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.”