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Sweet Briar Songs cycle of three songs for voice and piano

Texts by Patricia Valdata

Dennis Tobenski

Dennis Tobenski Sweet Briar Songs for voice and piano (2007)

Texts by Patricia Valdata

Dennis Tobenski: SWEET BRIAR SONGS for voice and piano Copyright © 2007 by Tobenski Music Press, New York All rights reserved. ASCAP. Texts for Patricia Valdata's “Moore's Garden,” “Looking for Bivalve,” and “Fall Semester: First Frost” from Looking for Bivalve, published by Pecan Grove Press. Copyright © 2002. Used with the kind permission of the author. This edition first published in 2017 by Tobenski Music Press 31-52 36th St., #3F Astoria, NY 11106 ISMN 979-0-800070-05-1 Distributed by NewMusicShelf www.newmusicshelf.com

Composer's Note I wrote the Sweet Briar Songs in April/May 2007, after having returned from a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst VA, where I had met poet/writer Patricia Valdata. Pat had given me a copy of her chapbook Looking for Bivalve, and I was instantly drawn to the three poems used in this set of songs. “Moore’s Garden” is a quasi-recitative that opens reflectively with a meditation on a beautiful garden setting, accompanied by delicate, harp-like arpeggios. As the text and music become more lyrical, the song is interrupted at the words “but for the toad”, where the voice is suddenly alone, and is only joined by a sickly accompaniment at the words “bleeding, in the snake’s mouth.” The descending-scale vocal line of the phrase “fully imaginary” become a unifying motive throughout the entire set. “Looking for Bivalve” is a short, silly song. The singer is reciting absurd roadside landmarks and map markings. The triplet accompaniment suggests a car in motion on side roads, periodically slowing or stopping to check the map, which we discover at the end, isn’t quite as accurate as our traveler had hoped. “Fall Semester: First Frost” closes the cycle lyrically, describing the changing of the leaves and the season on a college campus. A little slice of life, the song ends with a quiet moment: “Through the window / pigeons watch ‘ my students take their exam.”

Sweet Briar Songs was commissioned by Robert Frankenberry, and was first performed on 18 May 2007 by Robert Frankenberry (tenor) and Marc Peloquin (piano)

Duration: 5 minutes

1. Moore’s Garden

3. Fall Semester: First Frost

Humid honeysuckle air unfurls hyssop buds, lulls us to shuffle feet in leaf litter, hear a bumblebee’s heavy winged hum, admire the blue leaves of hosta, sunlight shining a wood thrush’s rusty plumes.

Saturday

These gifts are real for us: frond and leaf, serenity of green and fragrant, but for the toad, fully imaginary, when we nearly step on it bleeding in the snake’s mouth. 2. Looking for Bivalve An osprey nest, prominent In a tree above the salt marsh

Chickadee hands from A pine cone, acrobatic, In its element. I watch from my window, cold Despite the wood-burning stove. Sunday Sweetspire leaves become Wine-colored after one night’s Frost. They embrace the fall. In autumn, I am a wallFlower, reluctant partner. Monday

The salt marsh, for miles Reeds, cattails, ice

Locust tree leaflets Like confetti dot the grass Of the city park.

An oyster-packing plant, A rotting pier

Through my windows, pigeons watch My student take their exam.

A sign pointing to Shellpile A single blue heron. This map must be wrong.

for Pat Valdata, with aﬀection

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1. Moore's Garden

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Copyright © 2007 by Dennis Tobenski. All Rights Reserved. "Moore's Garden" from Looking for Bivalve by Patricia Valdata. Published by Pecan Grove Press. Copyright © 2002 by Patricia Valdata. Used with the kind permission of the author.

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Copyright © 2007 by Dennis Tobenski. All Rights Reserved. "Looking for Bivalve" from Looking for Bivalve by Patricia Valdata. Published by Pecan Grove Press. Copyright © 2002 by Patricia Valdata. Used with the kind permission of the author.

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DENNIS TOBENSKI (2007)

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from my win - dow, 3

Copyright © 2007 by Dennis Tobenski. All Rights Reserved. "Fall Semester: First Frost" from Looking for Bivalve by Patricia Valdata. Published by Pecan Grove Press. Copyright © 2002 by Patricia Valdata. Used with the kind permission of the author.

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Additional vocal works by Dennis Tobenski Drinking Alone with the Moon (2003) song for soprano and vibraphone text: Li Po

And He'll Be Mine (2005) song cycle for tenor and piano texts: Robert Burns

It's all I have to bring to-day (2007) song for voice and piano text: Emily Dickinson

till night is overgone (2007) song cycle for tenor and piano texts: James Joyce

Starfish at Pescadero (2007) song cycle for soprano, viola, harp, and percussion texts: Idris Anderson

echoes (2008) song cycle for tenor or soprano and piano texts: Mark Statman

at least a moment (2009) song cycle for soprano or tenor and harp (or piano) texts: Kenneth Koch

Lullaby for a Young Road (2009) song for voice and piano text: Jorn Ake

To a Western Boy (2009) song for voice and piano text: Walt Whitman

meditation (2011) song for solo voice text: Mark Statman

Without a Philosophy (2013) song for soprano, violin, and harp texts: Elizabeth Seydel Morgan

Go, Little Poem (2015) song cycle for voice and piano texts: Billy Collins

For more works by Dennis Tobenski, please visit: www.dennistobenski.com