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Barbra Streisand/Burt Bacharach: Close to you (1971)

[Thanks to Frank Cody.]

Bourland choral music: Rosarium Act 1 (1998)

Rosarium: A Drama for Chorus and Orchestra

Act 1: Flower and Song

1. Prologue

MP3: Play audio file (rosarium1.prologue.mp3)

2. The Arrival

MP3: Play audio file (rosarium2.arrival.mp3)

3. Tenochtitlan

MP3: Play audio file (rosarium3.tenochtitlan.mp3)

4. Tepeyac

MP3: Play audio file (rosarium4.tepeyac.mp3)

5. (Link)

MP3: Play audio file (rosarium5.dont_you_know_me.mp3)

6. Santa Maria

MP3: Play audio file (rosarium6.santa_maria.mp3)

Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: William MacDuff
UCLA Chorale and the Angeles Chorale
UCLA Philharmonia
UCLA Opera Workshop
Conducted by Donald Neuen

LIBRETTO

Rosarium

Prologue: First Song of the End-Time

Herald (Tenor Solo)
Behold the End-Time,
dark days,
dark days of holocaust and insurrection.
The End-Time is come!

Chorus
Warring images collide:
the orphans and the amputees,
bewildered brides arrayed in black
and highways thick with refugees.
I am Sarajevo,
Kigali and Beirut.
I am a house divided,
the sniper and the parricide.
The global village trembles
and braces for attack.
Surely these are final days!

Herald
Behold the End-Time,
strange days,
strange days of irony and deconstruction.
The End-Time is come!

Chorus
There’s a loud, insistent wail
in the Land of the Disenchanted,
where justice is a thing-for-sale
and compassion is out of fashion.
I am California
and New Jerusalem.
I am the late Utopia,
the Promise spent and Hope denied.
The bureaucrats assemble
to handle the details.
Surely these are final days!

Herald
Behold the End-Time:
fierce days!
“Vengeance is mine!” cries the Earth…

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Bourland choral music: Crocodile’s Xmas Ball (2002)

The Crocodile’s Christmas Ball and other odd tales (2002)
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: William MacDuff
UCLA Chorale, Donald Neuen, Director
UCLA Wind Ensemble, D. Thomas Lee, Director
Roger Bourland, conducting

1. Tropical Christmas

MP3: Play audio file (crocxball1.mp3)

2. A Proper Cat Reflects upon the Holidays

MP3: Play audio file (crocxball2.mp3)

3. After Halloween

MP3: Play audio file (crocxball3.mp3)

4. Santa Claws (Daniel Cummings, tenor)

MP3: Play audio file (crocxball4.mp3)

5. Down Home Christmas on Mars (Roger Bourland, solo)

MP3: Play audio file (crocxball5.mp3)

6. The Crocodile’s Christmas Ball (Tim Mussard, baritone)

MP3: Play audio file (crocxball6.mp3)

7. It Isn’t Christmas (Juliana Gondek, soprano)

MP3: Play audio file (crocxball7.mp3)

8. A Fly on the Wall

MP3: Play audio file (crocxball8.mp3)

LYRICS

1. Tropical Christmas

The snow is falling
The sleigh-bells calling
All across the frozen North.
It’s oh, so grand
In this winter wonderland,
Now is the very best of times!
But it’s December the twenty-fourth
And I’m longing for warmer climes…
I’m dreaming of a tropical Christmas
Just like I knew when I was young,
Where palm trees sway
Beside the bay
And Santa Claus rides
In an open Chevrolet.
I’m dreaming of a tropical Christmas
Whenever “Silent Night” is sung,
Where Santa and
His elves are tanned
And carolers sing
With a mariachi band.
Deck the malls with cotton snowballs,
Paint a frost on the window pane.
Christmas can be just as jolly
With a holly
Made of polyurethane.
I’m dreaming of a tropical Christmas
Where lights on lemon trees are hung.
The snow-bird sports
Black socks and shorts
And flocks to his kind
By the pools and tennis courts.
Christmas day we’ll open presents
Then we’ll swim in the balmy sea.
After dinner we’ll retire
To perspire
By the fire on TV.
I’m dreaming of a tropical Christmas
Just like I knew when I was young.
Where moonlight pours
On sandy shores
I’m longing to go
In December, for it seems
A merry Christmas
Is the very Christmas
You remember in your dreams.

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Bourland choral music: Flashpoint/Stonewall (1994)

Flashpoint/Stonewall (1994)
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: John Hall
Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles
Jon Bailey, conductor
Recording by Chuck White

1. Invocation; Evocation; Flashpoint Stonewall

MP3: Play audio file (flashpoint1.stonewall.mp3)

2. DreamDrag

MP3: Play audio file (flashpoint3.dreamdrag.mp3)

3. A Different Child

MP3: Play audio file (flashpoint2.different.mp3)

4. The Parade

MP3: Play audio file (flashpoint5.parade.mp3)

5. Shame

MP3: Play audio file (flashpoint4.shame.mp3)

Bourland choral music: All there is is love (1993)

Paul Monette and Roger Bourland

Paul Monette heard the premiere of HIDDEN LEGACIES in Royce Hall and rushed up to me afterwords to thank John and me. I saw him socially a few times later and asked him whether he was interested in providing lyrics for a piece for GMCLA. His energy was limited at this time and though he said he wanted to, I didn’t think it was ever going to happen. I later suggested finding something from his extant works, and he like the idea. I excerpted part of the introduction from ELEGIES FOR ROG and set it for unaccompanied men’s chorus, calling it “All there is is love” which is the final line in the text.

