Greenbaum UPON THE DARK Water

Vocal Score

Stuart Greenbaum

Upon the Dark Water

For Vocal Sextet or SSATBB Choir

GRT•012

(1991)

Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd

Sydney, NSW

Soprano 1

Soprano 2

Alto

Tenor

Baritone Bass

Instrumentation:

Duration: circa 9 minutes

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Performance notes:

Upon the Dark Water (1991)

Set to a text by Ross Baglin, Upon the Dark Water was commissioned by The Song Company with assistance from the Music Board of The Australia Council for the Arts. It is dedicated to Roland Peelman, who conducted the premiere at the Sydney Opera House on 18 July 1991. They subsequently released a studio recording of the work on Tall Poppies (TP064). The work has also enjoyed performances in the UK (Arcadian Singers) and the US (Cantori New York).

Stuart Greenbaum

Performance directions:

While some dynamic markings have been given, they should provide a starting point from which to shape the overall dynamic in rehearsal. The crescendos in the second song should start imperceptibly and should rise and fall evenly, fading out imperceptibly.

Tempo markings should be observed closely. If there is no tempo indication where the music changes meter, then a crotchet will always equal a crotchet.

The second song, in particular, may require a conductor as it is difficult to maintain a common pulse as a result of the interaction of the crescendos and decrescendos. These waves of sound should appear to create a suspended animation between the points of melodic activity.

The crescendo formations in the second song should be sung non-vibrato. Where vibrato is used (in anyof thethree songs)it shouldbe usedto colourand should never cloud theharmonic interaction between the voices.

The syllables of words in the text are occasionally distributed between more than one singer. This often results in the overlapping of vowel sounds that are not completed by the expected consonant. While a given singer’s part may not make sense in its own right, it is intended that the overall texture should make phonetic sense of the text.

Solo markings in the 2nd and 3rd songs last only for the phrase to which they are attached. If the piece is sung as a vocal sextet, then all solo markings can be ignored.

Upon the Dark Water

Based on 3 nature poems in the “Treasury Gardens” series by Ross Baglin

I

This public figure, with its girdled statues Of Burns, and Judges, and military men Surrendered now to pigeons, and reduced To quartered squares for clowning gulls and lunchers, Still recalls with steepled English shadows, The pruning of a colony ; enough then, For shabby poets, clumsy lovers And thin-lipped Cromwells in Sun-shingled towers To note, at evening, how the tea-light brews And new shoots nudge the moist light falling, falling, Below the leafless circuit of the moon.

II

The mother duck that chased at reeds And fantasies of weightless things That lurked in water, out of light, Is menaced by the crevices Of rocks that scour and foam ; The water’s changing, and the growing ducks She mothered in the teeth of Winter Fledge in poison; No expression in the eye Forgives their dying, no condolence comes In leaves that break the clean white bones of sun Upon the dark water.

III

A spark of green spits and chirrs in the toed claw ; The dipped spear clacks the tessellated shell, The luculent green fans twirled, The nerves cut, the netted wings wave Unbidden circles, the clash of strings Bewilders instinct, and the golden thighs That rattled Summer nights are cracked, Snap !

The flakes of flame smack in the scarlet beak.

The dismantling of a frail jewel Will not be accounted in the published report Of beauty’s ravished accessories, Beauty does not stir when hunger’s march Pounds sullen on;

Dark Water

Stuart Greenbaum Upon the

1: This Public Figure

text by Ross Baglin

Spits