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Words: Amy Lowell
Despite this being a work written in my student days,
I still consider it among my best. This is in large part due to my discovery of Amy Lowell's poetry. Every composer looks constantly for texts to set,
Another impetus came from a fellow student and
clarinettist (with whom I was enamored), who promised me a performance if I
wrote something for this combination (we had just heard Schubert's
Shepherd on the Rock). What more could a composer ask? An exciting
poet, Schubert's wonderful example, and an attractive performer...
The cycle is in 6 parts entitled "Fish", "Game",
"Drawing Room", "Coffee", "Talk", and "11 O'clock". Each section offers a
scathing commentary on the rich society in which the poet found herself,
delivered in powerfully evocative images. The style is freely tonal, quite
dissonant in spots, and requires good rhythmic control. It was premiered, as
promised, by my lovely JoEllen Harris (along with Elaine Dobek, piano, and
Elsie Hepburn, soprano) in 1975 as part of my Master's recital at the
University of Alberta, and has been performed
by several other sopranos since. Score and clarinet part are available through the Canadian Music Center, or by sending me an email (below).
Duration: about 14 minutes
perhaps finding one or two in a volume of poetry. When I found Ms. Lowell
for the first time, I could not believe what I was reading. She is my
poet, and my hands were shaking as I read: I could set everything she wrote!
Performance of Ron Hannah's
The Dinner-Party
Review by Mairi MacLean, Edmonton Journal
.... It was a tricky, shady work, with a dark text .... and dark music to match. [Linda]
Perillo did very well in a difficult piece for soprano, filled with edgy intervals and a
sense of the desolate and desultory.
-- June 10, 1989
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