Paul and Winston, and Bruce and I went to the premiere. Three if us went in black tie (Paul’s idea); Winston was in full leather. It was a lovely evening and a lovely memory. This performance is from the April 4, 1993 performance in the Wiltern Theater, Jon Bailey conducting.

MP3: Play audio file (allthereisislove.mp3)

All there is is love
Music: Roger Bourland
Text: Paul Monette
Jon Bailey conducts the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles
Published by Yelton Rhodes Music, Los Angeles.
Chuck White, recording

“The story that endlessly eludes the press is the death of a generation of gay men. [Amen] What is written here is only [We are talking about] one man’s passing and one man’s cry, a warrior burying a warrior. May it fuel the fire of those on the front lines who mean to prevail, and of their friends who stand in the fire with them. We will not be bowed down or erased by this. I learned too well wht it means to be a people, learned in the joy of my best friend what all the meaningless pain and horror cannot take away––that all there is is love. Pity us not.”

Bourland choral music: Letters to the Future (1993)

After the success of HIDDEN LEGACIES I received a commission from Richard Garrin and the Windy City Gay Chorus for a similar orchestration addressing the possible futures of gays and lesbians. I chose eight poets (seven living), each who either contributed a new poem or selected an old one for the set.

The piece got a warm reception at the premiere but has never been performed since. All the original synthesizers are no longer in production, so the work would have to be re-orchestrated to get it back on its feet. The recording you will hear here is problematic because of the enormous auditorium (Medinah Temple) we played in and what I assume was the air conditioning on a very hot day. Nonetheless, you’ll get an idea of how the piece goes.

LETTERS TO THE FUTURE (1993)
1. Song of God B (Merrill)

Music: Roger Bourland
Poetry: James Merrill, May Swenson, Thom Gunn, Francisco X Alarcon, JD McClatchy, bell hooks, Allen Ginsburg, Adrienne Rich
Richard Garrin conducts the Windy City Gay Chorus (June 1994)
Published by Yelton Rhodes Music, Los Angeles

LETTERS TO THE FUTURE (the poems)

(1) Song of God Biology

IVE BROTHERS HEAR ME
BROTHERS SIGNAL ME
ALONE IN MY NIGHT
BROTHERS DO YOU WELL
I AND MINE
HOLD IT BACK
BROTHERS I AND MINE
SURVIVE
SISTERS HEAR ME
SIGNAL ME
DO YOU WELL
I AND MINE
HOLD IT BACK
I ALONE IN MY NIGHT
SISTERS I AND MINE
SURVIVE
SISTERS DO YOU WELL
I ALONE IN MY NIGHT
I HOLD IT BACK
I AND MINE
SURVIVE
BROTHERS SIGNAL ME
IN MY NIGHT
I AND MINE
HOLD IT BACK
AND WE SURVIVE

O O O O O O O O O O

© 1980 by James Merrill

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Bourland choral music: Hidden Legacies (1992)

Roger Bourland (1991) Photo © Victoria Mihich

GMCLA’s performances of HIDDEN LEGACIES
March 29, 1992 — Royce Hall
April 11, 1992 — Wiltern Theater
April 12, 1992 — Bridges Hall of Music, Pomona College
June 27, 1992 — Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas
July 2, 1992 — Boettcher Concert Hall, Denver (GALA IV)
July 3, 1992 — Temple Buell Theater, Denver (GALA IV)
October 30, 1992 — First Congregational Church, Long Beach
November 1, 1992 — Westwood United Methodist Church
November 2, 1992 — All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena
November 7 & 8, 1992 — Recording sessions, Capital Records Studios

Composer Roger Bourland Talks about “Hidden Legacies”

Background: Roger Bourland is the Chair of the Composition program at the UCLA Department of Music. In September of 1990, he was commissioned by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles to compose a major choral work that dealt with the AIDS crisis. The lyrics were written by his UCLA colleague, John Hall.

The commission
Jon Bailey, the artistic director and conductor of the chorus, stipulated that for this commission he did not want a requiem, or a work that only dealt with grief and despair, but rather a work that was truly life affirming. My friend and colleague John Hall agreed to write the lyrics but realized what an enormous responsibility it would be to try to speak for the 165 men in the GMCLA, who have already lost over 70 members to AIDS. The collaboration that took place over the next year evolved into “Hidden Legacies” – a 40 minute cantata in seven movements scored for four synthesizers, bass guitar, drums, and men’s chorus.

The story
Hidden Legacies is a tribute to those who are living with HIV, those left behind, and those who have offered help in times of intense sorrow. The first two movements are historically based upon what occurred just before and just after the discovery of “the gay cancer.” The following five movements are from the various points of view of the chorus itself.

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Bourland choral music: Alarcon Madrigals Bk3 (2007)

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

Bourland choral music: Alarcon Madrigals Bk2 (2002)

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

Bourland choral music: Alarcon Madrigals Bk1 (1994)

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)