Douglas Boyce: The Bird is an Alphabet Robert Baker, Molly Orlando, Byrne:Kozar:Duo, counter)induction and Marlanda Dekine

• Douglas Boyce (b. 1970): A Book of Songs:
• 1Boyce: A Book of Songs: i. A Feather For Voltaire08:06
• 2Boyce: A Book of Songs: ii. The Apple Orchard in October06:27
• 3Boyce: A Book of Songs: iii. Cy Est Pourtraicte, Madame Ste Ursule, Et Les Unze Mille Vierges06:39
• Scriptorium:
• 4Boyce: Scriptorium: i. Tyrian Purple05:03
• 5Boyce: Scriptorium: ii. Orpiment05:37
• 6Boyce: Scriptorium: iii. Lampblack02:51
• 7Boyce: Scriptorium: iv. Verdigris05:18
• Ars Poetica:
• 8Boyce: Ars Poetica: i. Wilderness05:07
• 9Boyce: Ars Poetica: ii. Intermezzo 102:28
• 10Boyce: Ars Poetica: iii. Returning03:04
• 11Boyce: Ars Poetica: iv. Intermezzo 201:47
• 12Boyce: Ars Poetica: v. Out There02:01
• 13Boyce: Ars Poetica: vi. Intermezzo 301:01
• 14Boyce: Ars Poetica: vii. Reclamation01:57
• 15Boyce: Ars Poetica: viii. Intermezzo 401:40
• 16Boyce: Ars Poetica: ix. Risk01:34
• Total Runtime01:00:40

Info for Douglas Boyce: The Bird is an Alphabet

The Bird is an Alphabet is an album of new settings of American poets (Jorie Graham, BJ Ward, Wallace Stevens, Melissa Range, and Marlanda Dekine). All the poems are interrogations of language, of the word, and its role in life, and in the creative life; the music draws upon art-song, medieval music, modernist chamber music, and the energy and freedom of hip-hop. This will be the third profile album of my music released on New Focus Recordings; reviews of my two prior releases and the releases themselves can be found HERE. The album takes its title from one of the poems I have set, A Feather for Voltaire by Jorie Graham, in which the images presented in the poem become part of contemplation on the act of writing: poetic, grammatical, orthographic, and philosophical.

In toto, the album connects to many themes of my work; A Book of Songs (recorded by tenor Robert Baker (tenor) and Molly Orlando (piano)) links the European 19th-century art-song tradition inaugurated with the modernist aesthetic which replaced its rhetoric. Scriptorium written for Byrne:Kozar:Duo by Melissa Range (Lawrence University) puts forward an evocation of the medieval ars veterum practices, but more severe in its outcome the work sets for poems. Ars Poetica was written for counter)induction and the poet, Marlanda Dekine, and provides musical spaces for the spoken performance of her poetry of personal history, and cultural form.

Douglas Boyce is a musical philosopher whose work draws on early music, literature, and aesthetic thought. These are not mere affinities for Boyce, they comprise different components of his core conviction that music can be a forum for enlightened discourse. Working with text gives him the opportunity to merge semantic and abstract expressive meaning, an expansion of possibilities. From the most conventional setting in the program, A Book of Songs, through the exploration of an unconventional instrumentation for the Byrne:Kozar Duo, and finally with Ars Poetica for spoken word poet and ensemble, Boyce explores how text can shape the sound of the music and music can frame the meaning of the text.

The album opens with A Book of Songs, a three movement cycle that sets poems by Jorie Graham, BJ Ward, and Wallace Stevens, respectively. “A Feather For Voltaire” word paints a bird in flight, with flitting and fluttering arpeggiations in the piano accompaniment and swooping, melismatic figures in the tenor part. A contrasting section renders the bird land-bound, with halting music in the lower register of the keyboard. “The Apple Orchard in October” ruminates on mortality with carefully considered cells of musical material that congeal momentarily into a continuous texture. “Cy Est Pourtraicte, Madame Ste Ursule, Et Les Unze Mille Vierges” is a fantasy that toggles between mystical and earthy impulses. Incandescent voicings, tolling harmonics, and scurrying passagework in the piano support the tenor’s narrative style as it alternates between quasi-recitative and dramatic intervallic jumps.

Scriptorium was written in 2021 for the trumpet and soprano ensemble, the Byrne:Kozar Duo, and sets texts by Melissa Range. Boyce uses medieval counterpoint as a reference point for how to write for two single line voices. Imitation and motivic transposition extend musical ideas, and occasionally Kozar’s trumpet takes a brief, soloistic flight. Within the context of Scriptorium’s overall austerity, mutes on Kozar’s horn define contrasting sound profiles. The final movement, “Verdigris,” contains the piece’s most theatrical music, as Kozar assumes a more accompanimental role with a repeated lontano figure underneath an alternation in Byrne’s line between parlando delivery and wide intervallic leaps. It closes with a crystalline contrapuntal passage, reasserting the rigorous frame which defines the work.

