Jeremy
Beck
WAVE
Innova
612
State
of the Union 1992 for orchestra
I.
March of the Politicians
3:05
II.
Lullaby (for an urban child)
2:53
III.
Revels 3:00
Sinfonietta
2000 for string orchestra
I.
Allegro furioso 4:30
II.
Grave 2:56
III.
Allegretto 4:31
IV.
Moderato 4:49
Death
of a Little Girl with Doves 1998 for soprano and orchestra
in
paris
I. 10:53
II. 3:28
in the
asylum
III. 10:26
IV. 6:31
total
time 57:06
Rayanne
Dupuis, soprano
Slovak
Radio Symphony Orchestra
Kirk
Trevor, conductor
Jeremy
Beck is a very fine composer whose work is full of vitality, optimism and
beauty. He has a compositional
technique which permits him to express his musical thoughts clearly and in a
way which is instantly communicative.
Each work on this recording gives the listener the feeling that Beck is
a composer whose music is accessible without compromising musical standards. His music challenges but is never
threatening. The performances are
enthusiastic, accurate and make one wish to get increasingly more acquainted
with the music of this outstanding American composer.
—
Samuel Adler
State
of the Union was composed in 1992 in New Haven, Connecticut. This work was written in response to then-President
George H.W. Bush’s “State of the Union” Address to Congress
in January of that year. In contrast to Bush’s characterization that all was well
with the nation, the three movements of the orchestral suite depict elements
of a country in crisis, a domestic crisis which has continued through to the
present time.
“March
of the Politicians” contrasts strict march-like rhythms with wild swirls
of sound, representative of the incessant arguing and lack of forward motion
that still exists in Washington today.
“Lullaby (for an urban child)” is meant to be an
uncomfortable lullaby, one which reflects the distress of children growing up
in a society rife with violence and abuse. Finally, “Revels” is a false celebration of
current times, where the dance-like music frequently is interrupted by ideas
from the first two movements.
State
of the Union has been read by the Yale Philharmonia (1992), the Chicago Civic
Orchestra (1994) and the Plymouth Music Series in Minneapolis (1994). It was
premiered by Rebecca Burkhardt and the Northern Iowa Symphony Orchestra at the
University of Northern Iowa
in
1996.
Sinfonietta
for string orchestra is in four movements. These four movements are then paired in a non-linear
fashion. The opening Allegro
furioso is interrupted by a brief Allegretto, which acts more as an interlude
to the fast music than as a complete contrasting section. This more graceful music is, in fact, a
foreshadowing of the third movement, and is more fully developed when it
returns at that time. The second
movement, Grave, is in the character of a hymn or a spiritual - the music from
this movement will return towards the end of the last movement, both as a
reminiscence, and as a part of a summary and closing of the entire work. As well, brief gestures from the
opening movement attempt to break into the final closing bars, but the energy
from these gestures is not enough to rouse the music at the end, which soon
disappears in a tonal haze of floating harmonies.
Sinfonietta
was composed in Yorba Linda, California, from the Fall of 1999 to the Spring of
2000. It was premiered by the
Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra under Scott Yoo on 28 September 2001 in Troy,
New York.
Death
of a Little Girl with Doves for soprano and orchestra is an operatic soliloquy,
based on the life of the French sculptor Camille Claudel (1864-1943). Claudel was an accomplished and
celebrated sculptor in late-19th century Paris, where she was known as the
talented and original young apprentice to Auguste Rodin. In addition to her own powerful work,
Claudel assisted on many of Rodin’s most famous sculptures, including his
La Porte d’enfer (The Gates of Hell). Claudel and the much-older Rodin later became lovers, and
their breakup precipitated Claudel’s own “fall from grace”
and the terrible mental and physical anguish which followed. After ten years of intense creative
activity as an independent young woman, she was committed to the psychiatric
hospital at Ville-Évrard against her will in 1913. After thirty years of seclusion,
Claudel died in 1943, in the asylum of Montdevergues, near Avignon. Hers is a story of love, Art, innocence
betrayed and the tragedy of a young woman’s persecution for being
imaginative and independent during a time when such characteristics were viewed
as inappropriate and dangerous for women.
Çacountala
(The Abandonment) [1888; 1905] is one of Claudel’s most sensuous
works. As in another of her pieces
from this time, La Valse (The Waltz) [1905], two figures are realized as one,
as an interconnected spirit. In La
Valse, the spirit is fluid, swirling in passionate motion, while in
Çacountala, the dance is over, and the spirit finds itself
dissolving. One cannot help but
draw parallels from Claudel’s art to her life, and to experience some of
her work as metaphors for her triumphs, struggle and pain. I have found the music for my piece in
this spirit, and have retained it as the central emotional image throughout
this symphonic rhapsody.
Death
of a Little Girl with Doves is in two parts, subtitled “In Paris”
and “In the Asylum.”
