Program notes, lyrics, translations

Ma’iingan (Wolf)
Music by Adrienne Inglis
Program note — Ma’iingan (pronounced mah IN-gun) is the Ojibwe word for wolf (Canis lupus). The poem “Aangodinong” (Sometimes) from Wewemi by Margaret Noodin inspired the piece. Ma’iingan issues a call to action to address the extinction crisis by saving the wolves from hunters and habitat loss. Transcribed wolf calls provide some of the melodic material for the piece and luckily fall in a good range for the flute. Designed for intermediate level flutists, the piece employs pitch bends and timbral trills using straightforward alternate fingerings as well as optional slight lip bends. These accessible extended techniques give the intermediate player an introduction to features usually found only in more difficult music. Please consider supporting the Center for Biological Diversity (https://www.biologicaldiversity.org).

The Creatures
Music by Steven Sérpa
Text by Jeffery Beam

Program Note

Around 2009/2010, I was struck with the desire to compose a set of beast songs to Jeffrey Beam’s poems. His texts have inspired three works of mine now: the choral cantata Heaven’s Birds: Lament and Song, a tone poem titled An Invocation recently premiered by the Austin Symphony Orchestra, and now this song cycle.

The Creatures: a bestiary retold was written at the request of Maureen Broy Papovich. Maureen was performing in a fundraiser for the Autism Society of Central Texas and asked if I had any songs that fit their theme, animals. I jumped at the chance to write these creature songs and am grateful to Maureen for the opportunity.

The poetry for The Creatures:a bestiary retold is from Jeffrey Beam’s collection titled An Elizabethan Bestiary: Retold. It features illustrations by Ippy Patterson, and is published by Horse & Buggy Press, 1999. The texts are used here with the kind permission of the author.

Creatures of the deep. Of caves and corners.
Of all places. Among elms and palms.
In sand and rock. In sunshine, shadow.
The Creatures. Adam was. Eve was.
Great Sophia and Great Father were.

The Camel
In Babylon a grass which kills.
Elsewhere: long necked nimble. Never weary.
Never troubled by thirst.
The Camel.

The Manticore.
Three rows of teeth.
A lion’s feet.
A man’s face and ears.
Gray-eyed, red.
Tail armed with sharp castable quills.
A voice trumpet-like.
Devourer, relisher of man flesh.
The Manticore.

The Beaver.
Sweet is the fish which is not fish at all.
Whose great balls hunters wish to take.
Whose tail like a sole follows it.
Whose size no bigger than a Country Dog.
In daytime, of water.
In night, of the woods.
Whose upper teeth cut down huge trees.
Sweet is the fish which is not fish at all.

The Unicorn.
Peculiar desert beast voice strained above measure 
Whose one rich horn (curative for poison and fevers)
Delights the world.
Beyond all other beasts rev’rencing young women
And strong beautiful men in dresses and flowers.
The Unicorn.

The Salamander.
Starfull creature, cold creature of fountains, rivers, moist hedges.
Cold as ice crunching fire sucking milk as a serpent from the cow.
Ascending flames nearly to the moon.
Once it bites, never letting go.

The Whale.
Biggest and most monstrous creature.
Lying calm in the close deep.

Nameless and names.
Whose spirits wander mind and land.
Of the deep. Of all places. 
Of caves and corners.
Among elms and palms. At sand and rock.
In sunshine shadow.
Where eyes have not seen.
Ears have not heard.
As visions before us in numberless changes.

Physalia’s Journey (Portuguese Man ‘o War)
Music by Carolyn Trowbridge

Program note

One of the planet’s most mysteriously beautiful and complex beings—
not a single creature, but a colony of kindred zooids (clones) existing as one.
Its delicate, carbon-monoxide-filled sail drifts like an 18th-century Portuguese warship,
while thirty feet of ghostly tentacles trail below, gliding in quiet pursuit.
The Portuguese man o’ war moves with patient purpose,
its hunt as ancient as the tides, its sting both art and weapon.
Perhaps it carries the secrets of our blue planet—
perhaps it whispers the answers to the universe’s oldest questions.
This is the Physalia’s journey.

Furie terribili from Rinaldo (1711)
Music by Georg Friedrich Händel (1685–1759)
Text by Giacomo Rossi

Program note — The ``Furie Terribili’’ reminds us of the infamous Shakespearean proverb, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. In this aria from Handel’s opera Rinaldo, the sorceress Armida calls upon the powers of hades to exact revenge on the knight she loves. Handel captures her rage musically with rapid coloratura, dramatic leaps, and a fiery orchestral writing that vividly depicts her turmoil. The aria provides an electrifying portrait of passion and vengeance at the height of Baroque drama.

Furie terribili! [Ye dreaded furies!]
Circondatemi, [Surround me]
Sequidatemi [and attend upon me]
Con faci orribili! [with your frightful countenances.]

The Witches Aria from Hänsel & Gretel
Music by Engelbert Humperdinck
Text by Adelneid Wette

HEXE
Halt!
Hokus pokus, Hexenschuss!
Rühr' dich und dich trifft der Fluss!
Nicht mehr vorwärts, nicht zurück?
Bann' dich mit dem bösen Blick!
Kopf steh starr dir im Genick!

Hokus pokus, nun kommt jocus:
Kinder, schaut den Zauberknopf,
Äuglein stehet still im Kopf!.
Nun zum Stall hinein, du Tropf. 

Hokus pokus, bonus jocus,
malus tocus, hokus pokus!
Bonus jocus, malus locus! 

