Roger Bourland
writes about music and life

Because Vox Femina so loved “Both page and pen” and its erotic imagery, I decided to turn up the erotic flame just a tad in Alarcon Madrigals, Book 3. Commissioned again by Vox Femina, this set was written in Hawaii and you can find diary entries for working on the piece within this blog. You’ll hear some country twang in “Like a crazed flower,” and a reference to the final number of book 1 (”I learned Spanish from my grandma…”) closes Book 3, and bookends the set of three books.

Presently (July 2009) I am finishing a new set of madrigals for Vox based on the poetry of Eloise Klein Healy that turns up the erotic flame even higher.

MP3: Play audio file (alarmad3.0.mp3)

Alarcon Madrigals, Book 3 (2007)

Music: Roger Bourland
Poetry: Francisco X Alarcon
Iris Levine conducts Vox Femina -LA
Published by Yelton Rhodes Music – Los Angeles

In the late 1990’s, a new women’s chorus was formed in Los Angeles by Iris Levine (Chair, Pomona College, Dept of Music) called Vox Femina. In their early days they sang some of my Dickinson Madrigals and a few of the numbers from Alarcon Madrigals, Book 1. Book 2 was commissioned by Vox Femina and was recorded on their “Simply” CD in 2002.

We have developed a marvelous relationship since then. They commissioned two more pieces after this one. Their favorite piece of this set has been “Both page and pen” — an erotic number that is fun to sing. This set is a bit less Spanish sounding, carrying on the language set in motion in the Dickinson Madrigals.

MP3: Play audio file (alarmad2.0.mp3)

Alarcon Madrigals, Book 2 (2002)

Music: Roger Bourland
Poetry: Francisco X Alarcon
Iris Levine conducts Vox Femina
The Tolerance Project June 22, 2002

Vox Femina

I first got to know the poet Francisco X Alarcon working on LETTERS TO THE FUTURE. Adrienne Rich had suggested I seek him out. I have always resonated with the joy and color in his poetry. He prints his poetry with an English version on one side and Spanish on the other. And even though I don’t have an ounce of Latin blood, he makes me feel like one when I set his words.

The outer pieces are about two of his family members: his grandmother (1) and his magical memories of her; and his sister (5) who stood up to their father refusing to do the dishes. The inner three are less peppy character studies, but are more color pieces that celebrate the Mexican-American flavor I get from Alarcon’s poetry.

I call Francisco my Mexican Buddha.

MP3: Play audio file (alarmad1.0.complete.mp3)

Alarcon Madrigals Book 1 (1994)

Music: Roger Bourland
Poetry: Francisco X Alarcon
Vance Wolverton conducts the CalState Fullerton Women’s Chorus
Published by Yelton Rhodes Music, Los Angeles.

Francisco X Alarcon (image by geminipoet from Flickr)

In “Garden Abstract” I figured out how to weave voices together in a better harmonic way, making it easier to sing. The piece was premiered on a graduate composers concert at the New England Conservatory in 1977 and my colleagues actually liked it. The faculty liked it by choosing for performance at the commencement, the performance you hear here. The women singing it are all opera divas and brought their skill to each interwoven line. They were ON for this performance.

In the Hart Crane poem, the intoxicating hook for me was the image of Eve looking at the apple with great desire and lust; that hovering, dreamlike, and almost uncontrollable feeling one gets.

This was the last gnarly piece for chorus I composed. After this, I switched to the language of the Dickinson Madrigals (see below).

MP3: Play audio file (GardenAbstract.mp3)

Garden Abstract (1976)
SSSAAA
Music: Roger Bourland
Poetry: Hart Crane
Conductor: Thomas Toscano; NEC grad students
Publisher: Yelton Rhodes Music, Los Angeles

This piece should be put in my folder called “juvenilia.” I was an ardent anti-tonalist here, my heroes late Stravinsky sacred choral music, and Ligeti’s “Requiem.” Each movement explores a different kind of cloud phenomenon aurally. The first: cirrus clouds as whispers; second: the staggering beauty of the Great Red Spot against Jupiter and a feeling of hovering; and finally, a Swedenborgian (yes, I was reading him at that time) cloud of angels creating a choral texture not unlike Stravinsky’s eccentric 12-part interludes in “Requiem Canticles.”

I can’t guarantee all will like this piece, but for the record, here it is.

MP3: Play audio file (Three_Clouds.mp3)

Three Clouds for chorus (1975)

Music: Roger Bourland
Unpublished
Christopher McGann, directs UW Madison Chamber Singers

For this set I decided to try SATB, as the last two had been for women’s chorus. This set has four movements, where the other two have five, and to my ears it matches the other two in shape and style. I cut the fifth movement because it was just too dorky. I’ll leave swing choir music to those that know how to do it.

