It Is at Moments After I Have Dreamed (2007) River of Stars (Amanogawa) (1999)

Choral Music it is at moments after i have dreamed (2007) River of Stars (Amanogawa) (1999)

it is at moments after i have dreamed (2007) [SSAATTBB Choir on a text by e.e. cummings] 6’

Requested and premiered by the Los Angeles Chamber Singers, Peter Rutenberg, Director, Mount St. Mary’s College, Bel Air, California, June 1, 2007.

"The most memorable performances were of Ian Krouse's “ it is as moments I have dreamed,” on text by e. e. cummings… Krouse's work, only his second for chorus, is varied, surprising, engaging, and gorgeous, and it here received the kind of premiere that most composers only dream about.”

Nick Strimple, AMERICAN CHORAL REVIEW, Fall 2007 of the LA Chamber Singers conducted by Peter Rutenberg at the annual Chorus American concert in LA

Published by Ian Krouse Music

Score available from the composer. P.O Box 117, 23705 Vanowen Street, West Hills, CA 91307

Score $3.00

Program notes and performance history:

it is at moments after i have dreamed was written for Peter Rutenberg’s superb Los Angeles Chamber Singers. The text is the tenth of a collection of poems by e.e. cummings called “Sonnets–Unrealities.” The text was brought to my attention by a graduate student at UCLA who thought it might inspire me. Just about that time I was hunting for a suitable text for Peter Rutenberg, who had asked me to compose a new piece for the Los Angeles Chamber Singers. I was drawn instantly to this hauntingly beautiful poem and, once having started, finished the piece within a matter of days. I was struck by the stark reality that great poems such as this never need music; rather, it is we, the composers, who need the poem to give voice to musical sounds and expressions that would not otherwise see the light of day. That said the composer may (and I did!) indulge the text in ways that cannot otherwise be accomplished. The sopranos begin by singing, literally, “it is at moments after I have dreamed – it is at moments, moments, moments, of the rare entertainment of your eyes.” The structural ‘bubble’ created by fragmenting and repeating individual words – or not – enables the composer to control the metabolism of the text; at times lingering at times racing. I particularly enjoy this aspect of text setting, and hope that it creates a somewhat spontaneous, improvisatory impression.

it is at moments after i have dreamed of the rare entertainment of your eyes, when(being fool to fancy)i have deemed with your peculiar mouth my heart made wise;

at moments when the glassy darkness holds the genuine apparition of your smile (it was through tears always)and silence moulds such strangeness as was mine a little while;

moments when my once more illustrious arms are filled with fascination, when my breast wears the intolerant brightness of your charms: one pierced moment whiter than the rest

-turning from the tremendous lie of sleep i watch the roses of the day grow deep.

by e.e.cummings

River of Stars (Amanogawa) (1999) [Motet for SATB Chamber Choir on texts by Akiko Yosano, Hayashi Amari, Meiko Matsudaira, Marichiko, and others] *Permission has been sought. [ 15’]

Requested and premiered by the Los Angeles Chamber Singers, Peter Rutenberg, Director, Zipper Auditorium, Colburn School, Los Angeles, California, April 1, 2000.

Score available from the composer. P.O. Box 117, 23705 Vanowen Street, West Hills, CA 91307

Score $8.00

Program notes and performance history: River of Stars is a literal translation of the Japanese word 'amanogawa', commonly known in the English-speaking world as the Milky Way. It was written at the request of Peter Rutenberg for the Los Angeles Chamber Singers, and subsequently premiered by them at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, April 1, 2000. I have always wished to write a poly- textual motet in the manner of the 13th century French composers, and the juxtaposition of this archaic European style with contemporary texts by Japanese women proved too delicious for me to pass up. Though I knew going in that it might be hard to pull off, I decided I had to try, and the opportunity to write for Peter’s crack chamber choir seemed to provide the perfect opportunity.

Most of the texts were written by the celebrated 19th century Japanese poet Akiko Yosano, one of the first women in Japan to write in an explicitly erotic manner. Most of the rest of the texts were written by women of our time, all highly influenced by Akiko’s pioneering example. Most of the poems take the form of the tanka, short poems akin to haiku, which are arranged in lines with the syllable pattern: 5 – 7 – 5 – 7 – 5. Normally the poems subdivide into two parts, the first three lines forming the first, the last two, the second. I arranged the poems into two groups, the "tenor "group, and the "motetus" group. The poems of the tenor group are simple in style and ethereal in tone, centering on images of the moon, temple bells, heartbeats, and koto-strikes. The motetus texts are arranged in three parts in a semi-narrative fashion, and are intended to depict the symbolic passing of time. The texts of part one are full of Narcissistic adoration and anticipation for a night of love. Those of Part Two express passion and ecstasy, while the texts of Part Three are given to reflection and melancholy. The work ends with a reprise of music heard at the end of Part One. Though the actual score is structurally more intricate than this brief explanation reveals, I leave that to the listener to discover. The work is dedicated to "my beloved wife Chika."

