Program Notes

For texts and translations, please click here.

Three Songs, for Hindustani Vocalist, Soprano and Sinfonietta, is a product of my growing fascination with Indian Classical singing. I began working with acclaimed vocalist Saili Oak in 2016, and couldn’t wait for the opportunity to create a big project with her. Three Songs would not have been possible without her guidance, open-mindedness and long, long phone calls between Austin and San Diego. The project, premiere at the University of Texas Austin in 2018 and Saili’s residency of singing workshops, were generously funded by the Richard E. Rainwater Award for American Music and the South Asia Institute of the University of Texas.

1. Saiyan / Fantasy on a Song by Shobha Gurtu (1925-2004): This song is a fantasy on Shobha Gurtu's Hindi thumri (semi-classical song) “Saiyan Nikas Gaye," and is based on Raag’s Mishra Bhairavi and Pratiksha. Throughout the song, the singer describes the plight of the body as its soul, represented as the primordial lover, departs. According to the belief that the soul departs through one of the ten openings (“doors”) of the body, this poem describes a feeling of total passivity, total surrender. Throughout, the ensemble returns to my theme of the ten doors of the body opening, using an expanding contrary motion gesture of five notes. I was writing this as my grandfather’s health steadily declined over the course of a year, and the simplicity and soulfulness of the song comforted me. My fantasy on “Saiyan” takes the drama of the text and shares it with the orchestral instruments — hopefully a translation of perception that explains what I hear in “Saiyan” and Saili Oak’s beautiful singing, and how I respond to it.

2. Geliebte Sakhi / Beloved Friend: The first version of this song, for mezzo-soprano and sinfonietta, was commissioned by Density512, on the subject of "recomposing" Alma Mahler lieder. I borrowed Heinrich Heine’s text (Ich wandle unter blumen) and some aspects of its setting in Alma Mahler’s Fünf Lieder, notably the continuous rise and fall of the melody. Alongside this, the Hindustani Vocalist sings improvisations on a slow khyal composition in Raag Bageshree by Dr. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande. I have harmonized and orchestrated this melody based on the features of the Raga (scale) and its luxurious, meditative mood. In juxtaposing the two singers and their contrasting styles, the German text and the Hindi text, I am trying to create one character that sings in two voices. Here are two methods of surrendering oneself to love, two forms of intimate meditation. They may seem so distant, in language and style, but they are beautiful musical and cultural complements.

3. Tarana / Dance: Tarana uses abstract syllables like “de re na” and “ta na na”, borrowed from the South Asian percussion tradition of vocalizing rhythms as you learn and perform them. (This was actually how I learned my steppings in many years of dance classes. The practice is very useful, guiding you on everything from polymeters to delicate phrase emphasis points.) This Tarana includes snippets of two Tarana compositions by Dr. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, in Raag Bhimpalas and Raag Desh. The soprano and Hindustani vocalist explore fast runs (which are frequently improvised, on the part of the Hindustani vocalist) as well as lyrical singing. The voices explore many ways of dancing around one another while keeping the transcendent center of Sa (Do, in Western Solfège) always present.