Description
Premiere
World Premiere [Ensemble Version]
William Ferguson, voice
Sequitur
Paul Hostetter, conductor
19 September 2011
Merkin Concert Hall
New York City
World Premiere [Voice and Piano Version]
Dennis Tobenski, voice
Marc Peloquin, piano
9 October 2015
In Time's Unfolding: The Poetry of Chester Biscardi
Presented by KeyedUp Music Project
Tenri Cultural Institute
New York City
Text
Lyrics by Shirley Kaplan
Vocal Range
Publisher
Biscardi Music Press; No. B48-08-1 (available on request)
Program Notes
SEVEN O’CLOCK AT THE CEDAR
(ODE TO KLINE/DE KOONING)
No talk of paintings
The girls from New Jersey
Are looking for
Somewhere
To feel that life matters
Is that really him
They ask as they
Wonder
Why
He talks of
Space
And knows so much
About Mars
It’s seven o’clock
I’m buying the beer
His eyes are bright blue
Make it a whisky
He sways with the thought
Of fragmented women
And images float off the edge
he sings to himself
No talk of paintings
The girls from New Jersey
Look over at him
He smiles as he asks them
Do they know
About stars
then
he thinks
how it feels
This wintry night
To be famous and suddenly old
No talk of painting
The girls look around
And he’s gone
To a booth
with a man in a suit
who paints
black and white
they speak only
of baseball/the moon /and the eclipse
the girls from New Jersey go home.
The song may be performed with either solo piano or with chamber ensemble.
Note: The Cedar Bar was a ’60s gathering place in New York City for the Abstract Expressionist painters. The lyrics document an exchange between de Kooning and two young women trying to connect to a famous artist.
