PostSecret: A Song Cycle
SKU:
$15.00
$15.00 - $30.00
per item
for soprano and Pierrot ensemble
(flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano)
Duration: 25+ minutes
Instrumentation:
Premiere: April 9, 2016
University of Southern Mississippi - Hattiesburg, MS
Stacey Trentaseaux, soprano; Hector Pinzon, piano/conductor; Rainel Joubert, violin; Xochitl Morales, cello; Thiago Bottego, flute; Mike Gruetzner, clarinet
(flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano)
Duration: 25+ minutes
Instrumentation:
Premiere: April 9, 2016
University of Southern Mississippi - Hattiesburg, MS
Stacey Trentaseaux, soprano; Hector Pinzon, piano/conductor; Rainel Joubert, violin; Xochitl Morales, cello; Thiago Bottego, flute; Mike Gruetzner, clarinet
About PostSecret -- PostSecret is an ongoing community art project started by Frank Warren in 2005 in which people anonymously mail homemade postcards that contain a personal secret never before shared with anyone. These postcards are then displayed on the PostSecret website, museum exhibits, or published in books. The postcards and their texts have a wide range of topics and emotions, but the goal is to create an anomymous community of acceptance and healing. Over the years, Frank has led several campaigns to promote PostSecret and various hotlines, using this community art project in ways that breakdown barriers.
About the Song Cycle -- PostSecret: The Song Cycle was composed in Summer and Fall 2015 in collaboration with a friend of the composer. A fan of PostSecret herself, she believed that these texts are the "poetry of our time" and wanted them set to music. Together, we selected twenty secrets that had been published by PostSecret and agreed on the order and instrumentation. The choice of Pierrot ensemble is quite intentional, and draws comparisions (and even a few musical quotes) from Schoenberg's famous Pierrot Lunaire. Schoenberg intended for Pierrot to be a more elevated form of melodrama, and likewise PostSecret: A Song Cycle is both cabaret and art song. The diversity of the texts demands a wide variety of musical styles, but tying all of these together is a series of motives and harmonic structures that appear in multiple sections. Each secret transitions into the next, sometimes fluidly and sometimes in jarring ways. When reading PostSecret online or in a book, you are constantly surprised by the juxtaposition of something traumatic with something hilarious, or something ridiculous and something that breaks your heart. You usually take a moment, reflect on the secret, and then move on at your own pace. But in music, you are bound to time. The singer has your ear and sings her secret at her pace. In this way, the singer embodies an enormous cast of characters, enters their worlds for a moment, and blends their secret with her voice. The idea of "voice" is central to the cycle because a secret is something "unspoken" that is now being "spoken" for the first time. A number of secrets directly relate to having your voice silenced or silencing the voices of others, whether by being deaf (Secret XII), being rejected in a fifth grade choir (Secret XX), ignoring sexual consent (Secret XIV),or being haunted by the voices from past experiences. The instrumentalists also use their voices actively, at times speaking, singing, or vocalizing together with the singer -- and together creating a community of voices and sharing their secrets with one another.
Permissions: The composition and premiere of PostSecret: The Song Cycle was licensed by Frank Warren, owner of PostSecret. Each text was cleared for performance with Frank Warren and is the sole property of PostSecret as stewards of these anonymous submissions. Subsequent performances must be licensed through the composer and the PostSecret team on an individual basis.
About the Song Cycle -- PostSecret: The Song Cycle was composed in Summer and Fall 2015 in collaboration with a friend of the composer. A fan of PostSecret herself, she believed that these texts are the "poetry of our time" and wanted them set to music. Together, we selected twenty secrets that had been published by PostSecret and agreed on the order and instrumentation. The choice of Pierrot ensemble is quite intentional, and draws comparisions (and even a few musical quotes) from Schoenberg's famous Pierrot Lunaire. Schoenberg intended for Pierrot to be a more elevated form of melodrama, and likewise PostSecret: A Song Cycle is both cabaret and art song. The diversity of the texts demands a wide variety of musical styles, but tying all of these together is a series of motives and harmonic structures that appear in multiple sections. Each secret transitions into the next, sometimes fluidly and sometimes in jarring ways. When reading PostSecret online or in a book, you are constantly surprised by the juxtaposition of something traumatic with something hilarious, or something ridiculous and something that breaks your heart. You usually take a moment, reflect on the secret, and then move on at your own pace. But in music, you are bound to time. The singer has your ear and sings her secret at her pace. In this way, the singer embodies an enormous cast of characters, enters their worlds for a moment, and blends their secret with her voice. The idea of "voice" is central to the cycle because a secret is something "unspoken" that is now being "spoken" for the first time. A number of secrets directly relate to having your voice silenced or silencing the voices of others, whether by being deaf (Secret XII), being rejected in a fifth grade choir (Secret XX), ignoring sexual consent (Secret XIV),or being haunted by the voices from past experiences. The instrumentalists also use their voices actively, at times speaking, singing, or vocalizing together with the singer -- and together creating a community of voices and sharing their secrets with one another.
Permissions: The composition and premiere of PostSecret: The Song Cycle was licensed by Frank Warren, owner of PostSecret. Each text was cleared for performance with Frank Warren and is the sole property of PostSecret as stewards of these anonymous submissions. Subsequent performances must be licensed through the composer and the PostSecret team on an individual basis.