Renderings

In February of 2009 I began collaborating with the poet Margot Lurie on a series of songs for soprano voice and a large chamber ensemble. We worked separately for the following year and a half, meeting intermittently to exchange ideas and materials. I chose three poems of similar tone and thematic content, each illustrating a different "scene" which serves as a metaphor revealing a perspective of the human condition. Then I composed the music to support the text, preserving its raw clarity by allowing the piece to unfold on the surface level through simple harmonies and a primarily conjunct, speech-like vocal melody, as well as by controlling the density of instrumental textures and the rate at which new pitch information is introduced. The multiple meanings of the title are reflected in the work on several representational levels: as the vocal melody is rendered (distilled) from the surrounding harmony, the harmonies themselves render (surrender) their perceptual weight to the text, which is in itself a rendering (depiction).