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Karen P. Thomas

Our Conductor: Selected Program Notes

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Ancient Souls
Brass Quintet Nr. 1
Dar eltehab -é jazbe-yé yeganegy …burning with ecstatic harmony…
Elementi
Four Delineations of Curtmantle
Four Lewis Carroll Songs
...given for a time...
The Gloves
Lux Lucis
Over the City
Roundup
Sopravvento
Three Medieval Lyrics
When night came

Ancient Souls by Karen P. Thomas was commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for the 2000 National Convention, held in Seattle. It was premiered at the convention with three performances by Seattle Pro Musica, Karen P. Thomas conductor, James Holloway, organist. The text, by Seattle poet Molly McGee, is a plea for human tolerance and inclusivity.

Brass Quintet Nr. 1 was commissioned and premiered by the Emerald City Brass Quintet in Seattle in 1987. It has received numerous subsequent performances, including the International Congress on Women in Music, held in 1992 in Bilbao, Spain, and at the Ernest Bloch Music Festival in Newport, Oregon.

The first movement is based upon the whole tone scale, beginning with a three-pitch motif, and contains an extensive non-whole tone chromatic middle section.

The second movement is based upon melodic, harmonic and rhythmic structures found in the second Kyrie of Guillaume de Machaut's Messe le Nostre Dame. At times the allusions to Machaut's mass are quite apparent, particularly in the use of recognizable cadential figures, while at other times they form an underlying structure which is not perceptible.

Dar eltehab-é jazbe-yé yeganegy …burning with ecstatic harmony… was written for Joseph Adam, Cathedral Organist of St. James Cathedral. The title, in Persian and English, references the central theme of the work – a deep desire for two very different cultures to meet and begin the arduous process of understanding one another, forging a connection which leads in some small way to a sense of harmony or unity. The work incorporates two musical themes from Western and Middle Eastern cultures. From the West is the plainchant melody Pange lingua gloriosa (“Sing, my tongue, of the mystery of the glorious Body”) by St. Thomas Aquinas. From the Middle East is the Iranian sacred song Allah Madad (“God helps you”) which speaks of the 15th-century Persian mystic and prophet Ahmad-e Jami. The two musical themes are initially separate events, but by the end of the work they have transformed and combined into one brief musical gesture.

I am indebted to the celebrated Iranian poet, Azar Khajavi, who generously created the Persian title for this work.

Dar eltehab-é jazbe-yé yeganegy …burning with ecstatic harmony… is dedicated to Joseph Adam, and to the Very Reverend Michael G. Ryan, Pastor of St. James Cathedral, in recognition of his commitment to inter-religious relations.

Elementi. The four movements bear the names of the four elements which were once regarded as constituting the material universe -- earth, air, water and fire -- each movement portraying the distinctive characteristics of the corresponding element. Thematic material is derived from the letters of the names of three friends who supported the creation of this work.

Elementi was composed in 1990 for Laura DeLuca and Matthew Kocmieroski. The piece is dedicated, with affection, to the individuals who commissioned it, Molly McGee and Sylvia Pollack.

Elementi won first prize in the 1993 Delius Festival Composition Competition. It has received performances throughout the United States.

Four Delineations of Curtmantle. "...he was strongly built, with a large, leonine head, freckled, fiery face, and red hair cut short...He would walk or ride until his attendants and courtiers were worn out and his feet and legs covered with blisters and sores. This terrifying energy was the keynote of his whole character, and must have shone in his face, for it was said that men flocked to gaze upon him..." --John Harvey. The Plantagenets, Chapter 1, Henry II.

"Curtmantle" was the nickname given to Henry II, King of England (1133-1189), because of the short cloak or mantle which he wore (in contrast to the long cloaks worn by the Normans). The Delineations are musical portrayals of four events in the life of the king.

The first movement, "...of the cloak given to a beggar," recalls an incident wherein Henry and his friend Thomas Becket come across a beggar while out riding together. The good-natured Henry decides that Becket should have the honor of donating his cloak to the beggar. However, the somewhat less generous Becket is more inclined to keep his cloak than give it away. After a struggle, Henry wrests the cloak away from his friend and cheerfully tosses it to the bewildered beggar.

The second movement, "The Penitent at Becket's Tomb," depicts Henry doing penance at the tomb of Becket after the latter's murder by Henry's soldiers. Henry's personal grief at the loss of his friend contrasts sharply with the public show of penance which he is forced to make for the murder of a popular public figure. The third movement represents Eleanor of Acquitaine and her conflicts, private and public, with her husband, Henry. Will Durant writes that Eleanor "absorbed all the culture and character (of southwestern France, her place of birth): vigor of body and poetry of motion, passion of temper and flesh, freedom of mind and manners and speech, lyric fantasies and sparkling esprit, a boundless love of love and war and every pleasure, even to the death."

The final movement, "Dies Irae," shows the king struggling with death; a lonely and bitter man whose wife and sons have warred against him in open rebellion.

Four Delineations of Curtmantle exists in two versions: one for solo trombone and one for solo cello. It is dedicated to the trombonist, Monique Buzzarte, and has received dozens of performances throughout the United States since its premiere in 1983.

