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a cappella

CoyoteCoyote commences singing
Coyote commences singing
The young woman hurries forth
To hear the coyote songs.

A hat of eagle feathers
A hat of eagle feathers
A hat was made for me
That made my heart grow stronger

Coyote ran around it
Coyote ran around it
Ran into the blue water,
Changed the color of his hair

3 treble voices

Lyrics: Trad. Pima, trans. Frank Russell

I read the poem Coyote in 1978 in a book of American Indian poetry collected and translated in 1917. Haunted by the powerful and mysterious words, I began to sing the poem as an improvisation. In 1992, I was inspired to add the woofs and howls for the a capella trio with whom I was singing. Thanks to the vocal experimentation of singers Mara Goodman and Karen Haight, Coyote became the trio it is today. It was performed at the 1996 Bang-on-a-Can Marathon at Alice Tully Hall by soprano Dora Ohrenstein, mezzo-soprano Karen Goldfeder, and me, Anna Dembska.

Life is But a Dream Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream.

SATB

A new take on that familiar old round.

Longing (Psalm 42)Long long long…
As a hart longs for flowing streams
So longs my soul for Thee, O God!
So longs my soul for Thee, O God!
My soul thirsts for God,
For the living God.
Deep calls to deep
At the thunder of Thy cataracts.
Thy waves and Thy billows wash over me.
My soul thirsts for God,
For the living God.
Long long long…

SATB

Longing attempts to express a long-term spiritual search by contrasting the almost cheerful, seemingly endless permutations of the "long"s and "longings" with the outcries of the Psalm lyrics. Longing was premiered by Kiitos, a Vocal Quartet, in New York in 1997.

¡Mira! (New York Harasses Sor Juana) Quéjase de la suerte: insinúa su aversió
a los vicios, y justifica sudivertimiento a las Musas

En perseguirme, Mundo, ¿qué interesas?
¿En qué te ofendo, cuando sólo intento
poner bellezas en me entendimiento
y no mi entendimiento en las bellezas?

Yo no estimo tesoros ni riquesas;
y así, siempre me causa más contento
poner riquezas en mi pensamiento
que no mi pensamiento en las riquezas.

Y no estimo hermosura que, vencida,
es despojo civil de las edades,
ni riqueza me agrada fementida,

teniendo por mejor, en mis verdades,
consumir vanidades de la vida
que consumir la vida en vanidades.

SATB divisi (Note: the score can be slightly reorganized for 4 voices)

lyrics: Sor Juana Inez de La Cruz (en español) [full lyrics] [English translation]

¡Mira! was written for Mexico City's Cappella Cervantina, directed by the virtuoso recorder player Horacio Franco. It is the kernal of a larger, as-yet-unrealized work for chorus, soprano, recorder, and piano exploring imaginary conversations between the 17th-century Mexican literary genius Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz and people from other times and places. ¡Mira!  plays with contemporary New York hype and children's sing-song interfering with Sor Juana's desire for a more austere and meaningful existance.

WoodyWoody knows nothing but peckin' on a bough
When the skies are blue.
I never knew till I met you
What love, O love could do.

Can't you see yon turtle dove
Flies from pine to pine,
Longing for her own true love
As I, my dear, for mine.

Bluejay screams, "Look out! Look out!
The sky is fallin' down!"
Sparrow on his back, skinny legs in the air,
"C'mon folks, get on down,
We'll keep it off the ground!"

Raccoon has a bushy tail,
Possum's tail is bare,
Rabbit ain't got no tail at all,
Just a little bitty bunch of hair, back there,
Little bitty bunch of hair.

Wild geese flyin' away down south
Soaring through the blue
Flyin' where the warm breezes blow
So why not me and you?

SATB

(The audio clip is an excerpt of a performance by Chicago A Cappella. To hear the entire song, please contact Anna)

A traditional Appalacian song enlivened by a cacopheny of birdcalls and woodpecker pecks. Premiered by the Schoodic Summer Chorus in 2006 and performed by Chicago A Cappella in 2007.