Hokus pokus, bonus jocus,
malus locus, hokus pokus!

Nun Gretel, sei vernünftig und nett,
der Hänsel wird nun balde fett.
Wir wollen ihn, so ist's am besten,
mit süssen Mandeln und Rosinen mästen.
Ich geh' ins Haus und hole sie schnell,
du rühre dich nicht von der Stell'!

HEXE 
stop! 
Hocus pocus, lumbago! 
Stir and meet the river! 
No more forward, not back? 
Banish yourself with the evil eye! 
Head stiff in your neck! 

Hokus pokus, now comes jocus: 
children, look at the magic button, 
little eye stands still in the head !. 
Now go in to the stable, you drip.

Hocus pocus, bonus jocus, 
malus tocus, hokus pokus! 
Bonus jocus, malus locus! 

Hocus pocus, bonus jocus, 
malus locus, hocus pocus! 

Well, Gretel, be sensible and nice, 
the Hansel will now be fat. 
We want it 
fattened with sweet almonds and raisins. 
I go into the house and get it quickly, 
you do not move from the Stell '!

Incidental music for The Masque of the Red Death
Music by Brian Satterwhite
Text by Edgar Allen Poe
Both the text and music have been abridged.
Program note

Poe is so visual—so alive. His words inhale light and exhale in shadow, and I’ve been inspired by them for decades. I’d always wanted to set his text to music, and the opportunity finally came when a friend of mine booked a local recording studio for a half day to record a reading of Poe accompanied by solo viola. What a bloody brilliant idea! Since he only needed the studio for a half day, I decided to take the other half and try something similar.

At that point, I hadn’t composed anything yet, but after a long stretch away during the COVID lockdown, I was itching to get back into the studio. I booked my session and went searching for the appropriate text—something I could compose quickly yet still make evocative and rich in atmosphere. The choice was obvious: The Masque of the Red Death—the treacherous tale of a vain prince who attempts to cheat a deadly plague by hiding in opulence, only to find that death itself has slipped inside his masquerade. I paired Poe’s gothic grandeur with the haunting voice of a solo alto flute doubling bass flute, written for my dear friend Adrienne Inglis, who has performed on more of my works than perhaps any other musician.

I had only a few days before the recording session, but the piece came together rather swiftly—as if summoned by Poe himself. What began as an off-the-cuff, whimsical therapy after a long creative drought ended up becoming a work I’m deeply proud of, and one that has enjoyed repeat performances.

My intention was to provide a pedestal for Poe’s words—not obfuscate or compete with them musically. Music and poetry entwined like two lovers consumed in a macabre dance to the death, where pure annihilation and exhaustion from isolation cause the heart to cry out in agony. And so, the music too must die. 

Newt
Music by Adrienne Inglis
Program note — Inspired by the poem Newt by Robert Macfarlane from The Lost Words, Newt by Adrienne Inglis (ASCAP) for flute and vibraphone (2020) sports a sassy attitude and tasty harmonies to convey the conversation between condescending coot and indignant newt.

Animal Ditties
Music by Anthony Plog
Text by Ogden Nash

1. The Turtle — The turtle lives twixt plated decks which practically conceals its sex. I think it clever of the turtle in such a fix to be so fertile.

2. The Python —The python has and I fib no fibs, three hundred eighteen pairs of ribs in stating this I place reliance on a seance with one who died for science. This figure is sworn to and attested. He counted them while being digested.

3. Hyena — Hyena is the kind of beast I’d not sit down with to a feast. He is appetite undiscriminating and mindless laughter unabating slavering in the plush arena the studio audience is mostly Hyena.

4. Hog — Some scientist may at last disperse the mysteries of the universe. But me, I cannot think why pork is white and ham is pink.

Jardín zoológico de nubes (Cloud Zoo) – world premiere
Music by Adrienne Inglis
Text by Alfonsina Storni (1892-1938)
Program note — Composed originally as a miniature for the 2024 Latinx Composer Miniature Challenge recorded by the Bahué voice and percussion duo, Jardín zoológico de nubes for voice and vibraphone sets the unusual poem by Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni. The poem title, Cloud Zoo, entices the reader to imagine cute puffy animals in the clouds. A closer look at Storni’s clouds instead shows betrayal, violence, gore, and revenge. The music uses dissonance and a bit of tango flavor to create the angst of a teddy bear who viciously bites his wife’s lover after discovering her infidelity. The clouds juxtapose horror and comedy with nebulous snake, whale, heron, cat, dog, and castle that itself twists the wind.

Jardín zoológico de nubes por Alfonsina Storni from Mascarilla y trébol (pub. 1938)

Quiero cantar al que se mueve arriba: 
salud, osito tierno, tu señora 
se besa con el otro algodonada 
y cuando el diente clavas, se deshace.
[I want to sing to the one who moves up above, cheers, tender bear, your cottony lady kisses the other and when you bite him, he falls apart.]

Y la serpiente que me perseguía 
en los sueños, está; y hay una garza 
rosada que se viene desde el río 
y la ballena destripada llora.
[And the snake that followed me in my dreams is there; and there is a pink heron that comes from the river and the gutted whale weeps.]

Y está el gato listado que una mano 
mató porque era grande y poco pulcro 
y en el tejado escándalos alzaba.
[And there is the striped cat that was killed by one paw because it was big and not very dapper and it raised a ruckus on the roof.]

Y mi perro lanudo que se sienta
en las traseras patas y se expande 
en un castillo que trastorna al viento.
[And my woolly dog ​​who sits on his hind legs and expands into a castle that turns the wind.]