Spotlight on Aaron Jay Kernis

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Spotlight on Aaron Jay Kernis CONSERVATORY OF Music presents NORTH AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL Wednesday, April 23, 7:30 p.m. Amarnick-Goldstein Concert Hall de Hoemle International Center Program Wed esd y, Apri 23 Spotlight on Aaron Jay Kemis Air Sylvia Kim, violin Tao Lin, piano Goblin Market Arthur Weisberg, conductor Dmitry Pogorelov, violin Sarah Perkins, viola Ana-Maria Achitei, cello Sachiko Okada, double bass Lea Kibler, flute Lee Berger, oboe Paul Green, clarinet Stas Pomerants, bass clarinet Jennifer Anderson, bassoon Nelly Juarez, french horn Aaron Mahnken, trumpet Douglas Goldberg, percussion Aaron Hanka, percussion Poetry Goblin Market Christina Rossetti We must not look at goblin men, We must not buy their fruits: MORNING and evening Who knows upon what soil they fed Maid.5 heard the goblins cry: Their hungry thirsty roots?" "Come buy our orchard fruits, "Come buy," call the goblins Come buy, come buy: Hobbling down the glen. Apples and quinces, "O! cried Lizzie, Laura, Laura, Lemons and oranges, You should not peep at goblin men." Plump unpecked cherries­ Lizzie covered up her eyes Melons and raspberries, Covered close lest they should look; Bloom-<lown-cheeked peaches, Laura reared her glos.5}' head, Swart-headed mulberries, And whispered like the restless brook: Wild free-born cranberries, "Look, Lizzie, look, Lizzie, Crab-apples, dewberries, Down the glen tramp little men. Pine-apples, blackberries, One hauls a basket, Apricots, strawberries-- One bears a plate, All ripe together One lugs a golden dish In summerweather­ Of many pound.5' weighl Moms that pass by, How fair the vine must grow Fair eves that fly; Whose grapes are so luscious; Come buy, come buy; How warm the wind must blow Our grapes fresh from the vine, Through those fruit bushes." Pomegranates full and fine, "No," said Lizzie, "no, no, no; Dates and sharp bullaces, Their offers should not charm us, Rare pears and green gages, Their evil gifts would harm us." Damsons and bilberries, She thrust a dimpled finger Taste them and try: In each ear, shut eyes and ran: Currants and gooseberries, Curious Laura chose to linger Bright-fire-like barberries, Wondering at each merchant man. Figs to fill your mouth, One had a cat's face, Citrons from the South, One whisked a tail, Sweet to tongue and sound to eye, One tramped at a rat's pace, Come buy, come buy." One crawled like a snail, One like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry, Evening by evening One like a rate! tumbled hurry-scurry. Among the brook.5ide rushes, Lizzie heard a voice like voice of doves Laura bowed her head to hea~ Cooing all together: Lizzie veiled her blushes: They sounded kind and full of loves Crouching close together In the pleasant weather. In the cooling weather, With clasping arms and cautioning lips, Laura stretched her gleaming neck With tingling cheek.5 and finger-tips. Like a rush-imbedded swan, "Lie close," Laura said, Like a lily from the OO:k, Pricking up her golden head: Like a moonlit poplar branch, 11 Like a vessel at the launch She dropped a tear more rare than pearl, When its last restraint is gone. Then sucked their fruit globes fair or red: Sweeter than honey from the rock, Backwards up the mossy glen Stronger than man-rejoicing wine, Turned and trooped the goblin men, Clearer than water flowed that juice; With their shrill repeated cry, She never tasted such before, "Come buy, come buy." How should it cloy with length of use? When they reached where Laura was She sucked and sucked and sucked the more They stood stock still upon the moss, Fruits which that unknown orchard bore, Leering at each other, She sucked until her lips were sore; Brother with queer brother; Then flung the emptied rinds away, Signalling each other, But gathered up one kernel stone, Brother with sly brother. And knew not was it night or day One set his basket down, As she turned home alone. One reared his plate; One began to weave a crown Li?.Zie met her at the gate Of tendrils, leaves, and rough nuts brown Full of wise upbraiding.5: (Men sell not such in any town); "Dear, you should not stay so late, One heaved the golden weight 'JWilight is not good for maidens; Of dish and fruit to offer her: Should not loiter in the glen "Come buy, come buy," was still their cry. In the haunts of goblin men. Laura stared but did not stir, Do you not remember Jeanie, Longed but had no money: How she met them in the moonlight, The whisk-tailed