Apple Butter (2017)
mezzo-soprano and hand-held percussion (woodblock, triangle)
c. 12 minutes
texts by Carolyn Fado and Emily Corwin
Commissioned by Kayleigh Butcher
Upcoming premiere by Kayleigh Butcher (Resonant Bodies Festival)
Roulette Intermedium, Brooklyn, NY, 7 September 2017
c. 12 minutes
texts by Carolyn Fado and Emily Corwin
Commissioned by Kayleigh Butcher
Upcoming premiere by Kayleigh Butcher (Resonant Bodies Festival)
Roulette Intermedium, Brooklyn, NY, 7 September 2017
Movements:
I. Pretty, please
II. begin with a little girl
This piece deals with physical appearance. Despite the soprano’s desperation in her opening lines, the text of the first movement whimsically describes her desire for the purity of a perfectly peeled apple “without a speck of red or green.” Such purity, however, comes at a cost, as the rotting apple skins and core reveal the next day. In the second movement, the soprano seems to have aged tremendously, her innocence replaced by weariness. Her body collapses in on itself, and she loses the strength to finish her final words. Throughout the work, the soprano’s path across the stage mirrors her loss of innocence as imposed by societal expectations of physical appearance.
I. Pretty, please
II. begin with a little girl
This piece deals with physical appearance. Despite the soprano’s desperation in her opening lines, the text of the first movement whimsically describes her desire for the purity of a perfectly peeled apple “without a speck of red or green.” Such purity, however, comes at a cost, as the rotting apple skins and core reveal the next day. In the second movement, the soprano seems to have aged tremendously, her innocence replaced by weariness. Her body collapses in on itself, and she loses the strength to finish her final words. Throughout the work, the soprano’s path across the stage mirrors her loss of innocence as imposed by societal expectations of physical appearance.
