Pothos

2014 // 6'
for mezzo-soprano, soprano, flute, clarinet, and piano
texts by H.D.
composed for and premiered at the 2014 New Music On The Point Festival,
ft. Jennifer Beattie, mezzo-soprano

Program Note:

This setting of three poems by the American Imagist poet H.D. concerns unrequited love in its most unrestrained form. The texts use natural images, particularly flowers, to paint a picture of a desired; the music responds with direct expression, allowing the images to take on new weight. Two singers represent different facets of a single narrator, whose relation to the desired is fully explored through a loose narrative.

Pothos is the Greek god of longing and desire. He is also associated with death, a counterpart to (or element of) unrequited love explored in the outer songs. (Both songs have Greek-inspired titles.) Pothos is also the name for a type of rarely-flowering, fast-growing plant; an apt picture of the uncontrolled desire depicted in these songs.

Instrumentation:

mezzo-soprano, soprano, flute, clarinet, piano
 

Movements:

1. Simaetha
2. Song
3. At Baia