About the Work
The May 10, 2009 performance at Carnegie Hall marked
the work’s World Premiere.
Notes on the Work
These three separate songs are written specifically for and with vocalist
Olga Bell. They are meant to stand as distinct songs, with different texts and
emotion.
“Death the Barber” is a poem by William Carlos Williams that Olga chose to
set over a germ of an idea that I had. I had originally pictured this as a very
mechanical piece, starting from the image of a bass drum part consisting of
nothing but 16th notes, a rhythm that would would then be grafted on to all
instruments. But at the recommendation of Osvaldo and Dawn, I wrote the lyrical
string parts. I also asked Brandon, the guitarist, to improvise more with the
guitar part. I feel there is now enough of the mechanical parts to evoke the
feeling I had originally intended, yet enough variation and shape to be
evocative.
“Keaton” is a setting of an Elizabeth Bishop poem that Olga found referring
to the genius physical comedian Buster Keaton. One thing that always strikes me
about Keaton’s characters is that with each fall or setback, he gets up a
stronger man. With that (perhaps too intense) reading of Keaton’s characters, I
wanted to write a song with a relentless but soft quality that had several
rising waves of musical energy. With this optimistic outlook, there is something
very melancholy about Keaton, which, for me, Bishop’s words touch on
perfectly.
As with “Death the Barber,” “Malleable Plans” was composed by sending
sketches back and forth to Olga. I wanted to explore her mad looping skills, and
write a brooding kind of dark groove that could serve as a verse and then yield
to a much brighter chorus. At the first chorus, I had originally intended to
have the ensemble clap some syncopated rhythms; but again, through the lens of
Osvaldo and Dawn’s advice, I saw this as “just an idea,” rather than an idea
that served the song.
—Jeremy Flower
About the Composer
Jeremy Flower is a multiinstrumentalist, and composer of acoustic and
electronic music. His work with electronics has landed him on stage as a guest
artist with the Atlanta and Chicago symphony orchestras, the Santa Fe Opera, Los
Angeles Philharmonic, The Curtis Institute, and American Composers Orchestra,
among others. Jeremy has collaborated extensively with Osvaldo Golijov to create
electronic parts for the Grammy-nominated song cycle Ayre (2006) and
one-act Grammywinning opera Ainadamar. With Golijov, he recently
completed the film score for Francis Ford Coppola’s 2007 film Youth Without
Youth. Jeremy is currently working on chamber commissions from the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra.
Bio current as of May 2009