words, mostly for or about music
I’ve had an extraordinary four weeks in residence at Yaddo and leave tomorrow morning. I go home with new friends, a new and complete libretto, a new partial libretto, several poems for my next collection, and many, many ideas. I also go home with new knowledge and practices and new ways of thinking.
My choral work with composer Clifford King, “Winter Goddess, Give Me Your Hands,” will be premiered on May 29th at the Eccles Conference Center in Ogden by the Next Ensemble. If you’re in the Salt Lake City area, tickets are available here. Inspired by climate change and Eastern European mythology, the finished piece is for semi-chorus, SATB, and piano. King’s ensemble, the Rocky Mountain Chamber Choir – Virtual Singers, has recorded the piece and it will be available soon. In the meanwhile, here are the lyrics:
Morana, Mara, Marzanna,
winter goddess, give me your hands.
Where have you gone, Mother Winter?
You who freeze the aching bulbs
so they arise in the spring,
you who chill the woods and fields,
so bears sleep and the white foxes hunt.
We have found you wandering,
in places foreign to your chill.
We find you on the griddle plains,
and devouring tropic mangoes.
We have hurt you, Mother Winter,
and we are sorry and atone.
We repent and we commit
to repair this world that is our home.
Where have you gone, Winter Queen?
You who keep the sea-ice in place
for the seals and hares,
you who make old dogs pups again,
give us joy and beauty.
We have made your life much shorter,
driven you from your ancestral homes.
We have caused you to wither
in the heat we’ve made.
We have hurt you, Mother Winter,
and we are sorry and atone.
We repent and we commit
to repair this world that is our home.
In 2019, Rosśa Crean and I had the premiere of our unaccompanied opera The Harbingers in the Horatio N. May Chapel in Rosehill Cemetery. In 2024, The Harbingers was performed in an all-new production at the same venue.
Composed for 10 vocalists, The Harbingers brings together mythical gods of death to debate the ultimate fate of a doctor who has recently died. The Celtic Donn sings the afterworld into existence, where the doctor’s Soul finds herself surrounded by soft light and a gentle breeze, and in the company of the psychopomp and angel of death Azrael. But this calm moment ends abruptly as gods of the afterlife arrive to take the soul to their realms. The Soul is claimed first by Hel of Norse legend, and then the Morrigan of the Celtic world. The Turkic and Mongolian god Erlik, too, lays claim to the Soul, and the arguing gods call upon the Greek Fates–Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos–to judge their claims. This process is interrupted by the appearance of Sekhmet, a god of Egyptian myth, who tries to woo the Soul, promising her great things. As the Fates examine the Soul’s life, the complexities of that life repel some gods and attract others, and the Soul must decide whether to accept the invitations of a death god, be reborn, or leave the destiny of her afterlife up to chance in the river that leads to the afterworlds.
Libretto by Kendra Preston Leonard
Music by Rosśa Crean
Directed by Ross Matsuda
Cast:
Atropos – Katherine Dalin
Azrael – Jessie Lyons
Clotho – James M. Brown
Donn – Keaton Payne
Erlik – Kevin Wheatle
Hel – Joelle Kross
Lachesis – Charles Anderson
The Morrigan – Mary Lutz Govertsen
Sekhmet – Jordan Harris
The Soul – Sarah Thompson Johansen
Azrael Cover – Anna Caldwell