"Felling" for Baritone and Piano

Keane Southard

Felling A Song Cycle for

Baritone and Piano

(2023) (Duration: c. 10 mins.)

Program notes: In 2022, Catalyst New Music put together teams of poets/lyricists, composers, and singers to create new art song in its FUSE project. I was matched with singer Daniel Laverriere and composer Keane Southard because we shared an interest in the environment and climate change. After talking with Daniel and Keane, I did research on several topics and settled on deforestation after reading several historic and recent accounts of logging in North America. The result is Felling, a three-song cycle. The first song in the cycle, “In the Camp of Jacques Freneau,” is based on an account written by Clifton White in 1902, when he visited several lumber camps and wrote about the dangerous work undertaken there, the rough conditions in which the loggers lived, and how the forests were seen as an unending resource for people to take and use. Song II, “Haiku for Deforestation,” distills a belief that the forest is home to the unseen, the ineffable, and that when the woods are cut down, that invisible quality is destroyed as well. The final line speaks to my belief that we need action and physical change, not prayers (in either sense of the word), in order to address environmental crises and climate change. Priscilla and Michael Hunter, after whom the third song in the cycle, “Priscilla’s Backyard” is written, are members of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians in California, where they are activists against commercial logging on tribal lands. They speak eloquently and compellingly about the need to protect the ancient redwood forests there and how important the forests are for everyone in the area. “Priscilla’s Backyard,” nods to their work and the long connections between the tribe and the forest.

Kendra Preston Leonard 2023 Felling was composed in late November 2022 and completed in early January 2023 in collaboration with poet Kendra Preston Leonard and baritone Daniel Laverriere as part of FUSE: Collaborations in Song organized by Catalyst New Music and the Boston Singers’ Resource.

Keane Southard 2023

Performance instructions: Unless otherwise indicated, the damper pedal (for the piano) should be used discreetly to allow for maximum clarity.

Text: I. The Camp of Jacques Freneau after Clifton White, 1902 Fifty choppers in the heart of the woods, felling the pine and the spruce; the wilderness there is shorn to brush, inviting fire and flood.

Men on the snow, eight feet deep, chopping now two to a tree; they shout and it falls, defeated and down and the ice falls up to a cloud.

The oxen and drays pull the sled to the train where the scaler figures and marks; he is the funeral eulogist for each of these vanquished firs.

“What wealth,” he says, “we find in these logs.

Lumber for homes, for raising a barn.

And there’s beauty there too: fine planks for a table.

We’ll take every tree this forest will give us.”

In these great white woods, men stampede with saws, stripping the landscape so bare —so bare— that the woodpeckers all have gone.

II. Haiku for Deforestation When the trees are gone, so will the spirits go too.

No prayers will help.

III. Priscilla’s Backyard after Priscilla Hunter and Michael Hunter, 2022 The ancestors are become earth, and the beargrass rises, a flower-city in the air.

Leave the redwood uncut, and leave it all be; where the old village lies, let the hearths be graced with carex and ferns.

Kendra Preston Leonard

Keane Southard/Spindrift Pages Email: keane.southard@hotmail.com Website: keanesouthard.com

I. The Camp of Jacques Freneau after Clifton White, 1902 Lyrics by Kendra Preston Leonard

Baritone



Music by Keane Southard

Freely (q = c. 88)

      Freely (q = c. 88)

 Piano



            

p possibile (don't worry if all the notes don't sound clearly)



2

 





q = 88 but very flexible

 





q = 88 but very flexible



 

 



       

                             

p

3

3

3

mf

           

©2023

3

3



2 3







                       3

3



 

3

3

              

4

  

3

                                       3 3 

3

      

3

       

         

3

3 5







                                       3

             

3

3

3

6

 



                  3

3

3



                    

3

3

3

3

      3



   3

4

7





 3                                                      

3

3

3

accel.

8 q = e (e = 88) in strict time

 



 



q = e (e = 88) in strict time



         f

         

3





mf

       3

3







       5            3  3

             5  5              3  3

  

accel.

q = 64 f

12

      

   

Fif - ty chop - pers

q = 64

  

     

 5

simile accented

  



 



3

  spruce;

5



17



there



is shorn to brush,

5

  

    

5



3





3

 5

 

 

5





   

5





   5

  

3



  

Men

on the snow,





in - vit - ing fi - re

5

  

5

        

   

3

 

3

3

  



3

ling the pine and the

 

3

   

 





3

  

 

-

     

5



        

 

  

3

       

fel

5

the wil - der - ness

 3

of the woods,



 3      

14





in the heart

      





  



 5

    

3

3





eight feet deep,

  

3

and flood.



3

 

 

6

       

19

3

3

chop - ping now two to







  

a

 

ff

 



tree;

they

   

shout

 

      

3

 



3

  

21











   

 

ff

 

  

and it

 

3

    



de - feat - ed

and

falls,

  



 

molto rit.

  mf    

down

and the

molto rit.







