Walking naked

a five-movement song cycle for baritone, alto recorder, mandola, cello octet, and double bass (1996), 15’

A central theme of Walking Naked is the wisdom of age. Although the poems that were chosen for this cycle were all written by Yeats early or midway in his poetic career, they have the authoritative voice of a very old man. Approaching the poetry of Yeats as a contemporary American composer has posed a number of particular challenges. There is a very thin line between lapsing into anachronistic nostalgia and making sure to stay clear of contemporary a-historicisms which would disrespect the text. Yeats lived between two eras, the waning heroic age of Romanticism and the dawn of disillusioned Modernity. It was a time of great innovation in music. To my ears, the poetry of Yeats demands a sound world that is lush, lyrical, and tonal, but never triadic. There is a heavy use of diatonic tone-clusters in Walking Naked, but they are never used as dissonances. Rather, whole scales function as seven-note chords, aurally reducing modulation into a progression of chords. Melodic patterns suggestive of traditional Irish melodies set against this harmonic backdrop sound unexpected and otherworldly. The use of an alto recorder, mandola, and double-bass, which suggest an Irish caeli band, combined with an "international" yet unusual ensemble of eight cellos creates a timbre palette which is ethnically specific yet unfamiliar.