Dryad, for three vocal soloists, flute, harp, percussion and piano

I. Oread
II. Moonrise
III. To H.D.
IV. Ortus (Birth)
V. Flute Song
VI. Garden
VII. Wild Rose
VIII. April
IX. We Two

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) is a hugely important literary and cultural figure whose influence is only now beginning to be appreciated, not only as a poet but also as a queer and feminist icon. "Dryad" combines poems written by, to and about H.D. and her lovers and literary collaborators Ezra Pound, Frances Gregg and Bryher. The cycle imagines a coded poetic dialogue between these literary figures, whose personal and professional lives intersected dramatically in the early decades of the twentieth century. Drawing on Classical Greek literary forms and mythological figures (among which, Narcissus and Echo, Artemis, Orpheus, Pygmalion, Dryads, Maenads), these texts call to one another in supplication, desire, possession, contempt, jealousy, struggle and resilience.

Dryad was a name with which other poets referred to H.D. – especially as it appears in the very late Ezra Pound Cantos:

"Dryad, your eyes are like the clouds over Taishan
When some of the rain has fallen
And half remains yet to fall
Dryad, thy peace is like water..."

I am extremely grateful to all involved, but especially to Susan Narucki for commissioning this work and supporting the music of our time, and to Kyle Adam Blair for his special role in bringing it to life. 



Christian Cummings, audio engineer
Alex Taylor, composer + conductor

Stefanie Quintin, soprano
Mariana Flores Bucio, soprano
Miguel Zazueta, tenor
Alexander Ishov, flutes
Mitchell Carlstrom, percussion
Tasha Smith Godinez, harp
Kyle Adam Blair, piano

Texts by H.D., Ezra Pound, Bryher, and Frances Gregg
Commissioned by Susan Narucki and kallisti ensemble
Recorded at UC San Diego by Christian Cummings
Cover photo by Alexander Ishov

Many thanks to Susan Narucki, Kyle Adam Blair, Christian Cummings, Andrew Munsey, Rebecca Lloyd-Jones, Yifan Guo, Lei Liang, Alex Stephenson, and all the performers.

We Two

April (nympharum disjecta membra)

Wild Rose

Flute Song

Ortus (Birth)

To H.D.

Oread

In Episode 13 of Multi-Verse, poet Eugene Ostashevsky reads five sonnets and talks with host Evangeline Riddiford Graham about mixing humor with horror and the stupidity of war.

Ostashevsky's latest collection, THE FEELING SONNETS (New York Review Books, 2022), is available here:
https://www.nyrb.com/products/the-feeling-sonnets

13. Eugene Ostashevsky: Five Sonnets

Performers: Steven Schick, conductor; Wilfrido Terrazas, flute; Ellen Hindson, oboe; Grace Talaski, clarinet; Kosuke Matsuda, percussion; Kyle Adam Blair, piano; Miguel Zazueta, Natalia Merlano Gomez, Alex Taylor, voice; Amir Norouz Nasseri, Ilana Waniuk, violins; Myra Hinrichs, viola; Peter Ko, cello; Matthew Henson, bass

Production assistance from Alex Stephenson, David Espiritu and Jessica Flores 

---

Stylistically, Interviews resembles a collage: materials borrowed from Josquin, spectralism, Leonard Cohen, high modernism, elevator music, the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Kyle Adam Blair, Appalachian folk singing, bits recycled from my own pieces, the recorded voice of my mother, my own songs and poems. But collage is generally creating something new out of things that come from different places, disparate things; this feels more like a multifarious reflection of my own musical and personal world – things that all come from, or at least have been absorbed into, the same place, a musical inheritance or accumulation. I’ve always felt slightly unsure of the relationship between all of the many aspects (personas?) of my music making – sometimes they feel far away from each other, held in different compartments – but here I feel I’ve found a way for many of them to coexist in one place.

Conceptually, I think of Interviews as more concerned with storytelling than with aesthetics. Or at least, Interviews represents an intersection between musical and personal concerns. In the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, I undertook ethnographic research as part of my PhD coursework. For this I interviewed both my parents, Vicki and Trish, asking them all kinds of questions about their lives: what it was like for them growing up, how they came to terms with their sexuality, what it was like living through the politically tumultuous 1980s in New Zealand, how they went about starting a family, how it was for them when I came out. 

At the time, this was a really rewarding process of discovery and documentation, a way to learn new things about my family and where I’d come from, a way to feel connected to them across the Pacific during the enforced separation of the pandemic. Now, those interview recordings have other resonances. Trish was diagnosed with early onset dementia several years before we made the interviews; by the time we recorded them, her dementia had started to really affect her short term memory. Now, nearly four years later, her dementia is quite advanced, and many of those memories are gone for her. Looking back, the documentation of those memories is precious. 

The making of this piece has been both a way for me to hold on to that preciousness, those past perfect moments of connection, but also a way to process grief, the ongoing present of loss and change. In many ways Interviews occupies a threshold, between looking back and looking forward; it is both at once, acknowledging the messiness and multifacetedness of memory, not singular, smooth, or linear. I also see it as a small way of showing gratitude for both of my devoted, supportive, sensitive, beloved parents, and of celebrating Trish’s life.

Interviews (Live Recording)

In Episode 14 of Multi-Verse, poet Barbara Tran reads “Loon Song” and chats with host Evangeline Riddiford Graham about fever, living with uncertainty, and the wisdom of beehives. 

“Loon Song” can be found in Tran's debut collection, PRECEDENTED PARROTING (Palimpsest Press, 2024), available here:

https://palimpsestpress.ca/books/precedented-parroting-barbara-tran/

14. Barbara Tran: Loon Song

Multi-Verse

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