Our First April | Marjorie Halloran | MusicSpoke

This score is not licensed for performance. Please visit MusicSpoke.com to purchase performance copies.

Program Notes

Starting around late March/early April, the hill country of central Texas explodes into multicolored bloom as millions of wildflowers appear on every highway and roadside. Inspired in large part by Lady Bird Johnson’s love of the natural beauty of Texas, the Highway Beautification Act was signed into law in 1965, and the Texas Department of Transportation sows about 30,000 pounds of wildflower seeds every year to ensure future growth. When I moved to Texas, the first year was difficult as I acclimated to a new culture and environment. I found solace in the beauty of these wildflowers that first April, and this song was the result of that experience.

The wildflowers depicted in the song, in order of color:

Blue: Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis)

Orange: Indian paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa)

Pink: Pink evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa )

Yellow: Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta )

White: Blackfoot daisy (Melampodium leucanthum)

Magenta: Winecup (Callirhoe involucrata)

Red: Fire wheel (Gaillardia pulchella)

Purple: Prairie verbena (Glandularia bipinnatifida)

www.wildflower.org

Marjorie Halloran, originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, is a synesthetic composer, songwriter, and performer. Her choral music blends together smooth and memorable melodic lines, lush harmonies and textures, and the occasional abrupt change in time signature or key, just to keep things interesting. She holds her MFA in composition with an emphasis in songwriting from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, as well as a BA in music theory/composition from the University of California at Davis. She is the co-founder and coordinator of the VCFA Choral Workshop, a program for graduate students interested in learning choral composition, and has studied composition under Michael Early, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Don DiNicola, Abbie Betinis, and Alice Parker.

An accomplished choral singer in addition to composer, Marjorie has performed with many different ensembles in California, New Jersey, New York, and Texas, where she currently sings with and writes for Chorus Austin and Inversion Ensemble. Her compositional accolades include being the winner of the 2016 WomenSing "Youth Inspiring Youth" choral composition competition, a finalist for the I Kromatika composition competition in 2015, a semi-finalist for the American Prize in Composition (choral division) in 2018, and an American Prize finalist in 2022. Marjorie released her debut pop album, Ready For Anything, in 2015, featuring a variety of songs written during her studies at VCFA, and has released a variety of EPs on her Bandcamp site (marjoriehalloran.bandcamp.com). She currently resides in Austin, TX, while continuing her work with VCFA as the Program Assistant for the Music Composition program.

Her favorite symphony is Robert Schumann’s 2nd and her favorite instrument beyond voice is the viola. She loves the color yellow, biodegradable glitter, peanut butter, cocoa with mint, chords in first inversion, The Little Mermaid, and reading alto clef. She has a husband, an orange cat, and an obsession with rainbows, and her favorite Pokémon are Pikachu and Koffing. She has been to 50 states and 5 continents. Once, she camped in Antarctica.

This score is not licensed for performance. Please visit MusicSpoke.com to purchase performance copies.

www.marjoriehalloran.com

Our First April

text by the composer

We woke up to thunder, the sky was turning green The weatherman said “Take cover”, so we did And the rain made rainbows on the ground The sun shone on a tapestry of blue

We waited until the days were equal And there were just as many sunny ones as dark We waited for the seeds that we had planted to take root Before they washed away again

Spring was a long time coming, we watched the wildflowers bloom And we could see things differently

Blue, orange, pink, yellow White, magenta, red, purple

We thought the season had changed, well, maybe it hasn’t And I’m starting to believe maybe it never will But every so often, the clouds clear for a moment And new green life is visible

Spring was a long time coming, we watched the wildflowers bloom And we could see things differently Our first April

This score is not licensed for performance. Please visit MusicSpoke.com to purchase performance copies.

ing green,

ing green,

man said, "take

man said, "take

made

bows on the

bows on the

ground

made

rain bows on the

ground

And there were

sun ny ones as

And there were

sun ny ones as

dark,

And there were

just as man y

sun ny ones as

dark,

And there were

just as man y

sun ny ones as

dark,

wait ed for the

seeds that we had

plant ed to take

wait ed for the

seeds that we had

wait ed for the

seeds that we had

plant ed to take

wait ed for the

seeds that we had

plant ed to take

plant ed to take

washed a way a

gain,

washed a way a

gain,

washed a way a

gain,

washed a way a

gain,

bloom,

bloom,

pink yel low

yel low

pink yel low

pink yel low

pink yel low

pink yel low

ma gen ta

pink yel low

ma gen ta

(ah)

(ah)

(ah)

(ah)

dim. dim. dim. dim. dim. dim. dim. dim.

Spring was a long time

watched the wild flowers

Spring was a long time

watched the wild flowers

Spring was a long time

watched the wild flowers

Spring was a long time

watched the wild flowers

erent ly

erent ly

diff erent ly

(ooh)

(ooh)

(ooh)

(ooh)

(ooh)

(ooh)

(ooh)

(ooh)

(ooh)