Songs for Seven Days
1. I met a man under the moon on Sunday
2. Hiroshima: a Monday
3. A child suggested on a Tuesday
4. Bright Wednesday afternoons
5. On Thursday he leaves
6. a fly and a mirror: this is Friday
7. Each Saturday evening
SATB, a cappella
When Dr. Kevin Coker approached me about collaborating on a choral song cycle, we talked through many different themes that we felt might tie a set of pieces together. In a previous work, Color Madrigals, I had used the color wheel and texts by John Keats as a jumping-off point so, for this new cycle, we entertained various ways to do the same. The idea we hit upon that we thought might yield something interesting was a song cycle based around something entirely quotidian (literally): the days of the week. We sometimes see the week as a thing to make it through, but momentous events like the first atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima and man's first steps on the surface of the moon happened, boringly enough, on a Monday. But more personal stories—falling in love, having a child, losing a parent—can also happen to us no matter what day of the week it is. Thus, Songs for Seven Days was born.
To that end, I searched for texts that mentioned each day and came up with some beautifully diverse offerings. Reading through E. E. Cummings’s collected works yielded poems crafted into grammatical puzzles for both Sunday and Friday. The first is a goofy text about an encounter with a man in Rome; the second a meditation about a fly walking across the glass that separates it from the reflective surface of a mirror. Robert W. Ressler offered up a contemplation about the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945—including the haunting phenomenon of the “Hiroshima shadows”—as well as a sweet, little poem he based on an observation about friendship made by a kindergartener in his class at the time. The Wednesday song features an exquisite text by Emily Dickinson musing in her trademark voice and, for Thursday, I asked Austin-based singer/songwriter Shane Bartell if he might come up with something. He responded with a beautiful text about taking a chance and changing your surroundings in order to earnestly chase happiness. From Rome to Japan to a kindergarten classroom, Songs for Seven Days ends on a humble, American farmstead with a jaunty tune based on a text by nineteenth-century, Black poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), which details the story of a smitten farm boy going against the wishes of his father on a Saturday night.
Songs for Seven Days was commissioned by the Blue Valley Northwest High School Chamber Singers (Dr. Kevin Coker, conductor) for their performance at the 2014 Kansas Music Educators Convention.
The Texts
1. I met a man under the moon on Sunday
i met a man under the moon
on Sunday.
by way of saying
nothing he
smiled(but
just by the dirty collar of his
jacket were two glued uncarefully ears
in
that face of box of
skin lay eyes like
new tools)
whence i guessed that he also had climbed the pincian
to appreciate rome at nightfall;and because against this
wall his white sincere small,
hands with their guessing fingers.
did-not-move exquisitely
,like dead children
(if he had been playing a fiddle i had
been dancing:which is
why something about me reminded him of ourselves)
as Nobody came slowly over the town
-E.E. Cummings (1894-1962)
2. Hiroshima: A Monday
The Earth was dropped on a Monday
and a wound opened
Power betrayed slippery fingers
to let loose their stranglehold
to let fall a wailing ball
Science possessed humanity to split
history, hearts, and homes
While we forget what it felt like
to be a child
A peace, a paradise, that may never have existed
was lost; tossed out the window of a plane
And what remains are the delicate shadows
of flowers etched in white walls
and the question...
-Robert Ressler (b. 1988)
3. A child suggested on a Tuesday
A child suggested
on a Tuesday
that we help old ladies
by singing to them
that we help orphans
by giving them food
that we help our friends
by picking them up
when they fall down.
-Robert Ressler (b. 1988)
4. Bright Wednesday afternoons
I never felt at Home—Below—-
And in the Handsome Skies
I shall not feel at Home—I know—
I don't like Paradise—
Because it's Sunday—all the time—
And Recess—never comes—
And Eden'll be so lonesome
Bright Wednesday Afternoons—
If God could make a visit—
Or ever took a Nap—
So not to see us—but they say
Himself—a Telescope
Perennial beholds us—
Myself would run away
From Him—and Holy Ghost—and All—
But there's the "Judgement Day"!
-Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
5. On Thursday he leaves
On Thursday he leaves,
This time he believes.
Nothing can stop him,
No last minute reprieve.
He'll sail far away.
Really why would he stay?
Point the ship at the sun
And follow the wake.
“Next Thursday, I'll go.”
As he readies the boat,
Hoisting the sails,
Pull the anchor and float.
Check the air, watch the weather,
“Son, pull it together...
“If the wind should go flat,
Just row.
On Thursday he leaves.
He imagines they'll grieve.
With the sun in his eyes
He'll head East.
-Shane Bartell (b. 1973)
6. a fly and a mirror: this is Friday
ohld song
You Know
a fly and
his reflection walking upon
a mirror this is
Friday 1
What
3 a fly
&
her his Its image
strutting(very
jerkily)not toucH-
ing because separated by an impregnable
Because(amount of inter
-vening)anyway You
know Separated what
i Mean
(oweld song by
;neither you nor i and
by the way)
,which is not fly
-E.E. Cummings (1894-1962)
7. Each Saturday evening
He was a poet who wrote clever verses,
And folks said he had a fine poetical taste;
But his father, a practical farmer, accused him
Of letting the strength of his arm go to waste.
He called on his sweetheart each Saturday evening,
As pretty a maiden as ever man faced,
And there he confirmed the old man's accusation
By letting the strength of his arm go to waist.
-Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
Performed by the Blue Valley Northwest High School Chamber Singers
(Dr. Kevin Coker, conductor).