Four Lewis Carroll Songs were composed and premiered in 1989 by Seattle Pro Musica, and were awarded the 1991 Melodious Accord Composition prize.

The four poems are found in Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking-Glass, and are immediately familiar to most listeners. Turtle Soup is the song sung to Alice by the Mock Turtle, "in a voice chocked with sobs," while Father William is a poem recited by Alice to the hookah-puffing caterpillar. Jabberwocky, the famous poem which Alice reads by holding it up to a looking-glass, is full of unusual words which are explained by Humpty-Dumpty thusly:

brillig - four o'clock in the afternoon;
slithy toves - lithe and slimy creatures something like a badger, a lizard and a corkscrew;
gyre - to go round like a gyroscope;
gimble - to make holes like a gimlet;
mimsy - flimsy and miserable;
borogove - a thin, shabby looking bird, something like a live mop;
mome raths - green pigs, who've lost their way;
outgrabe - something between bellowing and whistling, with a sneeze in the middle.
(The other words are left to the reader's imagination.)

Finally, Speak roughly is sung by the Duchess to her howling, sneezing baby, who later turns into a pig.

…given for a time..., for trombone and organ, was commissioned by the Fondazione Donne in Musica, for the Grand Jubilee for the Year 2000 in Rome, Italy. It received its premiere performance on November 7, 2000 at the Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.

…given for a time... was inspired by the writings of the 14th-century English mystic Julian (Juliana) of Norwich, who wrote eloquently about the love of God and the equality of God’s feminine and masculine nature.

I saw no difference between God and our substance, but, as it were, all God;

and still my understanding accepted that our substance is in God...

...when the shewing, which is given for a time, is passed and hid,

then faith keepeth it...

Julian (Juliana) of Norwich (14th c.)

The Gloves. Music by Karen P. Thomas; text by Molly McGee; based on the oral history of Anna E. Cone.

"When the Masterworks Choral Ensemble commissioned me in 1992 to write a celebratory work for its concert of music by women, I reflected on who or what could be given acclaim through a musical composition. During this process, it occurred to me that the day-to-day accomplishments of women are too often unheralded and are truly deserving of celebration. In focusing attention on the life of one woman whose life could be judged as ordinary (school, marriage, work, children and grandchildren), her life, and the lives of many others like her inform us of the extraordinary in every woman.

"Anna E. Cone is a remarkably long-lived and resilient woman, who reached the age of 110 September 1995. She raised three children on her own, buried one son and lived independently 'down home' in Caruthersville, Missouri until well after her 100th birthday (the whole town turned out to celebrate this event). In 1991, Carolyn Cone of Seattle initiated an oral history project with her Grandmother Cone. These memories of "Miss Anna's" early years in Kentucky and Missouri are the basis for the text of The Gloves. The transcripts from the interviews were compiled into text and prose poetry by Seattle writer Molly McGee, and are focused on her early experiences at school and work and her first rather shy encounters with the man who was to become her husband (referred to in the oral history as 'your granddaddy.')"

Carolyn Cone writes of her grandmother:
Anna Evelyn Jones Cone was born September 20, 1885 in Louisville, Kentucky, 20 years after the end of the Civil War. Chester A. Arthur was President, Brahms and Verdi were at the height of their careers, and her physician father made housecalls by horseback. "Miss Anna" lived for more than 70 years in Caruthersville, Missouri. In 1988, health considerations encouraged a move closer to her family in California, where she now resides. She celebrated her 109th birthday in September, 1994.
Grandma Cone has been successful in imparting a sense of family history and personal values to her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and to the many loving friends she has made throughout her life. She participated enthusiastically in the oral history project which was the basis for The Gloves.
Karen P. Thomas, October 15, 1995

Lux Lucis is a collection of three motets for women’s voices, on texts by Hildegard von Bingen. The title translates as “light,” and especially refers to the light of life or the light of day – it can also translate as “hope” or “elucidation” in certain contexts. The texts by Hildegard for these three motets contain numerous references to light, the sun, flame, life and radiance. Musically, the motets make some references to Hildegard’s compositions – particularly in the use of the interval of the ascending fifth, which is found in many of Hildegard’s songs, and also in the extended chant which opens the third motet – however, there are no direct quotes of Hildegard’s melodies.

Over the City
Dedicated to the victims of the bombing of Hiroshima; music by Karen P. Thomas; lyrics by Molly McGee.

Over the City, In memory of the victims of the bombing of Hiroshima, for choir and chamber ensemble, was premiered on August 6, 1995 in Seattle. It was commissioned by a nationwide consortium of 30 Unitarian Churches to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945). The premiere was given simultaneously in numerous cities across the U.S.

On November 11, 1995 it was performed by Seattle Pro Musica as part of a Veteran's Day concert, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII. More recently, it was performed in March 1997 in Miami, at the National Conference of the Society of Composers, and again in Miami on April 10, 1997, as well as at the Women in Music Conference at the University of Ohio, Athens, on October 25, 1997.

