PROGRAM NOTE
The invitation from flute virtuoso Mimi Stillman to compose a work for her Dolce Suono Ensemble’s Mahler/Schoenberg 2012 concert series that could serve as an homage as well as a companion piece to Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, one of the 20th-century’s seminal compositions, was as challenging as it was intriguing. It would seem almost natural to make the work’s critical position in music history a central focus in tackling such a task. And yet, the real homage to this masterpiece lies in the fact that nearly every one of its once revolutionary, genre-defining innovations has been absorbed into the mainstream of much of the music of the hundred years that has followed its creation.
Thus, I opted to make this work a nod in the direction of Pierrot—a work that has profoundly influenced my music in so many ways—yet without necessarily forcing myself into a deliberate a priori attempt to comment on it musically, except for the important fact that Moon Songs uses as its point of departure and inspiration a selection of texts (in some cases just fragments of poems), all of which, in various ways, refer to the moon. The texts set are in Hebrew and English, the two languages that have been dominant in my life. The Hebrew texts span the gamut from the Bible, to medieval Hebrew poetry, to modern Israeli poetry. The English-language texts go from English Renaissance to contemporary American. As in many other works that use voice, including of course Pierrot Lunaire, the choice of texts and the way in which these texts are organized turned out to be a significant determining agent for the work that has ensued.
Moon Songs is organized into four “acts” with two entr’actes following Acts II and III. Each “Act” uses different devices, both textually and musically, to create coherence and continuity. With the full blessing of the three living poets whose poetry I chose to set—Haim Gouri and Almog Behar (both Israeli poets), and Samuel Menashe of New York (Mr. Menashe sadly passed away in the summer of 2011, after the work was already completed)—I have taken some unusual liberties with their texts. Their poems function as the foundation as well as the glue that hold together the larger entities I have aimed to create (what I call the “Acts”), and in the case of Behar and Menashe, the selected poetry also becomes the “shell”, the larger structure, into which fragments from other poems are interjected.
Act I, titled “Creation”, starts off with Haim Gouri’s volatile and passionate opening fragment of a larger poem in Hebrew. This passage, ending as it does on the words “creating a moon for you”, suggested to me a seamless transition to a reference in Psalms to the creation of the moon, and from this statuesque, almost incantational music to a medieval Hebrew poem by Solomon Ibn Gabirol praising the Lord for having created the moon, first in defining days, years, seasons, and holidays.
In Act II I translated into English some passages from Behar’s poem “Li Bai and the Vacant Moon”, and took these passages through two different presentations. The first is fairly brief and straightforward, almost in a folksy style (though not associated with a specific locale, or people). The second is a much more extended, fantastical elaboration of both the storyline and the music, with passages from “Dover Beach”, the classic poem by Matthew Arnold interjected, as well as a line from Bai’s own poem on drinking alone under the shining moon. These interjections, with their own moon-inspired images, are intended to serve as stream-of-consciousness elaborations and enhancements of the “mother poem”, by Behar, also expanding the expressive palette of the music.
The first of two single-instrument entr’actes is a contemplative solo cello interlude, setting the stage for Act III, titled “Star-Crossed”. Here, poetry by Menashe is framed by some celebrated moon-referenced passages by Sir Philip Sidney and William Wordsworth, all creating, in my mind, a larger entity, a kind of “super-poem”. Its tone is much darker, more pained and mysterious than any of the previous music.
To segue into the last act, the second entr’acte, a mournful piccolo solo, has an added vocal line—the sole direct reference to Pierrot Lunaire in the piece. It is a stylized recitation (in English translation) of the ninth poem of Pierrot, the one poem in Schoenberg’s cycle that begins by calling out, repeatedly, the name “Pierrot”.
Hebrew medieval poetry returns in Act IV, titled “Medley”. Selected passages from poems by Yehuda Halevy, Shmuel Hanagid, and a recap of the Ibn Gabirol poem and its music from Act I, are strung together medley-style, blending a more popular strain of music into the framework of this composition, and allowing me to invent some tunes for the jubilant climactic ending with which Moon Songs ends.
The singer, flutist (who also plays piccolo), and pianist, are the principal protagonists throughout much of the work, and are given especially challenging, significant parts. The cello is deliberately absent in some parts, thus its appearance, when it its not blended with the other instruments, often allows for a notably contrasting color—perhaps a metaphor for the other side of the moon.
Demanding as her sung part is, the singer in Moon Songs needs to be as much an actress as a singer. Indeed, the choice for the work’s premiere of Lucy Shelton, the exceptional American diva with whom I have collaborated on numerous prior occasions, side-by-side with Pierrot Lunaire—a signature role of hers—was made early in the process and was wonderfully inspiring. She mostly sings, but also speaks, shouts, intones, and acts out—embodying some of the myriad ways in which, through poetry, myth, and fantasy, we as people have been struck by that gleaming, fantastical, mysterious vision we call the moon.
© Shulamit Ran
Please list movements in concert programs as follows:
Act I: Creation
Act II: Li Bai and the Vacant Moon
Entr’acte I
Act III: Star-crossed
Entr’acte II: Prayer to Pierrot
Act IV: Medley
The following commissioning credit should be included in concert programs whenever possible:
Commissioned by Dolce Suono Ensemble with funding from The Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Music Project.
INFORMATION
Commissioned by Dolce Suono Ensemble with funding from The Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Music Project
First performances:
February 3, 2012, Marshall Auditorium, Roberts Hall, Haverford College, Haverford, PA
February 5, 2012, Trinity Center for Urban Life, Philadelphia, PA
February 6, 2012, Thalia Theatre, Symphony Space, NYC
Lucy Shelton, soprano
Dolce Suono Trio:
Mimi Stillman, flute
Yumi Kendall, cello
Charles Abramovic, piano
duration: c. 25′
RECORDING
Lucy Shelton, soprano, with Dolce Suono Trio: American Canvas, Innova 991
SHEET MUSIC
Available from your favorite sheet music seller or directly from Theodore Presser (here and here).