trilogy by alcides lanza
alcides lanza's trilogy is a set of three pieces of music theatre, composed for actress-singer with DSP, electronics and lighting effects. The trilogy is about memories; personal memories, global recollections, and insights into different times in the composer's life. The three works that make up the trilogy are based on texts in Spanish, English, French, and even some invented languages. While the order of the trilogy does not reflect the order in which the pieces were written, it reflects the chronological path of memories throughout time. The first piece, ekphonesis V, (the second of the three to be composed) deals with memories of the composer's childhood. The second, penetrations vii (the first to be composed) presents the composer's memories of all humanity throughout history. The concluding work, ekphonesis VI (which was also chronologically the third piece) is again based on personal memories, since the composer's arrival in Canada, and memories of his own family. These recollections are brought to a more general and universal level through three poems.
Before proceeding with an examination of this work, a short explanatory digression on lanza’s notational system will likely prove helpful. lanza's own system of musical notation has confounded performers time and again, until the performers become more familiar with the system, at which time they invariably find it an extremely intuitive and simple method to work within. The page admittedly looks daunting at first glance, but once understood makes perfect sense. Each barline represents 15 seconds, so each four bar system represents one minute (this is consistent in all lanza's works within this system). Typically within each bar the performers are not bound to strict time, but rather, to approximate time. Lanza uses a 3-line staff to indicate pitches, the middle line indicates the mid-range of the instrument/voice, the upper line indicates the extreme upper limit, and the lower line the extreme lower range of the instrument/voice. This system allows for microtonal gradations. Sometimes an actual pitch is given:
Example 1: lanza, Trilogy, excerpt.
(All examples courtesy of shelan publications.)
Here the singer begins on a D in a middle register, at a dynamic level of 3 (pp, as indicated in score - dynamic levels range from 1 pppp to 10 ffff ), then crescendos to a 4, then decrescendos, then suddenly louder at a level of 5, then down to a 3, all the while changing vowel sounds gradually, from "o" to "a", to a sound, "with mouth wide open" changing to "mouth almost closed" (from the inside cover notes). Occasionally, when specific pitches and intervals are needed, lanza briefly employs a traditional 5-line staff with the appropriate clef. The tape staff follows the same system, acting as a cue line for the vocalist to stay synchronised. The other staves are simple instructions. The inside cover lists all the graphics employed throughout the score, with full explanations of their individual interpretations. lanza's notational technique stems in part from his architectural studies. The scores include "ideograms, graphics, drawings - all intended to give a more direct representation of music".1 Incidentally, lanza re-uses titles often, revisiting and reworking previous ideas. This is indicated by the roman numerals appended to the end of piece titles. The year and roman numerals in parentheses following titles indicate the numerical order of compositions within a given year. Thus the title "penetrations vii (1972-III)" indicates this is the seventh work under the title penetrations, and was the third work to be composed in 1972.
ekphonesis V
ekphonesis V2 continues lanza's fascination with memories. The performer in this piece "tours" the composer's brain, encountering both the composer's and the performer's memories. lanza's point of departure is his statement "Theoretically memories should always be available however they may exist in different states of 'erosion'". This premise, combined with lanza's fascination with "the disintegration of language, its recombining into new words or sounds, and an attempt to convey meaning through this form of serendipitous linguistic wordplay"3 explains quite succinctly what this piece (and the entire trilogy) is about. Thus begins a journey of fragments of memories, text and sounds.
The piece opens very quietly, with the singer facing away from the audience, holding a flashlight under her chin. The stage is blacked out, the only light being the flashlight. The symbolism here is twofold; the composer states "inside our head must be a blackout", and thus tries to recreate this void on the stage. This is also an imitation of the teatro de lo esencial, a minimal theatrical style created by lanza's uncle Velmiro Ayala Guana (1905 - 1967, Guana was a well-known Argentinian writer, poet, linguist and educator, and also lanza’s tutor) where only the hands of the actors are seen. The vowel sounds slowly evolve into the word "abuela" (grandmother). This opening section is lanza's interpretation of the performer first "entering" the composer's "brain", and encountering a fragmented memory of his "abuela." The eroded thoughts and ideas at this point are still in simple vowel sounds, occasionally forming into words. This is a depiction of the memories from early childhood left over in the composer's mind. As these sounds continue, the singer is instructed to move her head a "1/4 turn, slow" and then to "let some light on your face" with the flashlight. It is interesting to note that throughout this opening section (consisting of just the vowels of the word "abuela") there is no gradual crescendo, or any "opening" process one might expect with a work introducing the earliest memories of a child. The dynamic peak of this section occurs at approximately 1:30, at the end of the first near-complete utterance of the word "abuela" (without the b, just vowels). At approximately 3:30,4 the singer is instructed to "briefly turn head to audience", but she never faces them completely yet.
