Lyrics by Sigrid Sibley
Will there be a spring?
I do not yet know what the storm will bring
Little bird with a broken wing
Oh, Will there be a spring?
Will there be a spring?
I do not yet know what the storm will bring
Little bird let your heart sing
Oh, let there be a spring!
I can see blue skies in your eyes
And when you laugh
I can hear the brook rushing by
Oh, let there be a spring!
Oh, let there be a spring!
Fear Not, Precious Child!
(The darkness will pass)
Lyrics by Langston Snodgrass
Oh, Gideon, why did you have to die!
My beloved warrior,
So dark the pain now!
Husband, father, what shall I say to our child?
Bereft of your courage,
What is left for us?
I must now be brave.
Oh, Sarah, child, so innocent,
Hold me tight.
We will be stronger through love,
My precious child.
Life's battlefields
May tear our world apart,
Still, we are bonded by love.
Cry not, my child.
Your father's in heaven.
Now we must survive!
Him, we will remember
And live on,
Through love.
Sweet child, fear not.
Forever I will be close to you,
And always protect you,
So fear not,
Precious child!
Welcome the light
Poem by Sara Teasdale
(War Time)
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,
Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
Lyrics by Sigrid Sibley
Where the stonewalls meets the sea and
Mist eases up through barren trees
Many years spent in wandering band
To return but a stranger in familiar land
Gone, gone away
Is the plow from the field
The cows from the pasture
The farmer’s yield
Gone from the valley
Is the girl I did love
And swore she did not to return
Gone far away is my home
Roads go ever on and on,
Over rock and tree.
By caves where never sun has shone,
by streams that never find the sea.
Excerpt from JRR Tolkien
about
When the great Coronavirus pandemic struck in early 2020, the University of Southern Maine Composers Ensemble had just completed writing repertoire for their Spring 2020 concert, and was preparing for an April performance of all world premieres. Instead, social distancing took hold, school went on-line, and ensemble performance became impossible.
The Composers Ensemble is dedicated to writing and performing new music. The makeup of each semester’s ensemble is unique and rather specialized, with repertoire custom-tailored to the membership of the moment. So the loss of the spring concert was particularly painful, since this exact combination of players and instruments will never be duplicated again. This semester’s ensemble was 20 members strong, including two bass clarinets, accordion, two guitars, penny whistle, and other oddities, alongside more traditional wind, brass, strings and percussion sections.
The solution to the problem of what to do with all this unperformed new music, as so many others in the performing world have discovered, was to go virtual. Instead of performing a concert, the Composers Ensemble decided to record an album. The goal was to accurately and musically represent 45 minutes of contemporary music written for this small, unusual chamber orchestra, with as much participation from the ensemble membership as possible given each performer’s capacities when working from home.
Midi realizations of each piece were created, and members took it upon themselves to overdub as many instrumental or vocal parts as they could, using only the equipment they had on hand in their place of residence. In some cases, parts were recorded directly into a phone or the mic from a pair of earbuds. The original midi renditions were created by ensemble director and USM professor Daniel Sonenberg, along with two students, René Damen and Heather Franklin. Mixing and mastering was done by Sonenberg, Franklin, Damen and ensemble member Clifford Cameron. As live instrumental and vocal tracks were submitted, they were inserted into the mix, replacing their midi-generated counterpart. In addition to relying on the Composers Ensemble members, composers solicited extra help from performing friends outside the group.
The resulting album, appropriately titled after Sigrid Sibley’s haunting opening song, “Will There Be a Spring,” captures the diversity and spirit of experimentation that often guides the USM Composers Ensemble’s work. With pieces ranging from Irish-influenced folk songs, to contemporary concert music, to jazzy musical theater numbers, to lush, choral compositions, a wide range of musical styles and proclivities are represented. In the final product, midi performances coexist with live performances as seamlessly as possible. The album is a hybrid that is absolutely tied to the reality of the current moment.
