is a shepherd who is in love with Amaranth, a shepherdess. He is riddled with self-doubt and insecurity. How does he tell Amaranth of his feelings for her? Should he risk their friendship, risk rejection, risk ridicule?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqRCgf7NbO8

Thyrsis: Collin Shay, countertenor & Amaranth: Allison Mills, soprano
Jennifer Szeto, piano & music direction
stage direction: Andrew Pelrine & Nina Scott-Stoddart
August 5th & 7th, 2012
Halifx Summer Opera, Dalhousie Arts Centre, Halifax, NS

Thyrsis & Amaranth, an opera in one act

James: Sam Kreidenweis, baritone
Mother: Mary Kettlewell, soprano
Ruth: Katrina Saporsantos, soprano
Inversion Ensemble; Trevor Shaw, conductor
June 25th, 2021, KMFA Studios. Austin, TX

james (book of ruth) IE Premiere 2021

Epilogue B. Can you love?

Epilogue A. Can you fogive?

Scene 7b. I will give him rest (Ruth's Aria)

Scene 4b. I turn to you—Home (James' Aria)

Prologue B. I will protect you (Mother's Lullaby)

http://serpamusic.com/product/heavens-birds-lament-and-song/
Heaven's Birds: Lament and Song (2008)
for mezzo-soprano solo, SATB chorus, violin, viola, cello and piano

Music: Steven Serpa
Text: Jeffery Beam http://www.unc.edu/~jeffbeam

Michelle Vachon, mezzo-soprano
Alistair Leon Kok, violin; Jessica Dunn, viola; John Bumstead, cello; James Busby, piano

Heaven’s Birds: Lament and Song was premiered on World AIDS Day, December 1st, 2008, in a benefit concert for The AIDS Action Committee of Boston at Arlington Street Church, Boston, Massachusetts.

Heaven's Birds: Lament and Song, for mezzo solo, SATB chorus, and piano quartet

Inversion Da Capo; Adrienne Pedrotti Bingamon, director
Saturday January 21, 2023
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Austin, Texas
Maureen Broy Papovich & Katrina Saporsantos, soprano soloists
Brendan Fairleigh, clarinet; Joseph Choi, piano

Text:
Arthur Rimbaud, musical trans. Steven Sérpa

I.
On the calm black water where the stars sleep
White Ophelia floats like a great lily;
Floats very slowly, lying in her long veils…
–You hear in the distant woods the sound of the hunt.

 For more than a thousand years the sad Ophelia,
She passed, a white phantom, down the long black river;
For more than a thousand years her sweet madness,
It murmured its romance to the evening breeze.

The wind kisses her breasts and unfolds in a wreath
Her great veils softly cradled by the waters;
The trembling willows weep on her shoulder,
Over her wide dreaming brow the reeds bend down.

The ruffled water lilies sigh all around her;
At times she awakens, among the sleeping branches,
Some nest, from which escapes a slight rustle of wings;
–A mysterious song falling from golden stars. 

II.
O pale Ophelia! beautiful as snow!
Yes, you died child, carried off by a river!
–The falling winds in low voices
Spoke to you of bitter freedom;

 It was a breath, twisting your great hair,
That bore strange rumors to your dreaming mind;
It was your heart listening to Nature’s song
In the complaints of trees and in the sighs of the night;

 It was the voice of mad seas, a great noise,
That broke your child’s heart, too human and too soft;
It was a knight, so handsome and pale, a poor fool,
Who, one April morning, sat mute at your knees!

 Heaven! Love! Freedom! What a dream, you poor, mad girl!
You melted to him as snow does to fire;
Your great visions strangled your words
–And fearful Infinity terrified your blue eyes!

III.
–And the Poet says that under the stars’ rays
You come at night looking for the flowers you picked;
And that he saw on the water, lying in her long veils,
White Ophelia floating, like a great lily.

Ophelia Floats - IE 2023 premiere

Ophelia Floats, for solo soprano and SSA chorus with clarinet and piano (2020/2022)

https://www.serpamusic.com/mountain-fado

Fado is a genre of song from Lisbon, Portugal tracing its roots to the early 1800s. The prominent emotion of this genre is “saudade,” a nuanced and complex combination of loss, longing, nostalgia, and melancholy. I think ethnomusicologist Lila Ellen Gray describes it best in her book Fado Resounding, "Saudade exists as a way of being in the present and feeling the past while dreaming for a future" (p. 83). It’s at this intersection of past, present, and future that I composed Mountain Fado.

My Mountain Fado is influenced by a romance, a place this romance developed and ended, the things I regret, and other things I am grateful for. I spent much of 2016 traveling back and forth between Austin, TX and Jackson, WY because of this relationship. It eventually came to an end, but I grew a lasting love for the Grand Teton mountains, the national parks, and the Grand Teton Music Festival. 