This material gradually builds toward its end by adding more words and a lengthy crescendo. Still the memories are fragmented with other words and partial words entering the vocabulary. These words all reflect early childhood - "mira" (watches), "teme" (fears). The dynamic reaches its peak at about 5:30 (level 9) on the words "cuenteme" (tell me); the tape part here is at its thickest. Until 4:30 the tape had similar sounds to what the voice had - fragments of words stretched out so as to have little or no semantic meaning, but reflecting the incomplete memories of childhood. Typically there has been only one or two voices on the tape, but at 4:30 this expands. Multiple voices are heard intoning the text "temetemu" ("I'm very afraid of you.") The live voice is also "doubled" with a ring modulator, making the texture even thicker. The text is spoken/sung faster, ending in a "ritard, with great effort" as the tape grows thicker with more voices encompassing a greater span in the lower register. After the singer has ended her phrase, the tape voices quickly dissipate and at 6:00 the second section starts.
The second section opens with a tape sound which the composer refers to as "bubbly". Coupled with the rhythmically more active vocal line this sound could be seen as the stirring of consciousness, or the awakening of thought. This is clearly supported in the text of the vocal line. This text is markedly different from the text in the first section. Most obvious is the appearance of English, but more pointed is the use of phrases and concepts, showing a higher level of thinking and individualistic speech. Whereas the first section was comprised of incomplete words and vocalizations, here we find complete thoughts, such as "I see it...or is it?" and "feelings", indicating the awareness of emotion. A quick crescendo arises with the word "bibliotks." Still in the background we hear broken phrases overlapping one another, in both English and Spanish. As the sounds on the tape become more synthetic (a random tone generator), the singer asks in a "childish" voice "tell me something..." Perhaps as an adult reflecting on the memories, the singer goes on to say "a window on a real world", and then in a manner reminiscent of the more traditional technique of word painting, the phrase "or a mirror of in’ an'n nerrrsensibility" is electronically "doubled" with a ring modulator. The tape sounds disappear with the word "vanishes", and the singer moves into a short vocal solo. The text "la vieja buelesta rasola" is repeated three times, to the pitches F, A flat, G, B flat, A flat and G, with a rhythm given.
Example 2: lanza, Trilogy pg.3
This text is a good example of lanza's "corruption" of words to form new (often meaningless) words and sounds. The text "la vieja buelesta rasola" is a deformation of "la vieja abuelá estaré sola" ("the old grandmother would be alone"). lanza blends "vieja" with "abuela" and adds the first syllable of "estar
é" with this combination to form "vieja buelaesta". "Rasola" then is simply the remainder of "estara" combined with "sola". (The composer states he was unaware of the double meaning - "rasola" also means satin.)As the singer continues, the synthetic sounds re-enter, accompanied by "tango glimpses". These occcur in the form of short noises, which (according to the composer) are altered fragments of tango recordings. This is an interesting representation of fragments of music left in one's head from one's childhood; here, the fragments are completely unrecognizable to anyone except, perhaps, the creator of the fragments. Above these sounds are the composer's recollections of (presumably) his grandmother. Short phrases such as "her sharply etched descriptions never fail to create a clear picture" and "on a misty day she was always rather triste" recall the paradoxically fragmentary yet crystalclear pictures one retains of childhood. It is interesting to note that the given pitches for the latter line of text outline a B major triad, giving the line a simplistic feeling, like a child's tune.
Around 9:40 "diverse-whispered and spoken words - phonemes - phrases" appear on the tape, to which the soloist whispers "a dream child". Agitated sounds on the tape remind the listener of someone who is perhaps having a bad dream.
Between 10:15 and 11:00 the listener is presented with some of the clearest material in the piece in which both the tape and vocal parts consist entirely of fragments of thoughts and images. These words and phrases overlap each other, creating perhaps the most vivid example of fragmented memories the performer encounters in the composer's brain. Just looking at the score, one gets an idea of what the composer is trying to communicate.
