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Three Short Poems
A thank you to supporters of Curtis: Three poems that have been set by three Curtis alums.
Then, Now
At first
arms ache for having—
And now
arms ache for letting go—
Set by Ya-Jhu Yang, 5 Minahan Songs
All I Ever Think About
The nudging tide of why
(tumblers of polar ice, fistfuls of shale).
Empty nets; blight.
Stars alight in the too bright night.
Fisticuffs, keening,
on dry land.
Dawn breaks, even so, even so.
Tempest, calm, of us.
That small boat offshore,
rocking.
Set by Michael Djupstrom, Oars in Water
The Interpretation of Dreams
If I told you my dream
(the one on a boat);
if I told you how I read
your dream with a cello:
a new laugh
an old hush.
Set by Jennifer Higdon, The SInging Rooms
Five Minahan Songs
Ya-Jhu Yang's evocative setting of five poems, recorded on stage at Curtis, featuring Ya-Jhu Yang, piano, Jean Kim, cello, and Dennis Chmelensky, baritone.
The Blue Dory - A Film/Poem
Balázs Böröcz and Miklós Váli created the stunning film/poem The Blue Dory. For more of their work, check out the LINKS page.
The Blue Dory
They anchored
the old dory
beside the painter’s studio
in a field of lupins
lavender, pink, rose, yellow, blue,
on a hill that calls out
each morning each evening
to the sea.
We went there together.
That knowledge
is the catch in my throat
which stutters now
like an oar caught in an oarlock.
Sometimes you make a circle
with your oar in the air
before you find the water.
Sometimes you gasp
but cannot breathe.
Sometimes you’re the dory
or the heaving heart within it,
paddling.
Sometimes, now,
you’re the sea.
The Singing Rooms Preview
In this preview, soloist Jennifer Koh, New York Choral Society music director David Hayes, and composer Jennifer Higdon speak about the creation of The Singing Rooms and its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall last April.
Last Letter
Rene Orth's setting of "The Courier's Last Letter" premiered in Philadelphia, March 31, 2014. Soprano Elena Perroni performed with the Curtis Chamber Orchestra conducted by Kensho Watanabe. As you will see in this link, the piece features haunting, intermittent video as well.
The Courier’s Last Letter
I know you can’t find me. Look. Look. No more.
I am the envelope torn open, ripped,
window-flung, on the side of the road. Too dead
for the Dead Letter Office. Underground. Unread.
I wanted to arrive intact. No more
mishandling. Earn a bundle—carry a stash.
Find you a room with a door, mailbox, a house.
A yard with no needles, a lawn, green grass.
So much is harmless. We all need money.
One customer, one route, one haul, they said.
Pony express. But the shipment’s not free.
Ink smells of blood. Now God must deliver me.
They said it was just like carrying the mail.
Write to me: I was my own last letter.
Rain Out at Sea
I. What It Would Be: To See You Never
II. A Tale
Once upon a time
there was a man and a woman
but it’s all downhill after that.
You put a potato in a sauce too salty—
What goes in a tale too sad,
too full of tears?
Poem by Jeanne Minahan
Music by Ya-Jhu Yang
Sarah Shafer, soprano
Rebecca Anderson, violin
Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia. Ya-Jhu set six of my poems in her piece Rain Out at Sea. You can read the complete setting in Poems - Sequence Settings. Painter Imogen Schilling created the installation behind the performers.