Each of these two parts is then also divided into two movements. The music and text often move rapidly
through different moods and time frames, reflecting the instability of
Claudel’s life, and its ultimate dissolution.
This
composition is a fantasy. It was
inspired by the life of Camille Claudel; however, the depictions of the
characters who appear in it are fictional, as are many of the events described. The overall title of the work is taken
from the title of one of Camille Claudel’s own paintings, the painting to
which she refers in movements one and four.
Death
of a Little Girl with Doves was composed from May to December 1998 for Leslie
Morgan, soprano, and the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra (Iowa). The short score and text were drafted
in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and the full score was finished in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. The work was
premiered by Leslie Morgan and the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra with
Jack Graham as Acting Music Director on 5 February 1999. It is dedicated, with
love, to Christine Ehrick.
©
2004 by Jeremy Beck
Jeremy
Beck (b. 1960) has an extensive catalogue of works for varying orchestral,
chamber and vocal forces. His
opera The Biddle Boys and Mrs. Soffel was named by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
as one of the Top Ten Cultural Events in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the year
2001. Another of his operas, The
Highway, was presented by New York City Opera as a part of that company’s
Showcasing American Composers series in May of 2000. Beck has earned awards, grants and honors from the American
Composers Orchestra, California Arts Council, the Los Angeles Chapter of the
American Composers Forum, Kentucky Foundation for Women, Millay Colony for the
Arts (NY), Meet the Composer, Wellesley Composers Conference, Oregon Bach
Festival, Iowa Arts Council and the American Music Center. Recordings of his music may be heard on
the Capstone, ERM, Vienna Modern Masters, New Ariel and Living Artist labels. Beck holds degrees from the Yale University
School of Music, Duke University and the Mannes College of Music, where his
teachers included Lukas Foss, Stephen Jaffe, David Loeb, Martin Bresnick and
Jacob Druckman. Formerly tenured on the faculties of California State
University, Fullerton and the University of Northern Iowa, Beck is currently
based in Louisville, Kentucky.
Rayanne
Dupuis (soprano) is a former member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble
Studio and has appeared in many roles with that company. Diverse in the scope of her abilities
and interests, Ms. Dupuis has sung traditional roles, performed demanding
20th-century repertoire as well as given world premieres of new works with such
companies and presenters as Seattle Opera, the Edmonton Opera Association, the
Banff Centre, l’Opéra Théâtre de Besançon,
l’Opéra de Nantes, l’Opéra Théâtre de
Metz, Aberdeen International Festival and l’Opéra de Montpellier
in Athens, Greece. Her repertoire
includes the title role in Berg’s Lulu, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, La voix
humaine and Blanche in Dialogues des carmélites, to name but a few. Her other recordings include a Soupir
Édition release of new music with l’Orchestre National des Pays de
la Loire. Now based in Paris, Ms. Dupuis holds a doctoral degree from the State
University of New York at Stony Brook, and has also studied at Yale University
and the University of Toronto.
Kirk
Trevor (conductor) trained at London’s Guildhall School of Music where he
graduated cum laude in cello performance and conducting. He came to the U.S. on
a Fulbright Exchange Grant, which led to such positions as Associate Conductor
of the Charlotte Symphony, the Exxon Arts Endowment Conductor with the Dallas
Symphony and Principle Conductor of the Knoxville Symphony. In 1994, he was named Chief Conductor
of the Martinu˚ Philharmonic in Zlin (Czech Republic) and has recorded
with that group for Koch, Albany, Fatra, Crystal and Carlton Classics. In 2000, Trevor forged a new
relationship with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava, and is now
Principal Guest Conductor, leading that orchestra in subscription programs and
recordings of new music. In the
U.S., he is also the Music Director of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and
the Missouri Symphony.
Recorded
25-28 May 2003
in
Studio One of Slovensk´y rozhlas (Slovak Radio),
Bratislava,
Slovak Republic.
Producer
Emil
Ni˘z˘nansk´y
Sound
engineer
Hubert
Geschwándtner
Assistant
for MusicInternational
Terrance
McCracken
Photo
credits
Stephen
Driver (Jeremy Beck)
J.
Kriegsmann (Rayanne Dupuis)
CD
Design
Route
8 - A Design Firm
innova
Director
Philip
Blackburn
Director
of Artist and Product
Chris
Strouth
innova
Assistant
Chris
Campbell
The
recording of this CD was partially supported by a University of Louisville
(Kentucky) Intramural Research Incentive Grant.
The
composition of Sinfonietta was supported, in part, by a California Arts Council
Artists Fellowship and a Summer Stipend Award from California State University,
Fullerton.
The
composition of Death of a Little Girl with Doves was made possible by a
commission from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra (Iowa) with
additional financial support from the Margaret Jory Fairbank Copying Assistance
Program of the American Music Center
and the University of Northern Iowa Graduate College. I owe a special
debt to Susan Loftus-Munnik for her help in initiating the original commission.
