CD153 Stephen Paulus: The Five Senses
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Stephen Paulus: The Five Senses Boston Modern Orchestra Project
CD153 $15.95
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CONTENTS |
| The Five Senses - Windows of the Mind Text by Joan Vail Thorne Narrated by Janet Bookspan |
| 1. I. Proclamation |
| 2. II. In the Beginning |
| 3. III. An Ode to the Nose |
| 4. IV. An Elizabethan Love Apple |
| 5. V. And I Did Eat of the Apple |
| 6. VI. The Four Provinces |
| 7. VII. Psalm to the Mouth |
| 8. VIII. Alpha and Omega |
| 9. IX. Let There Be Words and Lies |
| 10. X. Seeing is Believing |
| 11. XI. Look Out! |
| 12. XII. Perception |
| 13. XIII. Let There Be Light |
| 14. XIV. Proclamation |
| The Age of American Passions |
| 15. I. Animosities |
| 16. II. In the Spirit of Compassion |
| 17. III. Affirmations |
Listen:
"Psalm to the Mouth" from The Five Senses by Stephen Paulus
Excerpt from the first movement of The Age of American Passions by Stephen Paulus
The Five Senses - Windows of the Mind
Music by Stephen Paulus
Text by Joan Vail Thorne
In November, 1991 Janet Bookspan presented the world premiere of my work for narrator and orchestra entitled Voices from the Gallery at Merkin Hall in New York City. The late Andrew Schenck was the conductor of the Atlantic Sinfonietta - a group of professional, freelance musicians from the Boston and New York areas. This work was the first collaboration between myself and playwright/librettist Joan Vail Thorne. The success of that work (a recording and over 50 performances by Ms. Bookspan throughout the U.S.) lead to a second commission. This one came from friend and colleague Eleanor Eisenmenger, who commissioned The Five Senses for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and its conductor, Gil Rose, with Jan Bookspan again as the narrator. The premiere took place on March 7, 2003 at Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory.
The idea for The Five Senses originated with Joan Vail Thorne who suggested something more abstract than Voices from the Gallery. While the first work dealt with actual paintings and sculptures by famous artists where Joan had given someone in the painting something to say, this one was comprised of fourteen sections that addressed the human senses. Part of the magic of the text is that it doesn't chronicle or summarize the make-up of the senses. Instead, she shows us new aspects and attributes that constitute our senses and how we receive information and communicate with the world around us. I incorporated themes that repeat in different guises through the work and tie together some of the commonality between the senses. I purposely did not want the work to become too much of a segmented affair with many little sections strung together. So, I elided some sections to build larger musical forms. Parts ten through thirteen all have to do with the sense of sight and move continuously forward without stopping between movements. There are also "book ends" to the work since it opens and closes with a "proclamation." The opening one introduces us to the five senses. The final part poses the question, "Is there a sixth sense?" Some of the texts suggested their own format. The "Psalm to the Mouth" seemed to conjure up an almost chorale-like setting with an underpinning of rich, brass harmonies. In all movements I have tried to make the orchestra a complement and an enhancement to what the narrator is speaking.
The Age of American Passions
By Stephen Paulus
The Age of American Passions was commissioned by the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra Association to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the orchestra. (The Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra and Timothy Muffitt, conductor and music director, premiered the work on January 7, 1999 at the Centroplex Theatre for Performing Arts.) My intent was to create a work that would express, through the medium of the symphony orchestra, some significant aspects of the American spirit. The actual inspiration came from several books I read about George Washington in preparation for another work I ws writing at the time for narrator and orchestra. One of the authors referred to the final decade of the 18th century in America as "the age of American passions." Presumably this post-revolutionary era should have been one of tranquility as the new nation settled down. Instead it was filled with all sorts of fomenting ideas and courses of action which could have made the young nation come apart at the seams. I found a parallel in the last decade of our own 20th century and opted to borrow the phrases for the title of my orhcestral work
The work is cast in three movements. The first, "Animosities," is dedicated to conflict and disagrement and is full of kinetic, rhythmically aggressive figures. There is a constant forward motion that is carried by rapidly spinning eighth notes and sixteenth notes that are sporadically interrupted by outbursts from the entire orchestra. It is the most dissonant of the three movements and moves to a vigorous and noisy close, which is punctuated by two final hammer strokes from the orchestra.
Movement two is entitled "In the Spirit of Compassion" and is intended to adopt some more conciliatory musical ideas. It opens quietly with a line from the violas and they are soon joined by the cellos. A sudden and violent outburst from the orchestra interrupts this seeming quietude before a transition to a sonorous and outwardly romantic section lead by the strings with the first violins carrying the melody.
The final movment, "Affirmations", established a positive outlook for the conclusion. It opens with a long melody played both pizzacato and arco in the violins with an occasional gentle metric variation of a 7/8 bar. After some flirtations with the winds, brass and percussion, the movement is "launched" with another hammer strike from the entire orchestra. Fast, repeated and chromatic sixteenth notes from the violin section propel it forward. A gentle pulsating middle section builds in strength to a full orchestra statement before settling back into the driving sixteenth note violin figures. A "choral" march to the close lead by a melody traded between two trumpets leads into the final section of rapid fire eight and sixteenth notes.