We intend for this album to be a bold positive statement about the value of musical expression in the face of extreme adversity. In troubling times, it can be tempting to view the arts as secondary; but in truth we need the arts to make sense of our lives and our realities. Will There Be a Spring is dedicated to the essential workers, medical and otherwise, who have kept our society running through the unprecedented calamity of the Coronavirus, as well as to the countless musicians and arts organizations facing an uncertain future. We must stick together, and we must continue to create.
Composers on the album are Blaine Bickford, Clifford Cameron, Sean Conover, René Damen, Mel D’Anci, Jonathan Hatch, Katie Lind, Matthew Nelse, Ethan Paquet, Christopher Pettersen, and Sigrid Sibley. Additionally, Professor Sonenberg wrote a new “Prelude for Composers Ensemble” for the project.
The album will be released on Bandcamp in conjunction with a live Zoom release party on Wednesday, May 27, at 7pm.
credits
released May 28, 2020
René Damen - Midi rendition, mixing and mastering for tracks 3, 5, 8 and 11
Heather Franklin - Midi rendition, mixing and mastering for track 10
Dan Sonenberg - Midi rendition, mixing and mastering for tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 9, midi rendition and mastering for tracks 12 and 13.
Clifford Cameron - Mixing for tracks 12 and 13.
Production supervisor: Dan Sonenberg
Cover art:
Painting by Christine Hession
Design by Dan Sonenberg and Marty Lawson
Banner art: René Damen
1) Will There Be a Spring by Sigrid Sibley
Christopher Pettersen - Flute
Mel D’Anci - Bass Clarinet
Hans Spencer** - Alto Saxophone
Paul Thomas - Horn
David Hession - Trombones
Alma Kenow - Guitar
Clifford Cameron - Piano
Josie Lawrence - Lead vocal
Katie Lind - Backing vocal
Sigrid Sibley - Backing vocal
2) Breaking Drywall by Mel D’Anci
Christopher Pettersen - Flute
Mel D’Anci - Bass Clarinet
Paul Thomas - Horn
Alma Kenow - Guitar
Clifford Cameron - Piano
Dan Sonenberg - Electric bass and temple blocks
Sean Conover - Cello
3) Fear Not
Music by René Damen;
Lyrics by Langston Snodgrass
Christopher Pettersen - Flute and piccolo
Mel D’Anci - Bass clarinet
Paul Thomas - Horn
David Hession - Trombone
Heather Franklin - Triangle
Dan Sonenberg - Cymbal, bass drum, celesta
Alma Kenow - Guitar
Josie Lawrence - Vocal
Katie Lind - Vocal
Sigrid Sibley - Vocal
4) Der Mit Und - by Sean Conover
Mel D’Anci - Bass Clarinet
Paul Thomas - Horn
Clifford Cameron - Piano
Sigrid Sibley - Mandolin
Dan Sonenberg - Vibes, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, guitar
5) Please Silence Your Cell Phones - by Christopher Pettersen
Christopher Pettersen - Flute and piccolo
Mel D’Anci - Bass Clarinet
Paul Thomas - Horn
David Hession - Trombones
Clifford Cameron - Piano
Dan Sonenberg - Snare drum and guitar
Heather Franklin - Triangle
6) There Will Come Soft Rains - by Katie Lind
Text by Sara Teasdale
Christopher Pettersen - Piccolo
Clifford Cameron - Piano
Paul Thomas -Horn
David Hession - Trombone
Dan Sonenberg - Timpani and glockenspiel
Chorus:
Katie Lind - Soprano
Sigrid Sibley - Soprano, Alto
Emily Lescatre* - Alto
Cass Snider - Alto
Blaine Bickford - Tenor
