El Hombre [2003] For SATB chorus and orchestra (*2222, 4221, timp+2, harp, strings) Approximately 5 minutes Texts by William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens Commissioned by the Fairfax Choral Society. World Premiere performance by the Fairfax Choral Society and the Fairfax Symphony, Douglas Mears, Conductor. December 6, 2003 at the Schlesinger Center, Fairfax, VA. EL HOMBRE It’s a strange courage you give me, ancient star: Shine alone in the sunrise toward which you lend no part! -William Carlos Williams NUANCES ON A THEME BY WILLIAMS I. Shine alone, shine nakedly, shine like bronze, that reflects neither my face nor any inner part of my being, shine like fire, that mirrors nothing. II. Lend no part to any humanity that suffuses you in its own light. Be not chimera of morning, Half-man, half-star. Be not an intelligence, Like a widow’s bird Or an old horse. -Wallace Stevens El Hombre, composed for a holiday concert, is my version of sacred vocal music. Writing it was more like immaculate conception than composition—I had a draft sketched and orchestrated in about eight days—although in retrospect it was brewing in my head long before, ever since I read the four-line William Carlos Williams poem of the same name (El Hombre is “the man” in Spanish, but also a euphemism for God). The musical shape filled in when I read a companion poem by Williams’ close colleague, Wallace Stevens, titled Nuances on a Theme by Williams. El Hombre is a prayer that stayed in my head so long it wrote its own melody, and I hope the music brings out the qualities I find so appealing: its relevance, universality, clarity, and simplicity. I offer a special thanks to Fairfax Choral Society Music Director Douglas Mears, who made possible an uncommonly swift journey from concept to concert. “Strange courage” is the heart of the text, and my piece. I even considered Strange Courage for a title, but I thought it was important to retain Williams’ oblique suggestion to look higher for an explanation. Williams’ “theme” appears three times in this short piece; I hope it is enough so that the words linger after even one hearing. Strange was the most difficult word to set, it needed to be both beautiful and unsettling. It appears each time with a tonal rub: the first and last time, the tenors hold an E against an insistent F in three octaves on the harp. For the second appearance, the women stack a C major triad over an F major triad in the men, doubled by quivering flutes and strings. Stevens calls his stanzas “nuances on a theme,” not variations. A variation, in music or poetry, explores some surface aspect of a theme and develops it in a new way. The way I interpret Stevens’ “nuances” is that they are explorations beneath the surface. My setting seeks to match the contrasting colors of the two poets: Williams is bright and crystalline, Stevens is dark and swirling. The two stanzas of nuances offer an opportunity to traverse remote tonalities and rhythms, with soprano, alto and tenor soloists picking up the more obscure strains. This work is available for rental. Please contact Aaron for details.