Tokens
for SATB chorus
1975
3 minutes
Poetry: E. E. Cummings
Commission: University of New Orleans
Premiere: University Chorale
New Orleans, Apr 2, 1976
Publisher: music 70
Movements:
1. Buffalo Bill’s defunct
2. O sweet spontaneous earth
Composer Notes: The first piece employs startling contrasts, from Renaissance counterpoint to a harshly dissonant, chromatic close. The second piece moves from a reflective opening to a triumphant close.
I sometimes adopt a playful attitude toward musical language. I was inspired to do that in this case by Cummings’s mixture of playful and dramatic language in “Buffalo Bill’s defunct.”