--Stephen Paulus
STEPHEN PAULUS
Composer Stephen Paulus has been hailed as "...a bright, fluent inventor with a ready lyric gift" (The New Yorker). His prolific output of more than two hundred works is represented by many genres, including music for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles, solo voice, keyboard, and opera. Commissions have been received from the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Houston Symphony, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, with subsequent performances coming from the orchestras of Los Angeles, Philadelphia, St. Louis, The National Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Radio Orchestra. He has served as Composer-in-Residence for the orchestras of Atlanta, Minnesota, Tucson, and Annapolis, and his works have been championed by such eminent conductors as Sir Neville Mariner, Kurt Masur, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Leonard Slatkin, Yoel Levi, the late Robert Shaw, and numerous others.
Paulus has been commissioned to write works for some of the world's great solo artists, including Thomas Hampton, Håkan Hagegård, Doc Severinson, William Preucil, Cynthia Phelps, Evelyn Lear, Leo Kottke, and Robert McDuffie. Chamber music commissions have resulted in works for The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Friends of Music at the Supreme Court, The Cleveland Quartet, and Arizona Friends of Chamber Music. He has been a featured guest composer at the festivals of Aspen, Santa Fe, Tanglewood, and in the U.K., the Aldeburgh, and Edinburgh Festivals.
As one of today's pre-eminent composers of opera, Paulus has written eight works for the dramatic stage. The Postman Always Rings Twice was the first American production to be presented at the Edinburgh Festival, and has received nine productions to date. Commissions and performanaces have come from such companies as the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Washington Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Berkshire Opera Company, Minnesota Opera, and Forth Worth Opera, among others, as well as many universities and colleges.
His choral works have been performed and recorded by some of the most distinguished choruses in the United States, including the New York Concert Singers, Dale Warland Singers, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Robert Shaw Festival Singers, New Music Group of Philadelphia, Master Chorale of Washington D.C., Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and dozens of other professional, community, church, and college choirs. He is one of the most frequently recorded contemporary composers with his music being represented on over fifty recordings.
A recipient of both Guggenheim and NEA Fellowhips, Paulus is also a strong advocate for the music of his colleagues. He is co-founder and a current Board Vice President of the highly esteemed American Composers Forum, the largest composer service organization in the world. Paulus serves on the ASCAP Board of Directors as the Concert Music Representative, a post he has held since 1990.
Paulus' music has been described by critics and program annotators as rugged, angular, lyrical, lean, rhythmically aggressive, original, often gorgeous, moving, and uniquely American. He writes in a musical language that has been characterized as "...irresistible in kinetic energy and haunting in lyrical design" (Cleveland Plain Dealer). "Mr. Paulus often finds melodic patterns that are fresh and familiar at the same time... His scoring is invariably expert and exceptionally imaginative in textures and use of instruments" (The New York Times).
JOAN VAIL THORNE
Joan Vail Thorne works as a librettist, playwright, director, filmmaker, and teacher. Her collaborations with Stephen Paulus include two operas - The Woman at Otowi Crossing, which premiered at Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 1995 and Summer, which premiered at the Berkshire Opera Company in 2000, and was presented again by The Center for Contemporary Opera in New York City in 2002. They have also created three pieces for narrator and orchestra: Voices from the Gallery, Behold the Man - George Washington, which premiered with The National Symphony in 2000, and now The Five Senses: Windows of the Mind.
As a playwright, Ms. Thorne is best known for her play, The Exact Center of the Universe, which opened to critical acclaim in 1999 at The Women's Project, with Frances Sternhagen in the starring role, and subsequently transferred to a commercial Off Broadway run. Other plays include Signs and Wonders, Shades of Grey, and Crossing Paths. She has won the Southern Playwrights Festival, the Southern Theatre Festival, and the Sarett/Crawford playwriting awards.
Her two teleplays, High Cockalorum and The Living, an adaptation of a story by Annie Dillard, were commissioned by American Playhouse. And she wrote and directed two short films, Last Rites, which was shown on PBS and selected for the Florence Film Festival in Italy, and Secrets, which was shown on Cinemax and selected for the Athens Film Festival.
As a stage director, Ms. Thorne has worked on Broadway as Assistant Director to the renowned American director Alan Schneider. Off Broadway she has directed at the American Place Theatre, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Jewish Repertory Theatre, and The Women's Project, among others. Her regional directing credits include the Alley Theatre of Houston, Arena Stage of Washington, D.C., and the Dallas Theater Center.
She has served on the faculties of the Drama Division of The Juilliard School, Pace University, and Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, a studio of New York University, where she currently teaches directing. Ms. Thorne is a member of ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild, The League of Professional Theatre Women, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and The Women's Project.