merchant bade her taste Took their gifts both choice and many, In tones as smooth as honey, Ate their fruits and wore their flowers The cat-faced purr'd, Plucked from bowers The rat-paced spoke a word Where summer ripens at all hours? Of welcome, and the snail-paced even was heard; But ever in the moonlight One parrot-voiced and jolly She pined and pined away; Cried "Pretty Goblin" still for "Pretty Polly"; Sought them by night and day, One whistled like a bird. Found them no more, but dwindled and grew gray; Then fell with the first snow, But sweet-tooth Laura spoke in haste: While to this day no grass will grow "Good folk, I have no coin; Where she lies low: To take were to purloin: I planted daisies there a year ago I have no copper in my purse, That never blow. I have no silver eithei; You should not loiter so." And all my gold is on the furze "Nay hush," said Laura. That shakes in windy weather "Nay hush, my sister: Above the rusty heather" I ate and ate my fill, "You have much gold upon your head," Yet my mouth waters still; They answered altogether: To-morrow night I will "Buy from us with a golden curl." Buy more," and kissed her. She clipped a precious golden lock, "Have done with sorrow; II I'll bring you plums to-morrow One content, one sick in part; Fre;h on their mother twigs, One warbling for the mere bright day's delight, Cherries worth getting; One longing for the night. You cannot think what figs My teeth have met in, At length slow evening cam~ What melons, icy-cold They went with pitchers to the reedy brook; Piled on a dish of gold Lizzie most placid in her look, Too huge for me to hold, Laura most like a leaping flame. What peaches with a velvet nap, They drew the gurgling water from its deep Pellucid grapes without one seed: Lizzie plucked purple and rich golden fl ags, Odorous indeed must be the mead Then tu ming homeward said: "The sunset flushes Whereon they grow, and pure the wave they drink, Those furthest loftiest crags; With lilies at the brink, Come, Laura, not another maiden lags, And sugar-sweet their sap." No wilful squirrel wags, The beasts and birds are fast asleep." Golden head by golden head, But Laura loitered still among the rushes Like two pigeons in one nest And said the bank was steep. Folded in each other's wings, They lay down, in their curtained bed: And said the hour was early still, Like two blossoms on one stem, The dew not fallen, the wind not chill: Like two flakes of new-fallen snow, Listening ever, but not catching Like two wands of ivory The customary cry, Tipped with gold for awful kings. "Come buy, come buy,'' Moon and stars beamed in at them, With its iterated jingle Wind sang to tl1em lullaby, Of sugar-baited words: Lumbering owls forbore to fly, Not for all her watching Not a bat flapped to and fro Once disceming even one goblin Round their re;t: Racing, whisking, tumbling, hobbling; Cheek to cheek and breast to breast Let alone the herds Locked together in one nest. That used to tramp along the glen, In groups or single, Early in the moming Of brisk fruit-merchant men. When the first cock crowed his waming, Neat like bees, as sweet and busy, 1111 Lizzie urged, "O Laura, come, Laura rose with Lizzie: I hear the fruit-call, but l dare not look: Fetched in honey, milked the co11-S, You should not loiter longer at this brook: Aired and set to rights the house, Come with me home. Kneaded cakes of whitest wheat, The stars rise, the moon bends her arc, Cakes for dainty mouths to eat, Each glow-wonn winks her spark, Next chumed butter, whipped up cream, Let us get home before the night grows dark; Fed their poultry, sat and sewed; For clouds may gather even Talked as modest maidens should Though this is summer weather, Lizzie with an open heart, Put out the lights and drench us through; Laura in an absent dream, Then if we lost our way what should we do?" 11 Laura turned cold as stone She no more wept the house, To find her sister heard that cry alone, Tended the fowls or cows, That goblin cry, Fetched honey, kneaded cakes of wheat, "Come buy our fruits, come buy." Brought water from the brook: Must she then buy no more such dainty fruit? But sat down listless in the chimney-nook Must she no more such succous pasture find, And would not eat Gone deaf and blind? Her tree of life drooped from the root Tender Llzzie could not bear She said not one word in her heart's sore ache; To watch her sister's cankerous care, But prering thro' the dimnesc>, naught discerning, Yet not to share.
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