Sestina(after Pound)
Watch:
Listen:
For violin and electronics
Commissioned and premiered by Leslee Smucker.
Performances
3. 16. 16 — Leslee Smucker (violin) Grusin Hall Boulder CO
3. 19. 16 – Leslee Smucker at Laughing Goat Boulder CO
4. 9. 16 — Leslee Smucker at the Midwest Composers Exchange Boulder CO
6.18.16 — Leslee Smucker at T.S. Eliot Society International Conference, Rapallo Italy
10. 9.16 — Leslee Smucker at the Dairy Arts Center Boulder CO
3. 3-4.17 — Leslee Smucker at Atlas Blackbox Theater Boulder CO
3. 25.17 — Sam Rudy at Punk-Ass Classical, Minneapolis MN
12.13-15.19 — Leslee Smucker at Dairy Arts Center Boulder CO
10.6. 20 — Theo Haber as part of USC Thorton Edge Live from Somewhere (virtual)
10.3.21 — Shalini Vijayan as part of HEAR NOW MUSIC FESTIVAL (virtual)
About:
Sestina(after Pound) is a musical response to Ezra Pound’s poem “Sestina: Altaforte”. The sestina is a highly structured, repetitive and cyclical poetry form where the same words are re-ordered in each of the six stanzas. Leslee Smucker, the commissioner who was creating an entire Pound-related program, sent me a recording of Pound reciting this poem in which his deep, grizzly voice is accompanied by a heavy, pulsating drum. These elements combined with the cyclical form of the sestina produced a reflective and meditative experience for me, which was in stark contrast to the violent and brutal imagery of Pound’s text. Sestina(after Pound) uses this cyclical form to recreate that meditative experience and place, but draws on my own voice and imagery rather than Pound’s.
Commissioned and premiered by Leslee Smucker.
Performances
3. 16. 16 — Leslee Smucker (violin) Grusin Hall Boulder CO
3. 19. 16 – Leslee Smucker at Laughing Goat Boulder CO
4. 9. 16 — Leslee Smucker at the Midwest Composers Exchange Boulder CO
6.18.16 — Leslee Smucker at T.S. Eliot Society International Conference, Rapallo Italy
10. 9.16 — Leslee Smucker at the Dairy Arts Center Boulder CO
3. 3-4.17 — Leslee Smucker at Atlas Blackbox Theater Boulder CO
3. 25.17 — Sam Rudy at Punk-Ass Classical, Minneapolis MN
12.13-15.19 — Leslee Smucker at Dairy Arts Center Boulder CO
10.6. 20 — Theo Haber as part of USC Thorton Edge Live from Somewhere (virtual)
10.3.21 — Shalini Vijayan as part of HEAR NOW MUSIC FESTIVAL (virtual)
About:
Sestina(after Pound) is a musical response to Ezra Pound’s poem “Sestina: Altaforte”. The sestina is a highly structured, repetitive and cyclical poetry form where the same words are re-ordered in each of the six stanzas. Leslee Smucker, the commissioner who was creating an entire Pound-related program, sent me a recording of Pound reciting this poem in which his deep, grizzly voice is accompanied by a heavy, pulsating drum. These elements combined with the cyclical form of the sestina produced a reflective and meditative experience for me, which was in stark contrast to the violent and brutal imagery of Pound’s text. Sestina(after Pound) uses this cyclical form to recreate that meditative experience and place, but draws on my own voice and imagery rather than Pound’s.