All
compositions are published by Ashmere Music (BMI). Scores and parts are available on a rental basis from The
Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music, The Free Library of
Philadelphia, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103-1116, tel (215)
686-5313. Study scores may be
purchased directly from the composer.
For
further information: www.beckmusic.org
Innova
is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and by an
endowment from the McKnight Foundation.
Death
of a Little Girl
with
Doves
a
symphonic rhapsody
for
soprano and orchestra
music
and text
by
Jeremy Beck
based
on the life
of
Camille Claudel
in
paris
I.
I
share these thoughts only with you
My
despair and anger, only with you
Please,
I beg you, don’t tell anyone -
Don’t
tell Maman, she would be so angry with me!
Please,
I beg of you...
Dear
Paul, dear brother!
Thanks
for your letter
No, I
am fine
Those
people are liars!
Who
told you I’m broke, and living in rags?
My
room is a studio, of course it’s a mess!
I’m
a sculptor - what do they expect?
That I
should clean after cutting stone?
Who
are they to judge me?
Silly
fools and gossips!
Jealous
women -
Frightened
men.
Afraid
of a woman who dares to be free!
Afraid
of passion!
Afraid
of me!
Who
are they to judge this life that I have chosen?
A
glorious life!
Shaping
the clay, feeling the earth in my hands...
The
joy of holding clay in one’s hands...
caressing
the earth
And
this other soul,
Working
with me,
passionate
artist!
He
understands,
Like
no one has ever understood!
Oh,
Paul!
He’s
a good man, a great man -
Don’t
call me foolish!
Don’t
call me young!
I’m
already twenty-two!
So
what if he’s older? So what if he’s married?
We
work together, that’s all!
I’m
learning so much, so much from this Master,
this
passionate artist - Rodin!
Ssh!
Quiet!
Ssh!
Quiet!
Keep
this all to yourself
Useless
to speak out
Better
to act under cover
Don’t
show my letter to anyone
Beware
of how they bribe you
Don’t
mention any names
Otherwise
they’ll threaten me
Ssh!
Quiet!
Be
quiet!
Not a
word...
It is
so pretty here, out in the country, at this estate -
I went
for a walk in the gardens, such lovely flowers!
If you
are good enough to come,
We
shall be in paradise!
I’ve
thought about your latest work; I want you here to talk about it.
And
I’ve been painting - I can’t wait to show you!
Each
night I go to bed naked pretending
that
you are there
but
when I wake up it’s not the same thing...
Rodin...
Rodin... Rodin...
Rodin!
Rodin!
That devil!
He
cannot be trusted, and he cannot be stopped!
He
steals from me! They all do!
They
use me -
They
have no ideas - nothing new!
Ssh!
Quiet!
Keep
this all to yourself
Useless
to act under cover
That
devil!
Raping
my imagination!
Getting
rich from my work!
They
all make money!
Millions
of francs!
The
scoundrel takes advantage of us, of me, of you,
and
makes himself quite a little bundle.
And when
I fight against him, he uses you and Maman
to
whip me
(spoken)
“I
am like a cabbage that is gnawed on by caterpillars
As
soon as I grow another leaf, they eat it.”
Ssh!
Quiet!
Millions
of francs for the caster, millions for the merchants, millions
for the dealers
Millions
of francs for the Master,
Millions
of francs, millions of francs, millions of francs,
millions
of francs, millions of francs -
II.
“It
is March 10, 1913; another Monday in Paris. Two men force their way into Camille Claudel’s studio,
and bodily take her away by car.
Unknown to Camille, it was her brother Paul - esteemed writer, poet and
diplomat - who applied for the medical certificate, authorizing her internment
in the asylum at Ville-Évrard.”
Dear
Paul,
It’s
illegal! Criminal!
I’ve
been kidnapped - and I know by whom!
That
devil, Rodin -
He
wants his fame untarnished by me!
When I
am out, once I am free
revenge
will be mine!
Justice
is no use -
What
one needs is a pistol,
The
only argument.
I have
to stop him!
Paul,
help me
Have
me released - I must get out!
I know
you will help me,
But
please don’t tell Maman...
Dear
Paul!
Thanks
for your letter -
Once I
am out, I’ll get back to work!
I have
a lot of ideas
Here
are some sketches
See?
Three people listening to another
behind
a screen
I call
it: “The Gossipers!”
Here
is another group of three:
A
young girl huddled on a bench and crying
while
her parents look on, astonished.
“La
Faute”... “The Mistake”...
In the
Asylum
III.
“Monsieur:
I am
taking the liberty of sending you the enclosed letter which I am sending to my
daughter Camille Claudel. It is an
answer to her letters in which she accuses us of a lot of things to which we
are strangers, that is why my letter is so harsh. In your last health bulletin, you told me that her
persecution complex had diminished, and that she could be let out of your
establishment on a trial basis.