Holly Mulcahy, violin and Adelle Eslinger Runnicles, piano
Walk Festival Hall, Teton Village, WY
July 26, 2023

Mountain Fado - GTMF July 2023

Mountain Fado, for violin and piano

http://serpamusic.com/product/of-birds-songs-on-texts-from-medieval-bestiaries/

Medieval bestiaries are a ridiculous amount of beauty and fun. They weren’t meant to be, but to modern readers, how could they not be? If you are not familiar with Medieval bestiaries, they are a sort-of encyclopedia of flora and fauna compiled by monk-scholars for the instruction of the Christian faithful. They are highly illuminated tomes, split into categories of plants, fishes, birds, and beasts, and each entry contains an allegorical connection to some aspect of Christianity. The “facts” contained in these encyclopedias were not collected through observation or any scientific gathering method. The results can be pretty entertaining. Take for instance the beaver. According to these learnéd monks, when pursued the beaver will bite off his testicles and toss them at hunters, who want these testicles for their medicinal properties. Who knew beaver balls make good medicine? And how self-aware of those beavers that they could save their own lives by sacrificing their privates? But really, the moral is that a man can save his own soul by sacrificing his carnal desires.

There are so many fascinating entries in these bestiaries, but for this work for the Boston-based, female-quartet Anthology, I concentrated on two birds, the Night-Owl and the Phoenix. I compiled the text to create interplay between darkness and brightness, with a little humor and exhilaration mixed in. The Night-Owl is a creature of dark and death, the Phoenix of fire and resurrection. The music I’ve composed also contrasts the two birds. The melodies of the Night-Owl slither in and out of interlocked Phrygian and Dorian modes, some of the darker modes of Western music. The music to the Phoenix, on the other hand, is built on interlocked major and Lydian modes and often cadences with an unexpected series of major chords.

Winner of the 2nd Annual Emerging Composers Competition, 2014
performed by Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble, James John, director
http://cerddorion.org

Songs on texts from medieval bestiaries

1. Of the Night-owl

The night-owl is a bird that loves the darkness of night. It shuns the light, flying at night in search of food. It never flies directly where it wants to go, but travels slantwise from its course. Some say that it flies backwards.

It lives in decaying walls and sets up house in ruins, often found in caves or among tombs. It is a dirty, slothful bird that pollutes its own nest with its dung. It cannot be brought to the island of Crete, if it is, it will instantly die. The night-owl lets out a scream when it senses that someone is about to die.

When other birds see its hiding place, they noisily attack it to betray where it has hid. A crafty fighter, it will lie down on its back and bunch itself up, fighting with its beak and claws. When outnumbered and surrounded, it calls upon its ally the Hawk, which comes to aid the night-owl in combat with its enemies. If seen in the day, it is of dire portent.

2. Of the Phoenix

The phoenix is a bird of Arabia. There is only one of its kind in the whole world. It lives for upwards of five hundred years, and when it observes that it has grown old, it erects a funeral pyre for itself from small branches of frankincense, myrrh and other aromatic plants. And turning to face the rays of the sun, and beating its wings, it fans the flames and is consumed
in the fire.

From its marrow a worm arises and grows to maturity; and on the ninth day it acquires wings, and the phoenix rises from its ashes to fly.

Of Birds - 2. Of The Phoenix

Of Birds - 1. Of The Night Owl

Program Note:
With Terra sagrada, Terra solitária, composer Steven Sérpa connects with the music of his long-lost Portuguese heritage. This suite is built on folk songs from southern Portugal and incorporates the communal style of folk singing “Cante Alentejo.” Terra sagrada marks out emotions experienced by many emigrant/immigrant families: the desire to see the world or find a better life for their families, the heartache for loved ones left behind and nostalgia for the villages they grew up in, and a sacred esteem for the lands that gave them life.

Premiere:
Panoramic Voices, Juli Orlandini, dir.
with Invoke and Benjie Dia, piano
The Hall at Jester King, Austin, Texas
October 21, 2023

Terra sagrada, Terra solitária - 4. Alentejo, Alentejo! (excerpt)

Terra Sagrada, Terra Solitária - 3. Os guardas bateram

Folk Yeah!

Terra sagrada, Terra solitária - 2. Vou-me embora, vou partir

Terra sagrada, Terra solitária - 1. Oliveiras, oliveiras

http://serpamusic.com/product/psalm-30-o-lord-my-god-i-will-extol-thee/

TEXT:
O Lord, my God, I will extol Thee;
for Thou hast lifted me up and hast healed me.
Out of the depths I cried unto Thee.
Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave.
Out of the depths Thou hast brought up my soul,
O Lord, my God, I will extol Thee.
Thou hast girded me with gladness.
Thou hast put off my sackcloth.
Thou hast turned my mourning to dancing.
O Lord, my God, I will extol Thee;
for Thou hast lifted me up and hast healed me.

