TRACKS

1 The Year of the Green Parrots (flute, piano)

2. Enemy (flute, bass clarinet, piano, cello)

3. On Waking (flute, violin I, violin II)

4. Poplars on the Epte (alto flute, bass clarinet, piano, violin I, violin II, viola, cello)Click here for an MP3 File of this song

5. The Landscape Under the Snow (alto flute, piano) Click here for an MP3 File of this song

6. Old Wine (violin I, violin II, viola, cello)

7. Defeating Innuendo (bass clarinet, piano, violin I, violin II, viola,cello)

8. Doppler Shift (alto flute, bass clarinet, piano)

9. Fear of Flying (violin I, violin II, viola, cello)Click here for an MP3 File of this song

10. Cold Spell (alto flute, piano)

11. The Butterfly (flute, bass clarinet, piano, violin I, violin II, viola, cello)

Suzanne Walker – Soprano Suzanne studied at the University of Birmingham where she graduated with a BA (Hons) degree in Music, Drama and Dance. She studied singing at the Birmingham Conservatiore. She has extensive oratorio and opera experience. Opera roles include Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Silberklang (Der Schauspieldirektor), Lauretta (Dr.Miracle - Bizet) Atalanta (Xerxes)and Ino (Semele) and premieres of two contemporary operas (Welcome to Purgatory by Betty Roe and Marian Lines and Spem by Joe St.Johanser)

Susan Garrett – Mezzo Soprano Susan completed her music degree at Goldsmiths College, and a Postgraduate Performance course with Distinction at Trinity College of Music, where she won the Elizabeth Schumann Lieder Competition. Her repertoire ranges from oratorio, lied and Russian music to contemporary works by both Australian and English composers. She gave the premiere performance of Joe St.Johanser’s song cycle ‘Bird Parade’. Opera roles include Carmen, Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Dorabella (Cosi Fan Tutte), Hansel (Hansel and Gretel), Maddelena (Rigoletto) and Fran/Adonis (Spem).

Alice Bishop – Soprano Alice graduated in music from the University of Surrey (B.Mus. Hons.) and completed the Diploma in Performance Studies at Abbey Opera and Birkbeck College. She is a frequent solo recitalist in London, giving concerts of Lieder and art song with pianist Anna Le Hair. Opera roles include Michaela (Carmen), Janet (premiere performance of Joe St Johanser’s ‘Spem’). She is also in demand as an oratorio soloist - future engagements include Beethoven Nine, Rutter’s Reqiuem and Chilcott’s Jubilate.

Recorded at a live concert in St.Cyprian's Church, London 13th March 2004. Recording engineers - Joe St.Johanser and Jackie Shearer. © Robosoft Music Ltd. 2004

All rights reserved. Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting of this recording prohibited. All queries please to Robosoft Music Ltd. Glen Ely, Knowl Hill, Woking, GU22 7HL Surrey, UK. or email: joe.st.johanser@ntlworld.com

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My song cycle ‘The Year of the Green Parrots’ (January 2002) is for three sopranos or mezzo sopranos and chamber orchestra, using eleven from the fourteen poems with this title written by my late good friend, poet and singer Jane Wyatt (1951 - 2004).

The poems, in elliptical and allegorical style, tell of a year of illness and heartbreak which ends in healing and calm. Subsequently, alas, the illness recurred, and proved fatal. I find the poems magical and dramatic and I intend the music to reflect this mood.

Jane told me the green parrots were real, and that there is an urban legend relating to them. A barge was travelling down the Thames carrying, amongst other cargo, a consignment of exotic green parrots. It foundered between Staines and Chertsey and started to sink. The bargee released the caged birds into the wild rather than let them drown. A flock of the green parrots, survivors or descendants, can now be seen flying on the Surrey and Middlesex border!

Among many influences in the gestation of the work is the Schoenberg Opus 21 song cycle with quintet ‘Pierrot Lunaire’ (1912), which introduced the mode of half-speaking, half singing called Sprechstimme. This work uses a similar device. Schoenberg defines Sprechstimme (or Sprechmelodie) as 1) adhering to the notated rhythm, 2) indicating notated pitch but abandoning it by rising or falling. However, performances of ‘Pierrot Lunaire’ are remarkable for the different interpretations singers make of these instructions.

There is of course an infinitely variable range of expression between speech and song. I have formalised four versions: bel canto singing; declamatory sung speech with shortened vowels and lengthened consonants, pitches maintained; more speechlike with much expression (growls, croaks, squeals), pitches only approximate with much portamento; pure speech - poetry reading - pitches natural (not notated), but rhythm approximately as per notes.

The performer’s task is to derive the mood and character of the individual pieces from the words as much as from the music and to feel entirely free to add whatever her artistic feeling suggests as appropriate. The work will only exist as it is performed and the creative act is ultimately that of the performer.

Jane said ‘when you give your words to someone they will put their own energy into them and those words will evolve - in this case into music - and when that music has been written and is given to the singer, that singer will invest her own energy and change the music in ways that the composer did not expect. In the end the poetry/song will gain because of these dynamics - it will not take any energy or meaning away’.

The work is for three sopranos or mezzo-sopranos rather than the conventional one voice. It is hoped that three contrasting voices and styles of delivery will further increase the range of Sprechstimme presented. No indication is made as to which singer will take which song - leaving this interesting matter as an aleatoric element from the composer’s viewpoint.

Joe St.Johanser August 2002