Black Iris (2000)
for soprano and orchestra
-Version for Soprano, Clarinet, and Soprano-
Duration: 16'
Orchestration: 2.2(ca).2(bcl).2(cbn)/2.2(pic).0.0./2 hp/str
Premiere of Orchestral Version: February 26, 2000; Erin Morely, soprano; Eastman Chamber Orchestra, James Ripley, conductor; Hochestein School of Music(Rochester, New York).
Premiere for Chamber Version: March 23, 2004; Margaret Bishop-Kohler, soprano, JoAnn Sternberg, clarinet and Margaret Kampmeier, piano. Sponsored by the Center for Contemporary Opera, Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, New York, New York
Availability of Orchestral Version:For Hire. If you would like to perform this, please request through contact page.
Availability of Chamber Version: For sale, If you would like to perform this, please request through contact page.
Program Note
Texts by Mary Coleman, Emily Brontë and Charles Baudelaire.
Black Iris was assembled from songs written from 1997 to 2000 and orchestrated to compete for a performance by an Eastman orchestra in the Fall of 2000. I arranged the songs to depict a descent from nascent flirtations to the sorrow of love lost.
The first two songs, settings of Mary Coleridge were originally written for soprano, clarinet and piano while Iron Clouds, a setting of a poetic fragment by Emily Brontë and Mediation, from Baudelaire’s Fleur du Mal were for voice and piano. The first song, Winged Words was the last written after hearing Erin Morley’s already formidable virtuosity and coloratura. She gave the premiere performance with the Eastman Chamber Orchestra.
In 2003, I re-arranged the entire cycle for soprano, clarinet and piano for Margaret Bishop Kohler who gave the first performance of the new version in Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall.