"Felling" for Baritone and Piano

Page 1

Keane Southard

Felling

A Song Cycle for Baritone and Piano

(2023) (Duration: c. 10 mins.)

Program notes:

In 2022, Catalyst New Music put together teams of poets/lyricists, composers, and singers to create new art song in its FUSE project. I was matched with singer Daniel Laverriere and composer Keane Southard because we shared an interest in the environment and climate change. After talking with Daniel and Keane, I did research on several topics and settled on deforestation after reading several historic and recent accounts of logging in North America. The result is Felling, a three-song cycle. The first song in the cycle, “In the Camp of Jacques Freneau,” is based on an account written by Clifton White in 1902, when he visited several lumber camps and wrote about the dangerous work undertaken there, the rough conditions in which the loggers lived, and how the forests were seen as an unending resource for people to take and use. Song II, “Haiku for Deforestation,” distills a belief that the forest is home to the unseen, the ineffable, and that when the woods are cut down, that invisible quality is destroyed as well. The final line speaks to my belief that we need action and physical change, not prayers (in either sense of the word), in order to address environmental crises and climate change. Priscilla and Michael Hunter, after whom the third song in the cycle, “Priscilla’s Backyard” is written, are members of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians in California, where they are activists against commercial logging on tribal lands. They speak eloquently and compellingly about the need to protect the ancient redwood forests there and how important the forests are for everyone in the area. “Priscilla’s Backyard,” nods to their work and the long connections between the tribe and the forest.

Kendra Preston Leonard 2023

Felling was composed in late November 2022 and completed in early January 2023 in collaboration with poet Kendra Preston Leonard and baritone Daniel Laverriere as part of FUSE: Collaborations in Song organized by Catalyst New Music and the Boston Singers’ Resource.

Keane Southard 2023

Performance instructions:

Unless otherwise indicated, the damper pedal (for the piano) should be used discreetly to allow for maximum clarity.

Text:

I. The Camp of Jacques Freneau after Clifton White, 1902

Fifty choppers in the heart of the woods, felling the pine and the spruce; the wilderness there is shorn to brush, inviting fire and flood.

Men on the snow, eight feet deep, chopping now two to a tree; they shout and it falls, defeated and down and the ice falls up to a cloud.

The oxen and drays pull the sled to the train where the scaler figures and marks; he is the funeral eulogist for each of these vanquished firs.

“What wealth,” he says, “we find in these logs. Lumber for homes, for raising a barn. And there’s beauty there too: fine planks for a table. We’ll take every tree this forest will give us.”

In these great white woods, men stampede with saws, stripping the landscape so bare —so bare— that the woodpeckers all have gone.

II.Haiku for Deforestation

When the trees are gone, so will the spirits go too. No prayers will help.

III. Priscilla’s Backyard after Priscilla Hunter and Michael Hunter, 2022

The ancestors are become earth, and the beargrass rises, a flower-city in the air.

Leave the redwood uncut, and leave it all be; where the old village lies, let the hearths be graced with carex and ferns.

Keane Southard/Spindrift Pages

Email: keane.southard@hotmail.com

Website: keanesouthard.com

Kendra Preston Leonard

Baritone

I. The Camp of Jacques Freneau

after Clifton White, 1902

Freely (q = c. 88)

Music by Keane Southard

Freely (q = c. 88)

Piano

p possibile (don't worry if all the notes don't sound clearly)

q = 88 but very flexible

q = 88 but very flexible

©2023
2 p 
mf                 
Lyrics by Kendra Preston Leonard
         3 3 33 3                                                                                       
3 4      3 3 3 3 3 3         3 3 3 3                                                                                                                                   2
5 6     3 3 3 3 3 3        3 3 3 3 3 3 3                                                                                                                 3

8

q = e (e = 88) in strict time accel.

q = e (e = 88) in strict time accel.

f mf

7
               3 3 3 3 3          5      5 5                                  3  3    3   3     3   3                                                                                                         4
Fif f ty-choppers- intheheartofthewoods,felling-thepineandthe q = 64 12 q = 64  spruce;thewilder-ness-there isshorntobrush,invit-ing-fire- andflood. 14    Menonthesnow,eightfeetdeep, 17   3  simile accented 5 5 5 5  3 3 3 3   3 3  5 5 5 5 5 5  3 3 3 3 3 3    5 3 3 5  3 3                                                                                                                                                                         5

6

falls,defeat-ed-anddownand   3 3   3

mf the   3   3          

molto rit.        