Example 3: lanza, Trilogy pg.4, second systm
Throughout this section a change occurs, both in the composer's "memories" and in the singer's reactions to those memories. At approximately 10:20 an instruction is given for the spotlight to "enlarg[e]... gradually until covering [the singer's] full figure", almost immediately after which the singer is instructed to act "suddenly calm and contented". This occurs during a 12 second pause for the singer, just as the tape is fading with the words "fades and vanishes". This is followed by a sound on the tape which the composer states is a "high speed voice", starting at about 10:50. This is a clear example of lanza's practice of examining small fragments of words by stretching and/or looping them. Here the sound perhaps resembles that of a synthesized brass instrument. Several of these long, extended sounds are heard, none of which, of course, having any semantic meaning whatsoever.
At 11:00 the singer is instructed to act "like rocking a baby" for exactly the same amount of time that the text on the tape states "Leia para la pobre mujer una carta inventada, como si fuera de su hijo. Lamentamos comunicar a Usted..."5 Obviously this is in reference to the memory of an unfortunate event that occurred. In a live performance, this is a rather poignant moment. The singer responds to this in an "angered" tone, with quick crescendos on the final letters of words. The text here is interesting, as it is a "retrograde" version of the text heard between 10:20 and 10:45. lanza treats the retrograde technique not as a strict and literal process, but instead applies it loosely, thus creating fragments of words out of backwards syllables, some of which have some degree of semantic reference. For example, "of loneliness" becomes "senil eno", and "sensibilidad" becomes "dadi lib isn".
As this section calms, the singer asks "dadi", then returns to earlier material, stating in a childish manner "tell me", then repeating the same tune as Example 2 above. The vocal line then begins to grow toward a climax, repeating simple tunes, then climbing (registrally and dynamically) on the text "la vieja sola estaré vieja y sola" ending on the word "sola" (alone), after the tape has faded out. This crescendo represents the thickest textures heard yet; not only are there the live and recorded texts, but the synthesised brass sounds heard earlier make a brief reappearance.
At 13:00, the tape returns to the elongated vocal sounds of 10:50. The spotlight has been turned off, and the singer has returned to her original position on the stage, with the flashlight under her chin, facing the audience. This is important, as it is clearly a return to the original material that opened the work, but now the singer is facing the audience. As would be expected, the text has returned to vowels and phonemes, but now no word is recognizable at all. The tape part is labeled a "vocal continuum", and, in fact, the live part could be seen as the same thing. There are slight short crescendos and decrescendos (which sound more like short accents), but aside from these, the vocal line is smooth and consistent, blending with the sustained and stretched vocal sounds on the tape. The last minute is encircled, indicating the singer can optionally repeat it as necessary, so as to finish with the tape. As the singer and tape fade out, the singer is instructed to "turn your head...then your back to the audience", then finally "flashlight off".
penetrations VII
penetrations VII 6 is about all of human experience, throughout the ages. The composer acknowledges humanity's repeated mistakes with "horrible consequences for millions of people" throughout history, and concludes that hope for the future lies in the innocence and naivety of children, who "may give the human race a fresh starting point . . . someday",7 The title refers to the materials of the work penetrating through barriers such as frequency, technological distortion and semantics.
This piece starts with a lengthy tape solo. The singer is instructed to start the piece sitting in the audience, and at 2:00 the spotlight begins "searching" for her. Perhaps this is the first of the penetrations, the spotlight penetrating the darkness, (the opening lighting cue is "blackout") and the singer penetrating the audience. One could even read into this ideas of penetrating anonymity to discover individuality, consciousness, etc.
The tape introduction is somewhat nondescript. It begins softly, in the low register, with other sounds trying to penetrate this texture. The stage is to be completely dark, and the sound reaches the audience (and the performer) through this (another form of penetration). On the tape are simply long sustained semi-pitched sounds. At 1:00 mid- to high-range sounds (similar to electric guitar feedback) pierce the blanket of the background. Soon after, short electronic sounds dot the texture, with longer electronic sounds thickening in the mid to high registers. These build to a dynamic and textural peak around 3:00, although the dynamic is still quiet, never breaking a mezzo-forte intensity.
