poem 3 Verse 5 to the end

Even though I worked quite a bit of Friday, I did not post as I was in the middle of this final section and I wasn't sure where things were heading. I did a little bit over the weekend and finished this poem today.

I was struggling quite a bit on how to notate the audience participation. I went to a concert Friday night and heard the Philadelphia Big Brass. It was a marvelous concert and on one piece, "La Virgen de la Macarena", they had the audience shout "ole". The audience was really into it and it reinforced my desire to involve the audience in my "Four Poems". The challenge for me is that my audience participation is more complex. In order to make the audience participation simpler, I decided not to notate the exact rhythm and I hope the audience will stay somewhat together on their own. My "Karaoke" idea of projecting the words and cuing the audience on each word also seems too complex. I just plan to have a handout with the words and sounds the audience needs to do and to have the Soprano lead the audience. I also indicated on my score that audience participation is optional as it is not always practical. The soprano would recite the words and do the sound effects in this instance.

Once I solved that problem, I was free to finish my setting of the words. This entire setting is through-composed (different music for all the words) although there are several unifying factors underlying the free form. After the climax on the words "Yes! That was the reason", the tempo slows down and moves to a duple meter feel for most of the remainder of the piece instead of the triple meter feel. After the aside by the audience on the words "(as all men know in the kingdom by the sea)", the clarinet and piano begin a dramatic and intense section. On the words "chilling and killing my Annabel Lee) both the voice and piano descend in a mostly chromatic line. Immediately following is a change of mood with syncopated, rich harmony and 16th note arpeggios in the piano and lyricism in the flute and voice as the words describe the depth of their love. There is some word painting with soaring lines on "heavens above" and descending lines on "demons down under the sea". An audience participation speaking section occurs next over chords built in ascending perfect 4ths. The middle of this section introduces a five note descending pattern that will recur frequently in the last section of the poem. A return to the syncopated and arpeggiated piano part accompanies a new melodic line in the last section that also includes that descending figure just mentioned. After a rising arpeggio in the piano on the last word, the audience finished the setting by making the sounds of waves.

To see and hear what is discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/fourpoemsblog.html

Dr. B