Clifford Cameron - Tenor
Ryan Geary* - Bass
Dan Sonenberg - Bass
7) Father Tom - by Ethan Paquet
Flute - Christopher Pettersen
Bass Clarinet - Mel D’Anci
Alto Saxophone - Jonathan Hatch
Bassoons - Blaine Bickford
Horn - Paul Thomas
David Hession - Trombone and bass trombone
Dan Sonenberg - Drum Set, glockenspiel, guitar
Ethan Paquet - Accordion
Clifford Cameron - Piano
Sigrid Sibley - Mandolin
8) Third Star on the Right - by Blaine Bickford
Mel D’Anci - Bass Clarinet
Paul Thomas - Horn
Clifford Cameron - Piano
Dan Sonenberg - Bass drum, vibes, glockenspiel, cymbal
Chorus:
Mia Love* - Soprano 1
Katie Lind - Soprano 2
Rachel Goldstein* - Alto 1, 2
Sigrid Sibley - Alto 2
Miles Obrey* - Tenor 1, 2
Dan Sonenberg - Bass
9) Prelude for Composers Ensemble - by Daniel Sonenberg
Mel D’Anci - Bass clarinet
Gene Gill* - Alto Saxophone
Sigrid Sibley - Mandolin
Paul Thomas - Horn
Ethan Paquet - Accordion
Josie Lawrence - Voice
Clifford Cameron - Piano
Dan Sonenberg - Glockenspiel, timpani, snare drum, tambourine,
xylophone, tam tam, guitar
Sean Conover - Cello
10) Limbo - by Matthew Nelson
Mel D’Anci - Bass Clarinet
Paul Thomas - Horn
Dan Sonenberg - Guitar, cymbals, timpani
Chorus:
Katie Lind - Soprano
Sigrid Sibley - Alto
Emily Lescatre* - Alto
Ryan Geary* - Tenor, bass
Dan Sonenberg - Bass
Sean Conover - Cello
Matt Nelson - Double Bass
11) Odds Are by Jonathan Hatch
Christopher Pettersen - Flute and piccolo
Mel D’Anci- Bass Clarinet
Paul Thomas - Horn
Heather Franklin - Triangle
Dan Sonenberg - Guitar, cabasa, timpani, temple blocks, chimes, tamtam
12) New England Folk Song MVT 1: “Where the Stonewalls meet the Sea”
Music by Clifford Cameron
Lyrics: Sigrid Sibley
Christopher Pettersen - Flute
Katie Lind - Clarinet
Mel D’Anci - Bass Clarinet
Gene Gill* - Alto Sax
Nicholas Thompson-Brown* - Tenor Sax
Josie Lawrence - Vocal
Sigrid Sibley - Vocal
Clifford Cameron - Piano
Paul Thomas - Horn
David Hession - Trombone
Josh Gagnon* - Bass Trombone
Ethan Paquet - Accordion
Sigrid Sibley - Mandolin
Alma Kenow - Guitar
Dan Sonenberg - Vibes, timpani
Asher Barreras* - Double bass
13) New England Folk Song MVT 2 “Roads Go Ever On and On
Music by Clifford Cameron
Lyrics by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
Christopher Pettersen - Flute
Katie Lind - Clarinet
Mel D’Anci - Tin Whistle
Gene Gill* - Alto Sax
Nicholas Thompson-Brown* - Tenor Sax
Paul Thomas - Horn
Eric Quinn* - Trombone
Josh Gagnon* - Bass trombone
Sigrid Sibley - Mandolin
Alma Kenow - Guitar
Clifford Cameron - Piano
Ethan Paquet - Accordion
Dan Sonenberg - Vibes, cymbals, glockenspiel, timpani, bass drum
Josie Lawrence - Vocal
Sean Conover - Cello
Asher Berreras* - Double bass
*=Guest Artist
**=USM School of Music Faculty Guest Artist
Founded in 2005 by Professor Dan Sonenberg, the University of Southern Maine Composers Ensemble celebrated its 15th season
in 2020. The ensemble consists of student composer-performers, and performers interested in new music, and ranges in size from 13-30 members. Each semester they compose and perform a full evening of contemporary music in a range of musical styles for large chamber ensemble....more
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