As the tape fades into the background, the spotlight finds the singer's face. She then "start[s] to act, slow motion...emerging from the audience". While doing this, low bass notes are heard on the tape, outlining an interval of a fourth. This sound is clearly that of (or imitating) a plucked double bass. The singer begins to hum a few pitches, "free and hesitantly, as a child trying to remember". This is likely the "child" side of the singer's role, recalling perhaps a simple tune from their youth. This continues for several minutes, until about 7:10. Engine-like sounds enter on the tape, as well as the feedback sounds heard in the opening tape solo. After a minute, the tape fades away and the singer's humming transforms into a "blues improvisation".8 This is perhaps the "adult" side showing a more sophisticated musical style (blues) and performance technique (improv). Interestingly, portions of this improvisation are notated (using a standard 5 line staff); even a key signature of C minor is given at the beginning of the hummed material, and continues right through the improvisation, (though the singer is instructed to "transpose to [a] comfortable key).
Just after 7:00, the singer begins the main part of the piece with a definition: "eidetic: of, or pertaining to, or constituting visual imagery retained in the memor[y]". The line then continues the definition of this psychological state: "...memories of a child dreaming all experiences of all times from the beginning of time nobody listens". The singer speaks the definition until the word "memories" when the tape joins her. The tape is a chorus of stretched and compressed words. The tape text consists of words like "same," "about," "time," "penetrations," "desperation," "child," "communication," "nobody listens," "there is no hope." Here the child/adult memories and recollections are presenting themselves, and the obvious frustration displayed by the text "nobody listens" begins to grow. A gradual crescendo occurs throughout this section, as well as an expansion of register. At the beginning of the section (approximately 7:20) the singer and tape begin in their respective low registers, at a dynamic level of "5." As the texture on the tape grows more dense (and louder), the singer also grows dynamically, and begins to fill her middle register as well as the lower.
Around 9:45 the singer is instructed to begin "getting nervous". As the memories and realisations surpass haunting her to the point of possessing her, she naturally grows more and more nervous and unstable. As she passes through stages of "exasperated", "trembling" and "go[ing] berserk," the texts of "a human experience," "being a child dreaming," and "but I was a child with all the memories from the beginning of time and nobody listens" become more frantic and encompass the entire register. This is especially evident in the repeated and rising "nobody listens" under the direction of "go berserk." At the height of the crescendo, (level 10) a ring modulator is added to the singer's screams of "NO!". Near the top of this crescendo the electronic engine noises reappear, and with their rising pitch, add to the increase of tension.
Finally at about 11:30 the electronic sounds on the tape overtake the voices and the singer "collapse[s] to the floor", then suffers "spasm[s]", then finally "lay[s]" still. The tape underneath this consists of very grating and piercing electronic sounds. These sounds are indicated in the score in large print as "a", "ae" and "is", and are likely created from these vocal sounds.
Example 4: lanza, Trilogy 11:30
This section represents the child/adult character being completely overcome by all these memories of history "which are not very nice...almost destroying her."9
As the feedback sounds gently fade in and out, the singer slowly tries to get up and moves towards the microphone. She tries to stand, falls, tries again and finally succeeds as electronic sounds continue in the background very quietly. She begins to hum, trying to speak, but finds herself unable to. Finally she sings the words "a child with dreams, memories again, time listen, listen...". This is repeated as necessary to fill out the end of the piece, and as she repeats the text she is instructed to "crouch through the end, as a frightened child", then to "change into breathing close to microphone". This, the final gesture of the piece, represents the destroyed adult coming "back to life as a child with less memories, less spoiled".10 This is intended to represent a more pure presence with more hope.
ekphonesis VI
The third and final work of the trilogy, ekphonesis VI,11 is again autobiographical. This work is based on lanza's memories since his arrival in Canada. These include memories of his own family combined with the "destiny or fate of humanity".12 These memories are related through the poetry of Norbert Ruebsaat, Robert Frost and W. B. Yeats. lanza states that by using these poems "the work turns into being political...by political I mean my concern with humanity, with where are we going and how it is all going to end".13 The poems were chosen by lanza's wife (and performance collaborator) Meg Sheppard.
The work is in six sections: I - Introduction, II - ta-ta-ta-/tea for two, III - niños (children), IV - niños II, V - breathing, life?, and VI - Babel. The first section, the introduction, opens with a lengthy tape section of violent electronic sounds. There are two main, distinct sounds - one harpsichord-like in the mid-register (but clearly synthetic) and short white-noise crashes, like explosions. There are a few other sounds, most notably Sheppard's voice intoning an unintelligible text (only because it can't be heard over the electronics) and a plucked, sustaining sitar-like sound. After a few minutes, the harpsichord sounds tend to thin out into bursts of notes and a few new sounds appear. Most important of these are (synthetic) piano clusters in the lower middle register. At about 3:45 , accompanying a new lighting cue, an accelerating beating sound appears, which is the sound of Sheppard tap dancing. This percussive sound continues in rhythms (
), and forms the foreground, while the piano clusters form a middle ground. The tape part of this section is comprised of sounds taken from the other two works of the trilogy. The sounds are all fragments taken from concert recordings of the other two pieces.
