The Silken Tent

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#CCCCCC" TEXT="#080000" background="13cfd5a3.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Aaron Alon"><U><B><IMG SRC="3a47d140.png" border=0 width="125" height="20" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Compositions"><U><B>Recent compositions</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id163.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breaking the Silence"><U>Breaking the Silence</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id158.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="All Rights Reserved"><U>All Rights Reserved</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id144.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dulce et Decorum Est"><U>Dulce et Decorum Est</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id104.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fairy Tales"><U>Fairy Tales</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id101.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hibakusha"><U>Hibakusha</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id81.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A View to a Death"><U>A View to a Death</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Peter Pan Suite"><U>Peter Pan Suite</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Córdoba"><U>Córdoba</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spell"><U>Spell</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spring and Fall"><U>Spring and Fall</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fantasia for Piano"><U>Fantasia for Piano</U></A>   |   <B>The Silken Tent</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#888888" TEXT="#080000" background="13dd2b03.jpg"> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> On <I>The Silken Tent...</I></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>“…[a] work of sensitivity and good design…”</B></div> <bR> <div>      2004 Mu Phi Epsilon </div> <div> Composition grants' adjudicator</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>“...a beautiful melodic line...[reminiscent] of a Romantic era art song...”</B></div> <bR> <div>      2005 OFMC</div> <div> Adjudicator Comments</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#CCCCCC" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <IMG SRC="447b1200.png" border=0 width="177" height="32" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>INSTRUMENTATION</B>: Mezzo-soprano and piano</div> <div> <B>DURATION</B>: Ca. 3½ minutes</div> <bR> <div> This art song is a setting of Robert Frost's sonnet, “The Silken Tent.”  The text struck me as dreamy and lyrical, almost surreal in its imagery.  Frost juxtaposes a silken tent with the most mundane and uniform of settings-a field; thus the woman represented is a true individual, towering above a sea of uniformity.  She might float straight up into the heavens, if it were not for the bondage of “countless silken ties of love and thought”—a bondage of which she is made aware when one of her cords is strained in the capricious breeze.  In the music, the piano takes on the dreamy, lyrical role, with a constant stream of sixteenths creating a sense of the sameness of the field; the voice represents the tent and its changing relationship to the field.  The voice leaps up, as though soaring up into heaven and nearly escaping from the field (the piano drops out), but its bondage is realized—the tent tries to stay higher up, but is invariably pulled back down, soon reestablishing its dynamic with the field.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Listen to the piece:</div> <div>  <embed src="HTMLobj-338/Silken_Tent.mp3" autostart="false" width="145" height="70">  </div> <div> <A HREF="#about_the_recording" TITLE="The Silken Tent"><U><I>About the recording</I></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/robertfrost/757" TARGET="_blank" TITLE="http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/rober"><U>Read the text on americanpoems.com.</U></A></div> <div>  <A NAME="performance_history"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <U>Awards</U></div> <div> Winner of the 2005 Ohio Federation of Music Clubs</div> <div> Student Composers Contest, <I>Third Place</I></div> <bR> <div> <U>Performance History</U></div> <div> February 24, 2002</div> <div> Rumya Putcha, soprano; Susana Cavallo, piano</div> <div> New Music Ensemble Concert</div> <div> <I>University of Chicago</I></div> <bR> <div> March 30, 2004 (revised version)</div> <div> Katie Miller, mezzo-soprano; Marilyn Musick, piano</div> <div> New Music Festival III</div> <div> <I>University of Nebraska at Kearney</I></div> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="about_the_recording"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <U>About the Recording</U></div> <div> This is a live recording of a performance in a master class with John Harbison in La Pavillon at the Cleveland Institute of Music, on October 8, 2003.  The mezzo-soprano is <B>Kimberly Lauritsen</B>; the pianist is <B>Kris Rucinski</B>.  Because of copyright restrictions on the setting of works of Robert Frost, this piece may not be performed in a ticketable venue and is not available on CD recording.</div> <bR> <div> All music ©2004 Aaron Alon (ASCAP).  All rights reserved. </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>