                                                                               

 

molto rit.  

ff
19 ff
chopping-nowtwotoatree;they shout 21
andit 
 ice fallsuptoacloud. pp The mp oxen-anddrays A tempo 22 mppp mp A tempo   pullthesledtothetrainwhere p thescaler-figures-andmarks; poco rit. A tempo 25 p poco rit. A tempo he f isthefuner-al-eulo-gist- for each mp ofthesevanquished- firs. p (e = 60) rit. 29 f mfmpp pp (e = 60) rit.                    3 3 3 (non accented)          3 3    3 3  3                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            7
"What mp wealth,"hesays,"wefind f intheselogs. Slightly Faster q = 50 33 mpsfzmpsfzmpmf Slightly Faster q = 50       Lum mp ber-forhomes,forrais f ing-abarn. mf 35 mpsfzmp mf   Andthere'sbeauty-theretoo:fine 36                          3            3                                  12121212                                                                                                                                                                                                     8
planksforatable.- We'lltake poco rit. 37 poco rit.     e ff ve-ry-treethisforest-willgiveus.Takeeve-rytree, e = 88 38 ff e = 88  eve-rytree,eve-ry-tree,eve-ry,-eve-ry,-eve-ry,-tree." 40                                    12121212  3 3        simile accented             3 3 3 3 3                                                                                                                                                                                                         9
 In pp thesegreatwhite molto rit. A Tempo 42 pp molto rit. A Tempo  
45   so ppp breathy barethat pp thewoodpeck-ers-allhavegone. 50 ppp                                 (non accented)   3    3          (hold ped. into next movement)  attacca                                                                                                           10
woods,menstampede-withsaws,stripping-thelandscape- sobare

Slower q = 40 3

II. Haiku for Deforestation

strike strings with palm of hand

p possibile (falsetto if needed)

knock on crossbars inside piano with knuckles (both hands, different crossbars)                                      

Ossia: attacca

(cut off with piano)  (hold ped. into next movement)

  Baritone Piano When p thetrees are gone, Slow q = 48 1 sfz sowillthespirits-gotoo.
sfz No
prayers-willhelp.
sfz   
Slower q = 44 2
 
3   
(Ped. held from last movement)
(cut off with piano slap)
(Ped.)
 
 
slap under keyboard (with both hands)  (Ped.)

III. Pricilla's Backyard

after Priscilla Hunter and Michael Hunter, 2022

Begin boxed figure somewhere near the middle of the piano's accelerando, unsynchronized with it (In Tempo: q = 60)

begin very slowly (c. 40 bpm per note) c. 20"

 The p ances-tors- arebecomeq = 60 q = 60 pp  earth,and p thebeargrass-ris mf es,3 mf       
   (Ped.)    
 
                      
n the p beargrass-ris mf es,4 p  f n bear mp grass-ris f es,7 mp  ff   c. 3"    3  c. 3"   c. 3"   c. 20"          c. 3"      3  c. 3"   c. 20"      c. 3"                                               13
n ris mf es, ff 9 mf  fff n a p flower-cit-y-intheair. n In Tempo (q = 60) 10 p In Tempo (q = 60)                               c. 15"                    3  3    33                                                     14
Leave ff theredwood-uncut,-andleaveitall be; mf where p dolce the rit. 13 ffsffzsffz mf rit.       old village-lies,letthehearths mf begraced mp q = 46 16 p f q = 46                       3      3     3  (arpeggi after grace notes)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            15

poco rit.

(q = c. 88)

                                                                                       16

p poco rit. A tempo 19 poco rit. A tempo     pp  n
Freely
22
withcarex-and ferns.
poco rit.
(q = c. 88)
Freely
p possibile (don't worry if all the notes don't sound clearly)                                                                                     
(Do not rearticulate if you run out of breath)

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I. The Camp of Jacques Freneau

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