35030211
TTBB and Piano US $2.50
Spirit
Greg Simon
PROGRAM NOTES In the summer of 2014, Dr. Eugene Rogers asked me to write a piece for his Glee Club at the University of Michigan that would fit into the theme of their fall concert: “Heartland”. We discussed the many meanings of that word - “heartland” - and how it might shape an artist’s voice. Around the same time, I revisited Walt Whitman’s text “Spirit that Form’d this Scene” (1881), Whitman’s reflections on a viewing of gorgeous Platte Canyon, CO. Platte Canyon is less than an hour outside of my adoptive home of Denver, and rereading Whitman’s beautiful, majestic text was a vivid trip back to my personal heartland. But “Spirit that Form’d this Scene” also reveals how Whitman related to his inspiration, the inner voice that guided his choices… his poetic heartland. At the time he wrote this poem, Whitman had encountered criticism from the literary world and the public at large for eschewing lyric forms in favor of his free verse — accusations that his poetry had “forgotten art.” Here he writes of “wild arrays, for reasons of their own,” both in his writing and in the awe-inspiring scene around him, and declares that whatever technical aspects are present or absent in his work, his poetry always remembers his heartland. “Spirit” is, like the poem that inspired it, a fantasia on both of these heartlands: the sweeping American landscape of Whitman’s text, and the inner heartland to which all artists must listen if they are to form their own scenes.
TEXT Spirit that form’d this scene, These tumbled rock-piles grim and red, These reckless heaven-ambitious peaks, These gorges, turbulent-clear streams, this naked freshness, These formless wild arrays, for reasons of their own, I know thee, savage spirit--we have communed together, Mine too such wild arrays, for reasons of their own; Was’t charged against my chants they had forgotten art? To fuse within themselves its rules precise and delicatesse? The lyrist’s measur’d beat, the wrought-out temple’s grace--column and polish’d arch forgot? But thou that revelest here--spirit that form’d this scene, They have remember’d thee. ~~Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
DURATION ca. 4 minutes
ABOUT THE COMPOSER Greg Simon is a composer and jazz trumpeter hailing from California, by way of Oregon and Colorado. His works have been performed by ensembles and performers around the country, including Alarm Will Sound, the Fifth House Ensemble, and the Cavell Trio. Greg has won the Brehm Prize in Choral Composition from the University of Michigan, the POLYPHONOS competition from the Esoterics, and was the winner of the TorQ Percussion Quartet’s first annual Composition Competition. As a jazz musician, Greg has studied with Bill Lucas, Ellen Rowe, and Brad Goode. Greg recieved a B.A. from the University of Puget Sound and an M.M. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is currently finishing a doctorate at the University of Michigan. He lives outside Ann Arbor, MI with his wife, his stepson, and his Boston terrier. When he’s not composing, Greg enjoys hockey, microbrews and short stories.
3 Commissioned by the Michigan Men’s Glee Club, Eugene Rogers, director, as part of their ongoing effort to enrich the repertoire for male choruses.
SPIRIT for TTBB and Piano
WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892)
GREG SIMON (b. 1985)
Freely, with soul!* ff
3
Tenor I
Oh,
spir - it,
Oh,
spir - it
ff
who formed this
3
Tenor II
Oh,
spir - it,
Oh,
spir - it
ff
who formed this
3
Baritone
Oh,
spir - it,
Oh,
spir - it
ff
who formed this
3
Bass
Oh,
spir - it,
Oh,
spir - it
who formed this
Piano tacet to m. 21
4
3
scene,
these
tum -bled rock piles
grim and red, 3
scene,
these
tum -bled rock piles
grim and red, 3
scene,
these
tum -bled rock piles
grim and red, 3
scene,
these
tum -bled rock piles
* The opening should be sung as an African-American spiritual or working song. Copyright © 2015 by HAL LEONARD CORPORATION All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured.
COPYING IS ILLEGAL
grim and red,
4 3
8
sub. p
these reck -less,
heav - en
am - bi - tious
peaks,
these reck -less,
heav - en
am - bi - tious
peaks,
3
3
these sub. p
these reck -less,
heav - en
am - bi - tious
peaks,
these reck -less,
heav - en
am - bi - tious
peaks,
3
these
sub. p
these
12
gor - ges,
these
tur - bu - lent clear
streams,
this
gor - ges,
these
tur - bu - lent clear
streams,
this
gor - ges,
these
tur - bu - lent clear
streams,
this
these
tur - bu - lent clear
streams,
this
p
gor - ges, 15
più mosso
na -ked
fresh - ness,
these
form - less, wild
ar -
these
form - less, wild
ar -
rays, these wild
ar -
più mosso
na -ked
fresh - ness,
na -ked
fresh - ness,
più mosso
these
form - less, wild
ar
-
più mosso
na -ked
fresh - ness,
these
form
-
less,
wild
ar
SPIRIT— TTBB