Note from the lyricist:
The text for Over the City is derived from an actual experience. During my two-year stay in Japan I had traveled down to Nagasaki and visited the bomb museum there and ate, it seems, some bad fish from a little food stall. I had planned to stop off in Hiroshima on the way back to Kobe, but on route became extremely ill. By the time I reached Hiroshima the conductor had encamped me in his little office on the train (a retching foreigner is rather noticeable in Japan). All I remember of Hiroshima is the brief sight of it through the window and my garbled emotions, compounded by food poisoning. Only later did I equate that historical date, August 6th, in Hiroshima with my own illness -- the symptoms of food poisoning strangely mocking those of radiation sickness.

World War II is often referred to as "the good war." But it was horrible, as all wars are. There were atrocities on all sides. Even if the rationale is true, as the purveyors of Realpolitik assert (that the war ended earlier due to our dropping of the atomic bomb), it is nevertheless a legacy in which we can never, in any way, take pride. Human beings, most of whom had very little control over the conduct of the war, were savagely slaughtered. The hibakusha (survivors of the Bomb) and their descendants continue to suffer today and are often ostracized by their own communities. The Bomb was so horrific that "no one" wants to remember it. Even those who died are left "homeless." So, fifty years later, it is so commendable that you are here, if only for a few moments, to be reconciled with the more than 200,000 men, women and children who lost their lives.
Molly McGee, June 26, 1995, Seattle, Washington

Roundup. Roundup for saxophone quartet is dedicated to the Joseph Wytko Saxophone Quartet, and was premiered by them in Phoenix and in Oregon at the Ernest Bloch Music Festival in 1993. Recently it has been performed in Fiuggi, Italy on the II Symposium Festival Donne in Musica, September 10 and 14, 1997, and at the Women in Music Conference at the University of Ohio, Athens, on October 25, 1997.

The title refers to the notion of a composer "rounding-up" some ideas for a composition, and also bears a tongue-in-cheek reference to a cattle drive. The movements are titled by their respective tempo markings: Fast, Not so fast, and Stampede.

Sopravvento. Commissioned by The National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors.

Sopravvento is a work in three movements (fast-slow-fast) which explores both the similarities and differences in sonorities between wind and percussion instruments. While the outer two movements concentrate mainly on the differences in timbre (the first movement utilizing percussion instrments made of wood, the last using a large array of pitched and non-pitched membranophones), the slow inner movement seeks to meld the sounds of metal and glass percussion with woodwind sonorities. The first and last movements are characterized by a driving rhythm: syncopated in the first movement, moto perpetuo in the last. The contrasting second movement exhibits much greater freedom in its rhythmic structure.

The title Sopravvento has a double meaning: "against the wind" is obviously sailing terminology, but in this instance I think of the percussion instruments as being against or in opposition to the wind instruments. Sopravvento also means "the upper hand," as in "to get the upper hand" (prendere il sopravvento); so the listener might wonder who gets the upper hand in this piece - winds or percussion... or neither?
--Karen P. Thomas

Three Medieval Lyrics was commissioned by the Board of Directors of Seattle Pro Musica, in celebration of the choir’s 20th anniversary. They were premiered by Seattle Pro Musica and founding conductor Richard Sparks on March 13, 1993. The composition was also supported, in part, by a Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship and a Seattle Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant. In 1997, Three Medieval Lyrics was awarded second prize in the His Majestie's Clerkes Choral Composition Competition.

As the title implies, the texts for the three pieces are medieval lyric poetry – in this case, English lyric poetry. The first, To Mistress Margaret Hussey, is by John Skelton (1460-1529). The second and third texts are anonymous – Alnight by the Rose dates from the 14th century, and Westron Wind from the mid-15th century. The work is dedicated to the musicians of Seattle Pro Musica.

When night came... was composed in 1994 as a personal response to the horrors of the war in the former Yugoslavia, in particular to the atrocities committed against the women of Bosnia-Herzegovina. This piece is dedicated to those women - to those who have been brutally murdered, and to the survivors. It is in some part a lament, but it is also a tribute to the strength and resiliency of the women of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

There are two Bosnian folksong quotations in When night came... The first, Odkad seke nismo zapjevale, is based on a short series of repeated notes, with harmonies consisting of major and minor seconds. It is a ganga, an intense and vibrant form of vocal music sung in the mountainous regions of Herzegovina. The second song, Kad ja podjoh na Benbasu, is a lyrical love song – one of the most well-known and beloved songs in the area around Sarajevo.

When night came... exists in versions for clarinet and piano, clarinet and chamber ensemble, and clarinet and orchestra. It has recently received performances in London, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Washington, Oregon and Houston.

Odkad seke nismo zapjevale

How long we sisters haven't sung.

Now we'll do it, because we've come together.

Let's sing, sisters and cousins.

One tribe, one family.

Kad ja podjoh na Bembasu

When I went to Bembasa, to Bembasa by the riverside,

I led a white lamb, a white lamb with me.

All the Bembasa girls were standing at their courtyard gates;

my beloved was alone at her latticed window.

I said to her, “Good evening, girl!”

She replied, “Come see me this evening my darling!”

I didn’t go that evening, but went the next day;

The next day my beloved married another!

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