(1995) 19'
Commissioned by Network for New Music
Recorded on Albany Records (Troy 337)
Published by Theodore Presser Co.
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This night cycle of poems and Chinese translations by Kenneth Rexroth present a linear, nocturnal musical experience. The first song (Star and Crescent) begins in the aura of twilight, before proceeding in the next two songs (A Ringing Bell; Deep Night) into a night of innermost thoughts and remembrances. In the last song, at dawn (The Fall of Ch’ou) transfiguration and transcendence is attained. The musical setting seeks to evoke the beauty, mystery, anxiety and sadness of the texts; this leads, in the third song (Deep Night) —the emotional crux of the cycle—to the abandonment of conventional text declamation in favor of a nonverbal expression. The work was recorded for Albany Records [Troy 337] and is published by Theodore Presser Co.
I. Star and Crescent
II. A Ringing Bell
III. Deep Night
IV. The Fall Of Ch’ou