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It’s a rare and deep pleasure to make art with your friends, and in this case with one of your oldest and most trusted. That is my relationship with Ed Jacobs, a true and loyal partner and the very definition of “mensch”. Please enjoy the fruits of a 20-year long friendship and partnership in this album, made with and among friends and lifelong colleagues.
-Chris Grymes, Open G Records founder
The works collected here are snapshots of my imagination in evolution—different sorts of energies and gestures engaging my aural imagery over more than two decades. And these are also a gaze at relationships; with family, friends, mentors, teachers, students; with people who make sound, with people who listen intently; and perhaps a deeper look into aural relationships arising from a music’s internal logic.
All of these works share my fondness for writing with particular people in mind. If composing comes from a desire to communicate in sound, then composing for a specific musician is a musical love letter to them. The pieces I write for friends hold a special place in my heart, as the sounds recall their individual voices, our collaborative time together, and the banter of developing ideas.
-Ed Jacobs
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Addressing Wonder was completed in 1996 while I was teaching at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. As I began this piece, for The Fidelio Trio at the request of the Guild of Composers, I had several wonderful talks with my brother Robert and, as always, found myself questioning a number of certainties—in this case musical ones—that I had held for some time. I dedicated Addressing Wonder to my brother, who has been a continual source of inspiration for me. Robert has used his exceptionally sharp mind in what I believe is the greatest pursuit imaginable—the tireless questioning of everything we claim to “know.” I offer this piece as a wish that his influence will always help me address life with wonder, and address the wonders of life.
Writing vocal music for friends drew me into daily deep-dives into poetry, a practice which I continue to this day and which is made easy and inviting through “poem-a-day” available at poets.org. It was this site where I discovered the work of James Brasfield. I continue to read and set his work, and expect that Palladium has become part of a larger set of songs on Brasfield’s poetry. Palladium is based on Brasfield’s poem of the same name (below). The music was written in 2016 for Sharon Harms and Steven Beck, who gave its premiere performance in Greenville, NC on January 26, 2017.
Palladium
A cortege of clouds’
shifting planes
reflected on a river,
the currents weave deepens,
yet motionless
the dramatization of
a fern unfolding,
light illuminating the air
for a moments’ threshold,
when time, where we stand,
corresponds to the day
held firm,
derived from the elegance of
the equation,
for what was once never here.
- James Brasfield (b. 1952)
Text used by permission of the author.
al momento, written for cellist Kelley Mikkelsen, was composed and realized in the Center for Composition with Electronic Media at the East Carolina University School of Music during the first months of 2002.
When I began work on al momento I set about writing much of the cello part as I also sketched ideas for the ‘tape,’ as if writing a duet. And, as in any duet, I tried to create sounds, rhythms and textures which would bring the two parts—live performer and fixed, pre-recorded tape—together in as interactive an experience as I could design. As a result, just as there are moments in this piece when the cello may seem indistinguishable from tape sounds, there are also moments when the two parts are quite distinct.
The title of the work came out of a broad-ranging conversation I had with Ms. Mikkelsen in which, among other things, we discussed the nature of great performance, of composition—of life in general—and agreed that the key seemed to be a frame of mind in which one is truly “in the moment.”
The Line Between grew from soprano Louise Toppin’s request for music related to the evils evidenced in humanity’s history of genocide. Long before writing music, I found the search for text remarkable in many ways, leading to many works of excruciating beauty and terror; revealing strategies for coping with tragedy both personal and global. I turned to the work of E.E. Cummings, which has been regular reading for me for decades; his work is endlessly fascinating and expressive, each reading revealing additional range and depth; a benefit of simply living and aging. Ultimately Cummings’ poems “Now all the fingers of this tree,” and “When God decided to invent” seemed most appropriate, and are used with permission of Liveright Publishing. The setting here finds these poems intertwined, rather than presented in succession.
now all the fingers of this tree
now all the fingers of this tree(darling)have
hands,and all the hands have people;and
more each particular person is(my love)
alive than every world can understand
and now you are and i am now and we’re
a mystery which will never happen again,
a miracle which has never happened before--
and shining this our now must come to then
our then shall be some darkness during which
fingers are without hands;and i have no
you:and all trees are(any more than each
leafless)its silent in forevering snow
--but never fear(my own,my beautiful
my blossoming)for also then’s until
when god decided to invent
when god decided to invent
everything he took one
breath bigger than a circustent
and everything began
when man determined to destroy
himself he picked the was
of shall and finding only why
smashed it into because
- E.E. Cummings (1894-1962)
“Palladium” by James Brasfield, originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 10, 2016, by the Academy of American Poets, was used with permission of James Brasfield.
“when god decided to invent” from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962, by E. E. Cummings, Edited by George J. Firmage, are used with permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. Copyright 1944, 1972, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust.
“now all the fingers of this tree(darling)have” from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962, by E. E. Cummings, Edited by George J. Firmage, is used with permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. Copyright 1949, 1977, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright 1979 by George James Firmage.