Ferlinghetti was composed in 1995-96. Its first
performance was given by students and graduates
of the Indiana University School of Music on
Januray 29th, 1999 in Auer Hall, Bloomington.
Couched in a chamber ensemble of diverse
instruments and a single, male voice are six
poems I selected from Lawrence Ferlinghetti's
collection , "A Coney Island of the Mind". The
use of occasionally exotic percussion and various
extended performance techniques combine with
allusions to jazz, classical and contemporary
music to represent the dark, amusing, and at
times, racy style of the beat literary movement.
The text is spoken rather than sung to ensure clarity
and to magnify a sense of give and take between
speaker and ensemble, as if the music is responding
to the voice and vice versa. For flow and form,
musical gestures introduce, conclude, and transition
between each poem to create the effect of a single
movement work.
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