JANET BOOKSPAN
Janet Bookspan is a stage director of opera and musical theater, a drama coach, an actress, a musician, and an educator.
She has performed as Narrator soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Indianapolis, Boston, Dallas, and Phoenix Symphony Orchestras, as well as St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, the Jupiter Symphony, and Pro Musica Columbus, among others. She has appeared in the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center and was Commentator for the "Live from Lincoln Center" national telecasts of the Messe per Rossini and Jessye Norman: Eight Heroines.
Her commercial recordings include Walton/Sitwell Facade; Paulus/Thorne Voices from the Gallery (Grammy nomination); Poulenc/Brunhoff The Story of Babar; Russell/Noon The Gift of the Eagle; and The Nutcracker ballet by Tchaikovsky. The Five Senses was commissioned by Eleanor Eisenmenger and written by Paulus/Thorne for her.
She is the Performance/Communication Coach for the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida and the Young Artists Program of Florida Grand Opera. She has directed over 40 productions for opera companies in the United States, Europe, and Mexico.
Ms. Bookspan's Dramatic Perspectives of Roles and Arias has been published in the PST Press Singers Edition.
GIL ROSE
Gil Rose is recognized as one of a new generation of American conductors shaping the future of classical music. His orchestral and operatic performances and recordings have been recognized by critics and fans alike. In 1996, Gil Rose founded the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), one of the few professional orchestras in the country dedicated exclusively to performing music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Under his leadership, BMOP's unique programming and high performance standards have attracted critical acclaim and earned the ensemble eight ASCAP awards for adventurous programming. Since 2003, Mr. Rose has also served as Music Director of Opera Boston, an innovative opera company in residence at the historic Cutler Majestic Theatre. Opera Boston has been named "Best in Boston" by The Boston Globe for seven consecutive years.
As a guest conductor, Mr. Rose made his Tanglewood Festival debut in 2002 conducting Lukas Foss' opera Griffelkin, a work he recorded for Chandos and released in 2003 to rave reviews. In 2003 he made his guest debut with the Netherlands Radio Symphony conducting three world premieres as part of the Holland Festival. He has led the American Composers Orchestra, The West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra in the Czech Republic, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony.
In June 2003, BMOP and Opera Boston together launched the much-celebrated Opera Unlimited, a ten-day contemporary opera festival featuring five operas and three world premieres. Mr. Rose led the world premiere of Elena Ruehr's Toussaint Before the Spirits, the New England premiere of Thomas Ades' Powder Her Face, as well as the revivial of John Harbison's A Full Moon in March with "skilled and committed direction" according to The Boston Globe.
Also recognized for interpreting standard opera repertoire, Mr. Rose's production of Verdi's Luisa Miller was hailed as an important operatic event. The Boston Phoenix said "Gil Rose proved himself a superb Verdian, thinking out both the subtle details of small phrases and the sweep of entire scenes." The Boston Globe recognized the production as "the best Verdi producgion presented in Boston in the last 15 years." Mr. Rose's recording of Samuel Barber's Vanessai for Naxos (the first recording since the premiere) has been hailed as an important achievement by the international press.
Also recognized for his recordings of American Orchestral repertoire, Gil Rose's discography includes world premiere recordings of music of George Rochberg, Eric Chaslow, Tod Machover, Lukas Foss, Athur Berger, Lee Hyla, Reza Vali, Steven Mackey, and Bernard Rands. Upcoming releases include works by composers Michael Gandolfi, John Harbison, Gunther Schuller, and Elena Ruehr. His world premiere recording of the complete orchestral music of Arthur Berger was chosen by the New York Times as one of the "Best CDs of 2003" and awarded an honorable mention by the Chicago Tribune.
Mr. Rose received his undergraduate training at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. His Master of Fine Arts degree and Artist Diploma are from Carnegie Mellon University, where his teachers wre Samuel Jones, Juan Pable Izquierdo, and Robert Page.
BOSTON MODERN ORCHESTRA PROJECT
Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) is one of the few professional orchestras in the United States dedicated exclusively to performing and recording music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Founded in 1996 by Artistic Director Gil Rose, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project's mission is to illuminate the connections that exist naturally between contemporary society by reuniting composers and audiences in a shared concert expereince. BMOP has produced more than 40 concerts of contemporary orchestra music, presented 37 world premieres including 17 commissioned by the orchestra, recorded over 30 works and released nine world premiere CDs, and launched Opera Unlimited, a new festival of contemporary chamber opera.
An eight-time winner of the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming of Orchestral Music, BMOP has been presented by the FleetBoston Celebrity Series, the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Boston Cyberarts Festival, and the Festival of New American Music (Sacramento, CA) and has performed at such venues as Jordan Hall, Symphony Hall, New York's Miller Theater, Winter Garden, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. BMOP is generously supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, private foundations, and individual philanthropists who share our interest in the future of orchestral music.
© 2008 ARSIS Audio