Psalm 30: O Lord my God, I will extol Thee

http://serpamusic.com/product/creatures/

The poetry of The Creatures: a bestiary retold is a quirky mixture of “scientific observation” and medieval mysticism that Jeffery Beam crafted into poetry from snippets of Elizabethan bestiaries. In responding to his poems, I explore these beast’s many facets: the Beaver with its sweet, playful persona is also a creature of darkness and the night— the Manticore is a dangerous man-eater with a radiant, beautiful voice.

November 13th, 2017
Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin
Maureen Broy Papovich, soprano; Chelsea DeLorenz, mezzo-soprano; Tyler Mabry, piano

The Creatures: a bestiary retold (2017)

The Creatures - 8. Epilogue: Nameless and named

The Creatures - 7. The Whale

The Creatures - 6. The Salamander

The Creatures - 5. The Unicorn

The Creatures - 4. The Beaver

The Creatures - 3. The Manticore

The Creatures - 2. The Camel

The Creatures - 1. Prologue: Creatures of the deep

http://serpamusic.com/product/canciones-de-desamor/
Source Song Festival 2018
Maria Jette, soprano; Mary Jo Gothmann, piano
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis, MN
August 10th, 2018

Translation:
For a moment you search for my mouth,
With a longing that surprises me,
In a moment of mad anguish,
In a movement you do not rebuke.

And I remain as always
And the kiss is half kept,
Until, after you're gone,
My handkerchief removes it.

Sad fate of your kiss
That from my lips disappears,
And although it is quite true
That I do not love you,
I feel my soul becomes saddened.

Source Song Festival 2018

Canciónes de desamor - 1. Por un instante

http://serpamusic.com/product/images-des-films-de-jean-cocteau/

Images

Images - 1. Les Miroirs

serpamusic.com/product/canciones-de-desamor/
Poetry by Cecilia M. Castillo
Kelley Hollis, soprano and Juventas New Music Ensemble with Andy Pease, conductor
First Church, Boston, MA, June 1st, 2019

Translation:
I prefer a thousand times
To see you from afar
Knowing your eyes look at me no longer.

I prefer not to talk to you
And continue to suffer
Knowing you are free from thinking of me,
My feelings affect you no more.

For disenchantment
Has tarnished the desire
Of kissing you tenderly.

The days pass,
Sleepless hours,
Sometimes I remember with great pain
That you're not mine,
That I do not belong to you,
But there once was love between us...

Pride: Hand in Hand (Recorded Live June 1, 2019)

Canciónes de desamor (chamber version) - 3. Prefiero mil veces

serpamusic.com/product/canciones-de-desamor/
Poetry by Cecilia M. Castillo
Kelley Hollis, soprano and Juventas New Music Ensemble with Andy Pease, conductor
First Church, Boston, MA, June 1st, 2019

Translation:
Let the beautiful flowers remain without dew,
I've been left without your smile anyway,
Do not let the stars come to the night,
Do not let soft breeze move on the sea.

A fight remains in the heart,
The soul is no longer obligated, no longer submitted,
Turn off the most beautiful of lights,
Taking the sound of your laughter with you.

You turn away from my life and leave a dent,
In a body that without you is scandalized,
In the fervent eyes of your footprint.

You take the flame of my love,
Your kisses become ash,
And my lips are sealed by weeping.

Canciónes de desamor (chamber version) - 2. Que queden sin rocio las flores bellas

serpamusic.com/product/canciones-de-desamor/
Poetry by Cecilia M. Castillo
Kelley Hollis, soprano and Juventas New Music Ensemble with Andy Pease, conductor
First Church, Boston, MA, June 1st, 2019

Translation:
For a moment you search for my mouth,
With a longing that surprises me,
In a moment of mad anguish,
In a movement you do not rebuke.

And I remain as always
And the kiss is half kept,
Until, after you're gone,
My handkerchief removes it.

Sad fate of your kiss
That from my lips disappears,
And although it is quite true
That I do not love you,
I feel my soul becomes saddened.

Canciónes de desamor (chamber version) - 1. Por un instante

Thompson Street Opera
February 5 & 6, 2021

these wings are meant to fly (2019)

these wings are meant to fly

Steven Sérpa is an award-winning whose works have been performed by the Austin Symphony, Tucson Symphony, the Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra, as well as being part of the American Composers Orchestra EarShot emerging composer program. His one act-opera Thyrsis & Amaranth has had over a dozen production and was praised by critics as a "truly beautiful… magnificent little story jammed full of thought and feeling and meaning" with “gorgeous music and wrenching lyrics.” Recent premieres include a choral oratorio on HIV stigma with Inversion Ensemble in Austin and a micro-opera responding to the Pulse nightclub tragedy with Thompson Street Opera in Chicago and Opéra Queens in Montréal. Steven earned his doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. He makes his home in Austin, TX with his partner and their rescue dogs, and he works as co-director of Fast Forward Austin, producing inventive, forward-looking music experiences for local audiences and communities. www.serpamusic.com

Popular tracks by Steven Sérpa