 

   





   

22

 

A tempo

pp

      

 

3

3

ice

falls up to a

7



cloud.

A tempo           (non accented)                        mp pp mp









     

poco rit.

   3  

 

25

f



      

 

        





where the scal - er fig - ures and

 

is the fu - ner - al

A tempo

3

        mf

   

mp

3

marks;

       rit.

   

    

eu - lo - gist





       





   



       

p

f

he

ox - en and drays

                         

     3   

29

The

3           

poco rit.



 3  

p

(e = 60)

p

 

for

each of these van - quished firs.

   

rit.

(e = 60)

p

pp

    mp

   





  



A tempo

pull the sled to the train

     

mp

         

Slightly Faster q = 50

8

  

 

mp

33

 

     

"What wealth,"









mp

     



mp

 

35



Lum - ber

 

  

36

 

        









 



sfz

mp

            for



   







    

3





And there's beau - ty

there

too:

 

  

   

   









      



"we find

for homes,

   mp

 



he says,

Slightly Faster q = 50

       

        f

12

    

    12

   

f



in these logs.



     

sfz





rais - ing

a

        



    12



 



barn.



  



mf

 

sfz

   

mp

mf

 



          



     3





  

  

mp

mf

  

    fine

    

    12



9

poco rit.

 

   

planks

for a ta - ble.

37

poco rit.



    

e = 88 ff 38



 3 

e - ve - ry e = 88

  12





    

 



12





We'll

take





  12

   

   

    



        

 3 

tree

this for - est will give us.

e - ve ry

Take



12





tree,

                                       

accented     simile                                                  40  3   3   3     3   3        ff

              e - ve ry



tree,

e - ve - ry

            

tree,

   

e - ve - ry,

e - ve - ry,

e - ve - ry,

tree."

                       

10

molto rit.

A Tempo

42









pp

   



In these great white

                  molto rit.

A Tempo

pp

        

 

   



(non accented)



  



  

45

woods,

  

   

ppp breathy



so

ppp

    

pp

         

 

bare



     

 

3

that the

wood - peck- ers









     

land -

scape

  



bare

 



  



all

have

gone.





  

 



  

  

so



 

   

 

 

50

 3  strip - ping the

 





 

men stam - pede with saws,

    



 





      

   

attacca

(hold ped. into next movement)

II. Haiku for Deforestation 1

Baritone

p





When

the

trees

  

Piano



Slow q = 48











are

 gone,

sfz

  (Ped. 

strike strings with palm of hand

held from last movement) 2

Slower q = 44

 

(cut off with piano slap)







so

will

the

 spir









-

its

go

too.

3

     

sfz

slap under keyboard (with both hands) (Ped.) p possibile (falsetto if needed)

 

Ossia: 







 



  

No

pray - ers

will

help.

3

Slower q = 40

(cut off with piano)







sfz knock on crossbars inside piano with knuckles (both hands, different crossbars)

 

attacca (Ped.) (hold ped. into next movement)

III. Pricilla's Backyard after Priscilla Hunter and Michael Hunter, 2022 q = 60

  

 



 





q = 60

p

 



The

an

-







ces -

tors









are

be - come



pp

  (Ped.) 



Begin boxed figure somewhere near the middle of the piano's accelerando, unsynchronized with it (In Tempo: q = 60)

  

 

3

earth,

          and the bear - grass ris

begin very slowly (c. 40 bpm per note)

-

c. 20"

 

 

mf

p

 

       



  

   

es,

                     mf

13

  

4

c. 3"

p

n

 

mf

 

     

 

3

the bear - grass ris

  

-

es,

c. 20"

c. 3"

  

 







 

c. 3"

p

7



 

mp

n



 

3

-



grass

f



 

ris -

es,

c. 20"

   mp 





 

f

bear



c. 3"

            

 

 

     











c. 3"

 

       

      

  c. 3"



 

ff

14

9



 

mf

n

ff

 

    ris

-

-

es,

c. 15"

 

   mf 



 



 



 



 fff

               a

 

 

In Tempo (q = 60) p n

  

10

           

  



In Tempo (q = 60)

flow - er - cit - y













in

the

n





air.

       

                       p             3 3 3 3 

15

rit.

mf ff   3               

13

   

old

vil - lage lies,

p

    

       





   





    



 

  



mf

  let

 

  

mf

        



3





   

 

3

 

the

mp

  

hearths

be graced

 

  

(arpeggi after grace notes)

f   



  



 

q = 46

        



q = 46



where the

rit.

sffz sffz

 



be;



     

       ff      

16

and leave it all



Leave the red - wood un - cut,



p dolce

        

16

poco rit.









 with

        

  







car - ex

and

ferns.

poco rit.









  

 





  

   

        

poco rit.

22





  

A tempo



pp

        

  







Freely (q = c. 88)

(Do not rearticulate if you run out of breath)

poco rit.

       

p



19

A tempo





n

    

Freely (q = c. 88)



    

 

            

p possibile (don't worry if all the notes don't sound clearly)

 