Caltabiano: Torched Liberty, for Soprano and 7 Players

Torched Liberty

Duration:

32 min.

Year:

1986

Dramatic Cantata for Soprano and Seven Instruments
Sop.; Fl./Picc./A.Fl. A.Cl./EbCl./B.Cl. Tpt. 1Perc. Pno. Vln. Vcl.

Catalog No.:

rental only

	From the Prelude (1' 53" -- 1.4 MB)		download

	From the recorded will of Harvey Milk (2' -- 1.5 MB)		download

	On Gertrude Stein poetry (1' 14" -- 876 Kb)		download

	On Langston Hughes poetry (1' 03" -- 747 K)		download

The earliest ideas for Torched Liberty were simultaneously literary and musical. Fragments of historical documents (speeches, treaties, acts of presidents and congresses, etc.), along with poetry of seven American authors, form the libretto. The work employs close relationships between the macro- and micro-structure in both pitch and rhythm, and various transformation processes connect musical ideas that are sometimes quite different. Several musical quotations, while making ironic comparisons to the text, also have other purposes, including tonal emphases.

The cantata is divided into four sections, framed by a prologue and epilogue. The prologue, to words from Emma Lazarus' poem, "The New Colossus," forms the backdrop for depictions of events in America's long history of civil rights abuses. These episodes start with the gay rights struggles of the 1970s, then move backward in time to the African American civil rights campaign, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the forcing of Native Americans onto reservations. An epilogue attempts to make explicit a conclusion that the witch hunts of the 18th century continue today: only the objects change.

Torched Liberty was commissioned by the New York State Council on the Arts for the Syracuse Society for New Music. It was premiered by that ensemble in 1986 with Neva Pilgrim, soprano, and David Stock, conductor. A recording is available on Opus One Records.

-- R.C

Torched Liberty emerged a strong work, one that should find itself in the repertory. Caltabiano's vocal writing is demanding but right for the voice. [He] has assembled a libretto pointing up American persecution related to the start of the gay rights movement, blacks and the Ku Klux Klan, the internment of Japanese-Americans and the destruction of American Indian culture, concluding that the witch hunts of the 18th century continue. Only the objects change.
-- Pitsburgh Post-Gazette


		Torched Liberty, performed by Neva Pilgrim and the Society for New Music, conducted by the composer, is available on OpusOne CD 168. The CD can be purchased in any retail store, or on line at Amazon.com.