According to the letters I have received from her, I see that her ideas
have not changed. Her state of mind
is always the same, always believing herself to be the victim of everything
which is not in the slightest bit true.
It is she who has been her own executioner. It is impossible to believe she has a healthy mind and that
she can behave reasonably, no more so now than when she first entered the home
for mental patients in which, no longer able to cope with her incoherencies, we
had to place her ten years ago. If
she were to leave you, she would begin again immediately, I am certain, and
would cause us the biggest problems.
One cannot allow freedom to those who suffer from a persecution complex
without grave danger because once back in their own surroundings, they would
quickly resume old ideas.”
“Dear
daughter,
Your
last letter is before my eyes and I can’t imagine that you can write such
horrors to your mother. God alone
knows what I will have suffered on account of my children! How dare you accuse me of
poisoning your father! You know as
well as I do that he was nearly 90 years old when he left us! How terribly he suffered, when he
learned the truth about your relations with that monster Rodin, and the
disgraceful comedy you performed for us on your visits. And I, I was naive enough to invite the “Great Man,”
along with his wife and you, his concubine! While you played the sweet innocent and were living with him
as a kept woman. I hardly dare
write the words that come to mind!
Let’s stop here, shall we?
Your letter is nothing but a mass of slanders, each more odious than the
next.
- I
send you a kiss.”
Dear
Maman,
It has
been so cold; I am numb.
These
hands, which drew life from clay and from stone,
now
shake, I can barely hold a pen...
I
haven’t been warm all winter.
Tell
me, how is Paul? Where is he now?
Mother,
please come see me
Mother,
please forgive.
I’m
frightened and lonely
I miss
you and Paul...
You
treat me so harshly, your letters, so cold
If you
could only see conditions here
Perhaps
you’d be moved
I
still am your daughter.
You
don’t forgive me for being an artist
You
don’t forgive me for once being young...
For my
freedom, for passion,
For
Rodin!
Life
was once a swirling wave of hope and light.
Please
don’t forget your little sculptor daughter
Please
don’t forget;
Forgive...
(small
laugh)
Mother,
your daughter is in prison - don’t forget!
In
prison with lunatics who yell all day,
spitting,
making faces!
No
place for me!
I was
praying you would help me,
but
unhappily I see now
you
have always let yourself be manipulated
by
those who wish me harm.
They
had only one thing in mind, those people:
Get me
out of Paris, grab my work, make themselves
rich without any trouble!
And
leading them all, Rodin!
Since
the imagination, emotion, the new,
are
part of a fine mind,
those
thick brains need someone else to explore,
to
feel!
All of
this comes from Rodin -
Still
jealous!
He
keeps me in his clutches
from
behind the Gates of Hell!
You
say, God has mercy on the afflicted,
God is
good!
Let’s
talk about your God!
A God
who lets an innocent woman rot away
in
an asylum!
Forgotten!
Abandoned!
Where
is your God?
Where
is God?
IV.
I
share these thoughts only
with
you
My
despair and anger, only
with
you
Dear
Paul, dear brother!
Thanks
for your letter
No, I
am fine
Those
people are cruel - who cares what they say about me?
Gossips!
Idiots!
You
know what I do, when something unpleasant happens?
I take
my hammer and I crush a statue!
A lot
of executions have taken place!
You
should see the pile of rubble!
It’s
a grand human sacrifice!
Where
- are you?
I am
waiting for the visit you promised last summer -
I
know - Paris is so far away...
At
this holiday time, I always think about Mother -
I
never saw her again, not since the day you sent me here.
I
remember her eyes, filled with sadness
(spoken)
“I
am thinking about the beautiful portrait I did of her
in the
shade of our beautiful garden.
I
remember a spirit of resignation over her face...”
It’s
been twenty-four years since Rodin
and
the dealers
sent
me away, condemning me to a place
where
they themselves should be!
Especially,
Rodin!
They
want me to die, forgotten, in rags!
An
artist without any defense -
How
could you believe their lies about me?
How
could you be fooled?
Ah,
Rodin!
I knew
you would come!
I knew
you would keep your promise!
Do you
like it? This painting? It’s new!
I’m
not quite finished, still thinking of adding flowers, some flowers -
(he
kisses her neck, she smiles)
(spoken)
“Stop
it! That tickles!”
Do you
like it? This painting?
I
know, it’s not finished,
But
can you feel how peaceful it is?
The
doves surround her, protect the young girl...
Their
wings caress, with tenderness...
Yes -
I know, the colors are dark.
No,
she’s not sleeping.
(spoken)
Hmm?
I call
it
“Death
of a Little Girl with Doves.”
text
© 2001 by Jeremy Beck