PROGRAM
NOTES
Redbreast
For Ensemble
2001
Notes by
Ken Ueno
Ken Ueno
For an amplified
ensemble of soprano
+ E-Flat, B-Flat, and
bass clarinets + harp
+ electronics.
On text by Emily
Dickinson.
Dem Rands,
Davidovsky, Nichols,
Stallmann, Fineberg
gewidmet.
ensemble of soprano
+ E-Flat, B-Flat, and
bass clarinets + harp
+ electronics.
On text by Emily
Dickinson.
Dem Rands,
Davidovsky, Nichols,
Stallmann, Fineberg
gewidmet.
This piece was an assignment written in partial fulfillment of the General Exams in composition. The faculty specified the text and instrumentation and the composer was given 4 days to finish the composition along with an analytical paper on Berg's Piano Sonata. Alas, Redbreast, was conceived, composed, notated, copied, bound and delivered within a 36-hour period the exam was submitted on September 10, 2001, and the composer was notified of the results on September 11, 2001 at 3pm. The original bound scores submitted to the faculty committee included a special, limited edition, color photo cover that depicts the title.
The irregularity of the meter and rhyme scheme combined with the unusual punctuation give this poem a modern sensibility, which inspired me to set the text using modern technology: amplification and electronics.
TEXT
I shall keep singing!
Birds will pass me
On their way to Yellower Climes
Each - with a Robin's expectation
I - with my Redbreast
And my Rhymes
Late - when I take my place in summer
But - I shall bring a fuller tune
Vespers - are sweeter than Matins “Signor”
Morning “only the seed of Noon”
The irregularity of the meter and rhyme scheme combined with the unusual punctuation give this poem a modern sensibility, which inspired me to set the text using modern technology: amplification and electronics.