The second section, ta-ta-ta-/tea for two, begins at 4:18. Immediately a new sound is heard, a short white noise, similar to a synthesized snare drum, in fast repeated 16th notes. This is accompanied by a "bass line" (again synthesized) which, while not strictly patterned, follows roughly the following outline:
Example 5: lanza, Trilogy : ekphonesis VI 4:18, bass line.
The voice here also makes its entry, starting with enunciating "t-t-t-t-ta", alternating with longer hums. This sounds like someone simply singing along with a radio, or humming/singing to themselves, and is intended to be a representation of the singer tap-dancing and wandering through a stream-of-consciousness text. The tape line introduces more percussive sounds, always in the regular 16th notes at the same tempo, while the singer rhythmically floats above this. At 5:53, the well-known chords of "Tea for Two" are heard played by an electronic piano. This is mixed with the continuing background percussion and bass line, (although not in sync at all), and alternates with the tap dancing sound of the intro. The singer vocalizes along with these chords, again, not synchronized.
At 7:10 the third section, “niños,” begins. This section is based on the Ruebsaat poem which begins, "the children, like marbles, tumble into life...". This spoken text is accompanied by slowly moving synth-string tones in the background, moving around a vague D minor tonality. The text is interrupted at intervals by improvised humming, which also supports the D-centricity:
Example 6: lanza, Trilogy 7:10, improvised humming.
Also behind these synth tones are quiet, unintelligible (again due to volume) voices of children. There are several voices (two or three) overlapping each other, with different pannings for each, to give the impression of several children. Throughout this section, we hear textual recalls dreamchild", "books are also memorias" and "tell me something mommy...". A reading from an Argentinian children's bedtime story "Rulitos de Oro" (Goldenlocks) is also heard.
At 12:10, the fourth section, niños II begins with the sound of a piano. This is a recording of lanza's daughter, Adriana, when she was a young teenager, practicing the piano. The tap dancing returns, and children are also heard laughing and asking questions such as "Ma how come we live?" The singer hums again in a wandering manner. Throughout this section there are textural quotes from the earlier works, including "cuenteme" and "nobody listens", and an interesting little add-in, "beam me up, Scotty!" The children begin to play, and laughs and screams are heard, while the pianist continues practicing and the singer continues to improvise humming interspersed with short phrases. Between 14:00 and 14:30 the screams begin to grow in volume, and are gradually distorted and layered, while the singer repeats "nobody listens" in an increasingly urgent tone. A quietly sung "tell me something" against the distorted background sounds of children forms an odd juxtaposition not just sonically, but also thematically. The composer describes these repetitions as recurring "leit-motives", echoing from the prevoius two pieces. Some were added by the composer, while others were ad-libbed by Sheppard. The children's screams then dissipate into their original form of talking and asking questions (no longer layered now, just one at a time) and the singer again asks "tell me...". The synthesized strings re-enter as the singer begins to recite the Frost poem Fire and Ice. While no such instruction is given in the score, in performance Sheppard sings this poem (presumably to an improvised tune) and intersperses the lines (often repeated) with other texts from the other pieces in the trilogy. The synth strings continue throughout, slowly panning left to right, then fading out around 16:30.
The poem continues into the fifth section "breathing, life? " Synthetic electronics reenter in this section, mostly white-noise-like sounds, which are likely intended to represent breathing (as indicated in the score). Percussive sounds are created by isolating vowels sounds of certain words, especially the consonant "d". An altered "destruction" is heard briefly in the left channel, accompanying these percussive attacks. (The percussive sounds were created from samples of the "d" in "destruction".) Quotes are again taken from the trilogy and from the Ruebsaat poem. At 18:20, the singer states "tell me...the elusive ghosts" which is clearly emphasized by the sharp accompanying sounds on the tape. As the texture thickens, the breathing sounds become louder, the percussive sounds grow more constant, and the singer speaks faster. Just before 20:00, an interesting improvised combination of texts occurs. Sheppard takes the fragment "the children's eyes" from the Ruebsaat poem, and combines it with the "cuente me" quote to form the new "the children's eyes tell me...". This is the first such occurrence of this combination, and is not indicated in the score, but clearly helps to unify the piece. Towards the end of this section the word "remembrances" is spoken at a loud volume with a delay effect, then quietly followed with "nobody listens". (These short lines are excellent examples of not only the composer but also the performer commenting on the subject matter of the work.) Following this, the tape background fades to silence to close the section.
