SATB, a cappella

Color Madrigals was originally conceived because of a commission during my 10-year residency with The Singers - Minnesota Choral Artists. Artistic Director Matthew Culloton had asked for something short on the theme of love and, having found something by English poet, John Keats, I felt that the work was a bit shorter than we had envisioned. That original text mentioned a color, so I thought I might write something else using a Keats text that mentioned a color and thus was born the first “volume” of my so-called color madrigals; the green and red movements. This was followed pretty immediately by a commission from the Summer Singers (Vicki Peters, conductor) for the purple and yellow movements and, later that year, Matt asked to finish out the set with the blue and orange madrigals.

Program note: When I read this text for the first time, I always got stuck on the last two lines.  I kept associating it with the image of someone whose heart is broken taking refuge in a bottle of wine.  The eight lines of the poem that lead up to this are what this person wishes for but, in the end, probably doesn’t get.  Anyone who has ever felt heartbroken knows this feeling and, although we usually heal ourselves of our own accord, “drowning your sorrows” can seem awfully inviting sometimes.

Note: Purple-Stainéd Mouth is the third movement of the Color Madrigals. It can be purchased and performed separately.

 The Text

By John Keats (England, 1795-1821)
Adapted by the composer

Purple-Stainéd Mouth
O, for a draught of vintage!  that hath been
   Cooled a long age in the deep-delvéd earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
   Dancing, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
   Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
      With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
         And purple-stainéd mouth,
   That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
      And with thee fade away into the forest dim—