Ars Poetica is a collaboration between Boyce and Gullah-Geechee poet Marlanda Dekine, who is heard performing the spoken word part. Dekine’s texts are evocative of their experience grappling with identity, family, and the meaning of heritage in an ever changing society. The poem is in five parts, with four instrumental intermezzi interspersed between. Boyce deftly uses the trio in varied relationship to Dekine’s measured style of text delivery, sometimes establishing a stable musical texture as accompaniment and other times allowing the music to dynamically evolve with the words, always positioning the music in line with Dekine’s easy, storytelling style. The result is a more dramatic presentation than the other two song settings on the album. “Wilderness” traverses varied musical territory, through an upright introductory prelude, restless transitional passages, and loping grooves. “Returning” holds a tense character of anticipation throughout, momentarily breaking with Dekine’s folksy reminiscence, “And I love big as all that water… I speak to you plain.” The contrast is emblematic of Boyce’s framing of Dekine’s narrative poetry — the music alternates between capturing the intimate vernacular quality of the words before zooming out to contextualize the struggle of preserving heritage within a fractured contemporary civic fabric. “Out There” overflows with anger at the vacuity and inhumanity of modern American culture, as a furious quintuplet figure in the bowed strings is repeatedly destabilized by a polyrhythmic accented triplet in the guitar. “Reclamation” layers quirky accents and figurations over a rocking ostinato pattern in the cello. The four intermezzi show Boyce’s playful side, turning motives around and mining them for developmental potential. Intermezzo I features Robert Fripp-esque unison passagework that eventually splinters into a game of cat and mouse between the instruments. Intermezzo II is listed in the score as a caccia, or a hunt song, channeling Bartok with sharp accents, jaunty leaps, and vigorous ensemble imitation. Intermezzo III is an ethereal duo between violin and cello, a simple meditation on a set of interval relationships, while IV reprises some of the material introduced in the opening movement. Ars Poetica ends with nostalgic Americana, as we hear muted, Copland-esque chords creating a luminescent halo around Dekine’s words of reverent acceptance, “I pray, thank you, every time I remember.” - Dan Lippel

A Book of Songs (2019):
Robert Baker, tenor
Molly Orlando, piano

Scriptorium (2021):
Corinne Byrne, soprano
Andrew Kozar, trumpet

Ars Poetica (2021):
Marlanda Dekine, poet
Nurit Pacht, violin
Daniel Lippel, guitar
Caleb van der Swaagh, cello

Douglas Boyce
writes chamber music that draws on Renaissance traditions and modernist aesthetics, building rich rhythmic structures that shift between order, fragmentation, elegance, and ferocity. Regarding A Book of Songs (2006, in process), the Washington Post wrote “[they] can only be described as drop-dead beautiful. Easily the most captivating works on the program, these songs of love and death are extraordinarily well written and insightful.” Regarding La Déploration, (2016) Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim wrote that "...the violinist, cellist... and clarinetist... spread out throughout the crypt. Against vaporous harmonics and ghostly fragments of Renaissance music played by the strings, [a] warm, clear clarinet announced itself as very much alive as it sashayed in and out of blues territory and laughed in the face of their mournful keening.”

Robert Baker
has been a pillar of the Washington D.C. classical music scene for over 30 years. He has performed in over 250 productions with the Washington National Opera, including high-profile premieres of works by Phillip Glass and Jake Heggie. Other career highlights include his Metropolitan Opera debut and a Grammy-winning recording with the National Symphony Orchestra. As an esteemed interpreter of Britten, Baker has sung the Serenade across the country. He has collaborated on over 20 premieres of new works and frequently performs contemporary music. Baker has been on the faculty of The George Washington University since 1992. His acclaimed career also includes singing with the US Air Force Singing Sergeants, and major symphonies across the country. After 30+ years on stage, Baker continues to captivate audiences with his versatile artistry.

Molly Orlando
is a versatile soloist, collaborator, teacher, and adjudicator praised for her expressive and edgy performances of both traditional and contemporary repertoire. An advocate of new music, Orlando has premiered numerous works by contemporary composers and frequently collaborates with ensembles like UrbanArias and Third Millennium Ensemble. She often performs with renowned classical saxophonists and has given concerts internationally. Recent highlights include an album of story-inspired works and a performance of Andy Akiho’s music with the US Air Force Band. Based in the Washington D.C. area, Orlando is on faculty at George Washington University and co-owns a music studio. Her artistry and advocacy have made her a sought-after soloist and collaborator on the contemporary classical music scene.

Byrne:Kozar:Duo
Created by New York City and Boston based soprano Corrine Byrne and trumpeter Andy Kozar, the Byrne:Kozar:Duo presents historically informed performances of Baroque music for natural trumpet and soprano in addition to commissioning new works for modern trumpet and soprano. They have been said to create 'an arresting symbiosis in their melding of voice and trumpet timbres' (Textura) and that the 'trumpet and voice seem to take on one another's qualities' (Bandcamp Daily). As individuals, Corrine has been called a ‘celebrated singer’ (Broadway World) and 'a rising star' (Arts Westchester) while Andy has been called a 'star soloist' (TimeOutNY) and ‘polished and dynamic, with very impressive playing’ (Baltimore Sun). Combining their strengths as performers and interpreters of both early and modern music, the Byrne:Kozar:Duo has commissioned new works by composers including Reiko Futing, Paula Matthusen, David Smooke, Scott Worthington and Scott Wollschleger. As recording artists, they can be heard on a recent release of the music of Scott Wollshleger on New Focus Recordings which was named a Notable Recording of 2017 in The New Yorker. Recent appearances include performances at the Boston Early Music Festival, Lake George Music Festival, Divergent Studio at the Longy School of Music, NienteForte in New Orleans, and New Music Miami. They have also been heard on American Public Media's Performance Today as well as on National Public Radio.

Booklet for Douglas Boyce: The Bird is an Alphabet