The sixth section, "babel" begins with the words "Les m
ères" (the mothers) spoken by a male voice (Yves Daoust, a Montreal electroacoustic composer - these texts spoken by Daoust are from the French translation of the Ruebsaat poem.) Manipulations of this text form the first layer of the background on the tape. These words are heard in various fragments at various speeds. There are two other layers on the tape - children and synth-strings. While difficult to hear, the score indicates the text "la pechina, la pechina china, china techina, la pechina china techina!" This is a short text written by the composer's friend Carlos Santos. According to the composer, "It is written in onomatopoetic syllabic lingo [with] no meaning attached to it. However, people can make associations...'china' means chinese woman, also a country girl, peasant, in Argentina; 'la' means 'the'." Pechina, techina '[have] no meaning at all."14 The male voice manipulations quickly grow to form a middle ground, or even a counterpoint to the rhythmic growth of the singer's line, which eventually turns to gibberish. This climaxes in a short scream by the singer, leaving only the synth strings to continue.The final section of this work begins at 23:10, when the singer recites the Yeats poem, beginning "let us go forth, the tellers of tales". This is spoken to the simple background of the synth strings. After completing the poem, the singer improvises a little, shortly following which soft synth tones rise on the tape, sounding very calming and serene. This oscillates around a vague F# major tonality and peaks on a C#3-F#3 dyad, clearly reinforcing the sense of tonic F#. This closes the work, with the singer twirling around, coloured in red light, on a "decidedly upbeat note".15
The composer's aim in ekphonesis VI was to "further explore the importance of memory and the need for better communication among mankind".16 He also wanted to emphasize the importance of children "in promoting openness and generosity of spirit among us all",17 and remind us of the responsibility toward them. By keeping the sounds of children constant in the background, the composer illustrates the fact that children are always present, and always the foundation of what one may see and/or hear, that they are the root of everything. In the fourth section, the children's noises grow to screams, while the singer repeats "nobody listens". This is an excellent way of displaying the results of neglecting responsibilities towards children. Because in penetrations VII the composer created the association of "nobody listening" with the major problems of the world throughout history, this phrase becomes even more poignant went used in relation to attitudes towards (or, perhaps more importantly, of) children. When the singer (representing humanity, or the adult population) finally asks "tell me something" in a quiet voice, the screams die down and return to playing and asking questions. The singer continues, "tell me...".
The poems for this work were chosen by Meg Sheppard, and of course they deal with its principal themes. The poems by Frost and Yeats are on the subject of communication, while the poem of Ruebsaat discusses the innocence (and perhaps fragility) of children. These poems are treated by the composer (and to a large degree by the performer, whose role is almost that of composer due to the degree of knowledgeable improvisation called for in this piece) as a repertoire of text to be drawn on, as opposed to strict lines to be recited. While this may detract from any structural schemes present in the poems, it allows the singer to intersperse humming and vocalizations, or to allow the tape to be heard if needed, and, of course, to stretch/contract the material to fit the given section. Because each poem is used in its own section to communicate the desired message, the soloist is free to repeat lines as desired.
Notes:
1 Sheppard,Meg "alcides lanza," article commissioned by "Latin American Music: An Encyclopedic History of Musics from South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean," 2 volumes, edited by Malena Kuss. Schirmer Books, NYC. p. 2
2 lanza, alcides, ekphonesis V, score editions shelan publications.
5 "Read for the poor woman an invented letter as if it were of her son. We regret to inform you ..."
6 lanza, alcides, penetrations VIII, score, editions shelan publications.
7 All quotes are from the score.
8 Based on an early "berceuse" lanza composed in the 1950's, this theme survived only in the composer's memory. lanza says he thought using this melody was a way to relate to the notion of the singer (and himself) as a child.
9 lanza, "about trilogy. - unpublished notes prepared to be read at a performance at Espace/Musique, Ottawa, Ontario, Jan. 16, 1994.
10 ibid.
11 lanza, alcides, ekphonesis VI, score, editions shelan publications.
12 ibid.
13 ibid.
14 personal communication with the composer.
15 Sheppard, alcides lanza (Meg Sheppard’s nine page description)