I wrote this set for my late friend and colleague, Donn Weiss who ran the choral program at UCLA for decades.

This was the black sheep of the set for me. The fact that I so disliked the fifth movement left an icky film on the others. Now that I hear this set twenty two years later, the set of four works just fine.

I have no plans to do a Book IV, but you never know.

MP3: Play audio file (Dickinson_Madrigals_Book3.mp3)

Dickinson Madrigals Bk3 (1985)
SATB
1. Glee four forty
2. How lonesome the wind
3. The earth has many keys
4. Giant rain

Music: Roger Bourland
Poetry: Emily Dickinson
Published by Yelton Rhodes Music, Los Angeles
Donn Weiss conducts the UCLA Chorale

This set was commissioned by Kenneth Seitz and the Cambridge Chorale and stylistically picks up where Book 1 left off. Most of the “madrigals” are in ABA or ABCA, with a repeat of the opening material. All my roots show in this one. As I was about to move to LA to take a new post at UCLA, it was my last appearance as a Composer in Red Sneaker, after which, they hoisted my sneakers to the rafters in Sanders Theater.

MP3: Play audio file (Dickinson_Madrigals_Book2.mp3)

Dickinson Madrigals, Book 2 (1983)

Kenneth Seitz conducts the Cambridge Chorale (1983)

RB @ 1918 Beacon St Boston

In Boston in 1980, six very different twenty-something-aged composers got together and formed a composer collective called THE COMPOSERS IN RED SNEAKERS. I was one of those composers, and, after Christopher Stowens magical and humorous electro-acoustic introduction, the lights went up and a chamber women’s choir stood there and sang my Dickinson Madrigals, Book 1 (1980). My Harvard classmate, Tim Mukherjee did a good job pulling the piece together, and the women, despite a few wrong notes here and there, did a great job on a tricky piece. The opening was a little shaky because they had just heard Chris’s intro, the lights came on, had to find their pitch, get the piece going, and try to not be nervous.

It was around this time that I was working part-time for Randall Thompson. He introduced me to the Sacred Harp singing tradition and the wonders of choral music. I composed a set of hymns under him.

This work shows Thompson’s influence, but also David Crosby’s. In fact, I played this piece for David and said it had a lot of him in it. He didn’t hear it. This piece caught the attention of EC Schirmer who later offered me an exclusive contract.

MP3: Play audio file (Dickinson_Madrigals_Book1.mp3)

Dickinson Madrigals, Book 1 (1980)

Music: Roger Bourland
Poetry: Emily Dickinson
Published by ECS Publishing, Boston
Tim Mukherjee conducting the Red Sneakers Women’s Chorus

Leonard Raver

A brief collaboration that I will never forget was receiving a commission from Juilliard faculty member and organist for the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Raver. Leonard was asked to give an inaugural concert for a new organ in a church named St Stephen Episcopal Church. Leonard suggested the notion of quoting the hymn tune “St Stephen” somewhere in the composition. You’ll hear it all over the place in “St Stephen Counterpoint.” Leonard performs this work in 1991 for an “Organists Against AIDS” concert.

Leonard Raver was to die the following year, 1992, of AIDS. Before he died, he recommended me to then Director of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, Jon Bailey, to compose the work that was to become “Hidden Legacies” — a work and an experience that changed my life. I am grateful to have known Leonard, even if it were for a short time.

Listen to the performance — such energy and power and drive. This recording is from the Pipe Dreams radio series.

MP3: Play audio file (St_Stephen_Counterpoint.mp3)

St Stephen Counterpoint (1989)
Music: Roger Bourland
Organ: Leonard Raver
Published by ECS Publishing, Boston

The year that Michael Jackson released “We Are The World” I was approached by a producer for a local Persian TV station about writing a similar song that would premier on his show. What else would a newbie teacher at UCLA do but corral his students into helping him make it happen. I forget who all participated in the song but here is a partial list: Billy Cohane, lead vocals, RB, piano, Chris Reid, guitar, Rex Perry, bass, Amy Wooley, Mark Carlson, Kathryn Vaughn, backup vocals. I had completely forgotten about this song until Jackson’s death. I found it on an old cassette and made this copy. I’m sure the master is in some vault somewhere or lost. Not that this song needs a rebirth, but it’s amusing to hear after all these years.

MP3: Play audio file (This_is_Our_World.mp3)