Two E. E. Cummings Songs (2008)
For SSAA chorus
Texts by E. E. Cummings
First performance by the San Francisco Girls Chorus, in San Francisco, CA, on 24 October 2008
Duration: 8 minutes
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| (Kiss Me) | Sky Candy Spouting Violets |
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Program Note by Susan McMane
The San Francisco Girls Chorus commissioned Augusta Read Thomas to compose Two E.E. Cummings Songs in honor of the organization's 30th anniversary season. The composer has dedicated the songs with admiration and gratitude to Susan McMane and Chorissima.
Augusta Read Thomas (born in 1964 in New York), was Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1997-2006) and, until 2008, Chair of the Board of the American Music Center, on which she served for five years. In 2006, Thomas resigned from her position as the Wyatt Professor of Music at Northwestern University to devote her time exclusively to composition. She studied at Northwestern University, Yale University and at the Royal Academy of Music. Ms. Thomas is an internationally renowned composer with recent orchestral projects such as the Helios Choros, a triptych for orchestra (2006-2007) (title translation: Sun God Dancers): Helios Choros I, commissioned by the Dallas Symphony; Helios Choros II, co-commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra; Helios Choros III, commissioned by the Orchestra of Paris. New works to be premiered this season include Festival Présences with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the BBC Proms, and a new work for orchestra, commissioned by the Juilliard School, to premiere in Fall 2009.
For her commission for the Girls Chorus, Ms. Thomas chose to set two unique poems by American poet, Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962). Her music and Cummings' poetry seem especially suited to each other. Similar to Cummings' direct, lyrical style, critics say Ms. Thomas music "explodes with an extroverted boldness of utterance audiences and musicians alike find challenging yet immediate. It's music that doesn't sound like anybody else's — music that insists you pay attention." (Chicago Tribune).
Texts by E. E. Cummings
1. (kiss me)
up into the silence the green
silence with a white earth in it
you will(kiss me)go
out into the morning the young
morning with a warm world in it
(kiss me)you will go
on into the sunlight the fine
sunlight with a firm day in it
you will go(kiss me
down into your memory and
a memory and memory
i)kiss me,(will go)
To obtain examination or performance material for any of Augusta Read Thomas's works, please contact G. Schirmer Inc..