Calamity Jane to Her Daughter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Calamity Jane in her Livingston, Montana kitchen , 1901

Calamity Jane to Her Daughter (German: "Calamity Jane to Her Daughter") is a song cycle by Ben Johnston for soprano, violin, keyboard and drums. The text consists of letters from Calamity Jane to her daughter living with foster parents. The composition was completed in 1989 and performed for the first time in 1990. The playing time is approx. 20 minutes.

action

Calamity Jane has received a letter from Jim O'Neill, the adoptive father of their daughter Jane (Janey), with a photo attached. The daughter is now seven years old. Her mother compares her appearance in the picture to that of her father Bill Hickok and describes how she met him at Abilene's in Kansas in 1870 : She had heard a gang of outlaws planned his murder and warned him. In the following exchange of fire he was wounded in the head, but was able to kill all opponents. After she nursed him back to health, they married. Janey shouldn't believe the lies that she was born out of wedlock.

Jane regrets not staying with Jim and her daughter. Her only consolation is that Janey is fine. She will never forget the day she first saw her. Her father left her alone for a while, and Janey said her mother, Helen O'Neill, died a long time ago. She hopes Janey will occasionally remember her, her stories, and the man she and Jim called "Wild Bill Hickok".

Jane reports on her work. She had worked in Russell's saloon in Deadwood for a while. One day the honorable ladies of the city had to defend themselves against attacks until Abbot and Reverend Sipes intervened. Next week she'll be joining Bill Cody's Wild West show, showing horse stunts. Maybe Jim and Janey can see her in it, even if Janey won't recognize her. Jane often cooks for a group of outlaws who live nearby and takes pride in her fish dishes, cakes, and pies. She describes in detail a recipe for a cake, the shelf life of which is twenty years.

Years later, Jane returned to Deadwood. She feels old and tired. As before, she works as a nurse. She plans to move to Wyoming for a year or two soon . If it weren't for the old age, she would take care of the soldiers of the Spanish-American War .

Meanwhile, Jane's eyesight has deteriorated significantly. There is still enough space to write, but the doctor said Jane would go completely blind in two months. Then she won't even be able to look at her daughter's photo. She detests the poverty and the filth in which she has to live during her last days. She asks her daughter's forgiveness for everything she has done to her, but assures her that she is not quite as bad as she is portrayed. She would like to tell her another secret, but because of her eyes she cannot continue writing.

layout

The phrasing of the singing voice is closely based on the spoken language. Ben Johnston's music is microtonal . He himself described his system with the words "extended just intonation" ("extended pure tuning"). It is characterized by tones that are slightly higher or lower than the tones of the usual scale. Consonant intervals like the fifth sound completely pure, unlike the well-tempered tuning . Dissonances, on the other hand, appear sharper. The violin is reminiscent of a folk music violin, the keyboard of an old piano in a saloon. The director Jean Lacornerie compared the sound effect with the sepia tone of old photos. The musical language is both contemporary and nostalgic.

Work history

The song cycle Calamity Jane to Her Daughter was commissioned by the singer Dora Ohrstein . For her program Urban Diva she asked five composers to set some of her selected contemporary poems with dramatic, eloquent or funny character representations. The composer Ben Johnston rejected all of her proposed texts. Instead, he decided on the suggestion of his friend Bill Brooks to set Calamity Jane's diary to music. Ohrstein thought this idea was “astonishingly apt” (“astonishingly apt”). This diary was presented by Jean Hickok McCormick in 1941 as evidence of her claim that she was the daughter of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok . It contains letters from Jane to her daughter who is living with adoptive parents in England for a period of 23 years. These were initially believed to be real. Later, however, there were clear doubts about the authenticity. For the composition Johnston used excerpts from the diary published by the Shameless Hussy Press. He completed the work in 1989.

Although Ohrstein had performed some of the compositions before, the full program was first staged in 1990 at Ijsbreker Amsterdam. In the same year, the American premiere in the New York Dance Theater Workshop followed. Then she went on a tour of America with it. In 1993 she recorded the program on CD.

In 1995 Johnston created a version of the work for voice and string quartet.

In March 2013 the song cycle was performed as part of a weekend dedicated to Ben Johnston in the Laboratoire international de création artistique “Les Subsistances” in Lyon. Tina May was the soloist. Jamal Moqadem led the instrumental ensemble from the keyboard, Amarillys Billet played the violin and Attilio Terlizzi played the drums. It was again a staged performance, this time directed by Jean Lacornerie with costumes by Robin Chemin.

In 2018, the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse (Lyon), Théâtre de la Renaissance (Oullins) and Muziektheater Transparant (Antwerp) combined Calamity Jane to Her Daughter with the newly composed chamber opera The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Gavin Bryars to create a musical theater -Evening with the title Calamity / Billy - A two-part paradise lost. Again directed by Jean Lacornerie. After performances in Lyon, Chambéry, Belfort, Bourges, Echirolles, Andrézieux-Bouthéon, Geneva, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Bruges and Rotterdam with Claron McFadden as soloist, the production was also shown as part of the Armel Opera Festival in Müpa Budapest . Here Sarah Defrise took the title role as a competitor. She was awarded the "Best Performer Award". The production itself received the "Best Production Award". A video recording was made available on Arte Concert .

Recordings

  • February / April 1993 - Urban Diva.
    Dora Ohrstein (soprano), Mary Rowell (violin), Phillip Bush (keyboard), Bill Ruyle (drums).
    Studio shot.
    New World Records NWCR654.
  • July 5, 2018 - Calamity / Billy - A two-part paradise lost.
    Sarah Defrise (soprano), Lyonel Schmit (violin), Raphaël Aggery (keyboard), Les Percussions Claviers de Lyon (drums).
    Gérard Lecointe (conductor), Jean Lacornerie (direction), Marc Lainé and Stephan Zimmerli (stage), Mariona Benages (costumes)
    Video; live from the Armel Opera Festival from Müpa Budapest ; Coproduction of the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse (Lyon), the Théâtre de la Renaissance (Oullins) and the Muziektheater Transparant (Antwerp).
    Video stream on Arte Concert .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jean Lacornerie: Our intent. In: Dossier de présentation / Project presentation (PDF) of the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse (Lyon), the Théâtre de la Renaissance (Oullins) and the Muziektheater Transparant (Anvers), accessed on July 23, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b c d Supplement to the CD Urban diva by Dora Ohrstein, NWCR654.
  3. ↑ a b productions 2017 on armelfestival.org, accessed on July 4, 2017.
  4. ^ A b Ben Johnston: "Maximum Clarity" and Other Writings on Music. University of Illinois Press 2006, ISBN 978-0-252-03098-7 , pp. Xxxvi f.
  5. ↑ Collectif Sounds of Ben ( Memento of April 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on the Les Subsistances website, Lyon, accessed on July 23, 2018.
  6. ^ Calamity / Billy. Work data on the website of the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse, Lyon, accessed on 23 July 2018.