Mad Regales for 6 solo voices

Year
2007
Duration
9'
Category
Choral

Instrumentation: S.M.A.T.Bar.B
Dedication: To Ellen Highstein
Buy Score: Hendon Music (Boosey & Hawkes)
Manuscripts: Paul Sacher Stiftung
Text Author: John Ashbery (English)
Songs: See below

8 Haiku
Meditations of a Parrot
At North Farm

Premiere: Jul 22, 2008/ Tanglewood Music Center Fellows / James Levine/ Tanglewood Music Cener, Lenox, MA

0:00

volume

Mad Regales clip

After composing Syringa in 1978 on a poem of John Ashbery, I have frequently returned to his poetry with the hope of finding texts that suggested musical settings. On learning that there might be a performance of some of my old choral works, and having heard how skillful modern choruses are, I decided to compose an a capella vocal sextet on three Ashbery poems that attracted my attention, partly because of their sardonic humor (suggesting the title, Mad Regales) that implies a deeper undertone.

– Elliott Carter

Recordings (1)

Music of Elliott Carter, Volume Eight - 16 Compositions (2002-2009)
Bridge Records 9314 A/B (2010)
Martin Owen, horn | BBC Symphony Orchestra, Oliver Knussen, conductor | BBC Singers | New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble, Frank Epstein, conductor | Leigh Melrose, baritone (+16)