Ahead of All Parting for Mezzo-Soprano, Bassoon, and Harp by Jenni Brandon

JB 159

Ahead Of All Parting | Jenni Brandon Mezzo‐Soprano, Bassoon, Harp

Ahead Of All Parting

For Mezzo-Soprano, Bassoon, and Harp

Music by Jenni Brandon Poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke and E.E. Cummings Interpreted and curated by Darrel Hale

Ahead of All Parting takes the listener on a journey through memory, death, and the beyond. The unique combination of the two texts in this work – interpretation and selections from Rainier Maria Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus as well as E.E. Cummings poem why||do the tell a story coming to terms with loss and celebrating the memories of someone who is gone.

The work explores memory and nostalgia, resignation and finally acceptance.

There is an arc to this journey in that we begin and end with the high, ethereal song of the bassoon, representing what lies beyond. The mezzo-soprano becomes the “she” in the work – first on the side of the living and present, and eventually crossing over. The harp plays the role as the barrier in between these worlds. Throughout the work the music explores the emotions of death, both from the one facing the inevitable, to the ones who deal with the aftermath of saying goodbye. Throughout the work, the “she” moves closer and closer to that physical and ethereal barrier, eventually crossing the barrier of the harp and moving beyond “where we cannot follow.”

The colors of the mezzo, bassoon, and harp lend themselves beautifully and equally to creating, at times, an ethereal and reflective experience, while at other time exploring anger or fear through techniques unique to the harp and bassoon. There is a sharp moment of transition in the harp where the technique of a thunder glissando shakes the mood from reflective to despair, moving into a duet between harp and bassoon, beckoning to the “she” before the final section of the work “Erect no gravestone”.

This work received its world premiere performance at Louisiana State University on April 1st, 2019 with Darrel Hale-bassoon, Megan Ihnen-mezzo-soprano, and Stephanie Gustafson-harp. The co-commissioners include the Brierwood

Ensemble, Amy M. Pollard, Javier A. Rodriguez, Barrick Stees, and Christin Webb.

Suggestions for simple staging are included within the score.

Commissioned by: Darrel Hale – in memoriam Rebekah Furey Co-commissioned by:  Brierwood Ensemble  Amy M. Pollard  Javier A. Rodriguez  Barrick Stees – in honor of his sister, Jennifer Stees, and in memory of bassoonist Nancy Lutes  Christin Webb Jenni Brandon is a composer and conductor, creating music in collaboration with other musicians and artists. She has written over 70 works, telling stories through memorable musical lines influenced by nature and poetry.

Commissioned to write music from solo to orchestral works, her music appears on over 21 albums. Her music has been awarded the Sorel Medallion, American Prize, Paderewski Cycle, Women Composers Festival of Hartford International Competition, and Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition among others.

Her works are published and distributed by Boosey & Hawkes, Santa Barbara Music, Graphite, TrevCo, Imagine, J.W. Pepper, June Emerson, and her own publishing company Jenni Brandon Music. As a conductor she conducted her one-act opera 3 PADEREWSKIS in the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center. She also presents workshops on collaboration and the business of music, striving to create a supportive environment where collaboration leads to an exploration of ideas. Visit jennibrandon.com to learn more.

Section I ‐ Rilke Sonnets to Orpheus ‐ Part Two, Sonnet XXIX Quiet friend of the many distances, Feel how your breathing expands space. reaching out like darkness in a bell tower… and you are the bell. As you ring, what batters you becomes your strength.

Moving out and in, through transformation What is this like, such intensity of pain?

If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

In this uncontainable night, be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses, be the meaning discovered there And if the earth bound to forget you, Say to the silent Earth: I flow.

To the rushing water, speak: I am.

Interlude I – : e.e. cummings fragment why do the fingers of the lit tle once beau tiful la dy(sitting sew ing at an o pen window this fine morning)fly instead of dancing are they possibly afraid…

Section II – Rilke Sonnets to Orpheus ‐ Part One, Sonnet IV enter the breathing… … let it divide itself on your cheeks behind you it trembles, united again Blessed ones, whole ones, you where the heart first beat You are the bow that shoots the arrows and you are the target. in tears, your smile forever glows.

Fear not the suffering. Let its weight fall back into the earth; heavy are the mountains, heavy the seas.

The trees you planted in childhood have long ago grown too heavy.

You cannot bring them along now.

Give yourselves to the air, to what you cannot hold.

Interlude II: e.e. cummings fragment afraid that life is running away from them(i wonder)or isn’t she a ware that life(who never grows old) is always beau tiful and that nobod y beauti ful ev er hur ries (continued)

Section III – Rilke Sonnets to Orpheus ‐ Part One, Sonnet V Erect no gravestone. let the rose bloom every year for … (A sounds of resignation, not yet ready to speak the name) For this is metamorphosis: one thing, then another.

We need not search for other names.

It is you in the singing, She comes and goes. Is it not enough that sometimes she outlasts a bowl of roses?

Oh, that I could understand – she has no choice but to disappear, even should she long to stay.

As her song exceeds the present moment… she is gone already where we cannot follow.

The lyre’s strings cannot stay her hand.

Obeying as she moves farther on. never hurry … my Quiet friend of many distances…

“Sonnets to Orpheus” by Rainer Maria Rilke. Interpreted and curated by Darrel Hale, © 2018 Darrel Hale. Used by permission. “why//do the”. Copyright © 1958, 1986, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1979

by George James Firmage, from COMPLETE POEMS: 19041962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

www.jennibrandon.com