VOICE WITH ENSEMBLE - Natural Selection (2000) (med voice + lg ens)
Duration - 15:00
flute (piccolo). oboe (cor anglais). clarinet (bass clarinet). bassoon(contrabassoon); horn. trumpet(flugelhorn). trombone; percussion; piano, harp; 2 violins.viola. violoncello. double bass
Commissioned by Faber Music for its Millennium Series.
“Composer Derek Bermel may not be a household name yet, but if there is any justice in the music world, he soon will be. His Natural Selection, a song cycle based on poetry of Wendy S. Walters and Naomi Shihab Nye, is a group of animal portraits that achieves a dramatic complexity that belies its commonplace subject. Baritone Timothy Jones was extraordinary.”
Natural Selection (2002) is a song cycle for baritone comprised of four settings by American poets Wendy S. Walters and Naomi Shihab Nye. It celebrates nature in various manifestations: insectoid, arachnid, mammalian, and human. The cycle was commissioned by Faber Music's Millennium Series and premiered at the Huddersfield Festival by Ensemble 10/10, conducted by Clark Rundell.
Tonight's performance is dedicated to the great British composer Nicholas Maw, who died last month; Nicholas nominated me for the Faber commission, and was a great inspiration to me.
Score & Part Rentals
Find all of Derek Bermel’s works on Peer Music Classical.
Program Notes
In 1997 I was nominated by the composer Nicholas Maw to compose a work which would be published as part of Fabermusics Millennium Commission Series. I chose to orchestrate settings by my long-time collaborator, the American poet Wendy S. Walters. I began work on One Fly and Spider Love; moving up the food chain, I added Dog by the poet Naomi Shihab Nye and Got My Bag of Brown Shoes by Walters, which completes the cycle by including human nature as part of these animal portraits.
The cycle was premiered in Nov. 2000 at the Huddersfield Festival by Ensemble 10/10, conducted by Clark Rundell. Many thanks to Timothy Jones, Stephanie SantAmbrogio, Jeffrey Sykes, Tim Brooke, and Elaine Gould, who helped this work come to life.
Derek Bermel
Mvt I. One Fly
Mvt II. Spider Love
Mvt III. Got My Bag of Brown Shoes
Mvt IV. Dog
Lyrics:
Wendy S. Walters; Naomi Shihab Nye