Part One

Tenor: the moon is tsuki wa full saerushi the night is very yo wa shin still shin to my heart kokoro beats bososa yo like a kane no koe bell

Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth Anonymous

Duplum: immersed in my yuami sura hot bath, like a lovely izumi no soko lily no growing in a sayuri-bana spring my twenty-year-old body hatachi no — natsu o so beautiful, so utsukushi to sublime minu

Trans. By Sam Hamill and Keiko Yosano Akiko Matsui Gibson

Triplum: gently, I open chibusa osae the door to shinpi no eternal tobari mystery, the soto kerinu flowers of my breasts, kokonaru cupped hana no offered with both my kurenai zo hands koki

Quadruplum : tell hanshin ni them she is enjoying the usukurenai no view of the usumono no moon a pink gossamer koromo robe matoite barely covering her tsuki miru to body ie

Trans. by Makoto Ueda Yosano Akiko

Refrain Tenor: amidst the koto no ne ni notes of my koto is kyosho no oto another no deep mysterious uchi majiru tone, a sound that comes kono ayashisa from mo within my own mune no breast hibiki zo

Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth Yosano Akiko

Duplum: I finger erimoto no the lace on my resu o ijiru collar until night, when hanabira o you turn over my anata ga petals mekutte kureru yoru made

Translated by Leza Lowitz, Miyuki Hayashi Amari Aoyama, and Akemi Tomioka

Part Two

in bright spring haru no hi o sunshine adoring lovers koi ni taru recline yoru against a white shira-kaba zo wall a lonely stranger uki wa tabi no watches ko dusk enters the fuji wisteria tasogaruru Trans. By Sam Hamill and Keiko Yosano Akiko Matsui Gibson

Tenor: I saw a young orakani girl naked kurokise mi sete steering a isanayuku boat across an open kami ho no mi sea no it was only the akatsuki moon tsukiyo of a summer night

Trans. By Glenn Hughes and Yosano Akiko Yozan T. Iwasaki

Duplum: I hold your head anata no tight atama wo watashi no between my thighs and mata ni press shikkari hasami against your mouth anata no and kuchi ni watashio tsuyoku float away forever oshishitsuker in u to, watashi wa an orchid ran no hana boat no fune ni notte on the river of tokoshie ni heaven tengoku no kawa wo tadayotte yuku

Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth Marichiko

Triplum: the peony in her kasashitaru hair flared up, setting the ocean on botan hi to fire nari umi moenu the dream of a omoi woman midaruru whose thoughts are in a hito no ko no frenzy yume

Trans. By Makoto Ueda Yosano Akiko

Quadruplum : warm kuchi wine utsusareshi from his nuruki wain mouth ga to hita hita to mine lapping against ware wo me kumanaku radiating through hakkoh me saseru

Trans. by Leza Lowitz, Miyuki Matsudaira Meiko Aoyama, and Akemi Tomioka

Part Three

feeling nanitonaku that you were waiting for kimi ni me, mataruru I went out into the flowering kokochi shite fields and found ideshi hana - no no the new yuzukuyo moon kana

the river of amanogawa stars begins to part soine no toko high no in the Milky Way tobari-goshi while ni through the curtains of our hoshi no bed wakare o I lied awake and sukashi miru watched kana

Refrain

Tenor: the moon is tsuki wa full saerushi the night is very yo wa shin still shin to my heart kokoro beats bososa yo like a kane no koe bell

Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth Anonymous

Duplum: amidst the koto no ne ni notes of my koto is kyosho no oto another no deep mysterious uchi majiru tone, a sound that comes kono ayashisa from mo within my own mune no breast hibiki zo

Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth Yosano Akiko

Special thanks to Toshie Marra, librarian in the East Asian Library at UCLA, for helping to locate the original Japanese texts for several of the poems, and to Chika Kawahara, and Maki Tauchi, for their invaluable help in translating and locating several of the poems.