2007-2010

Sailors & Dreamers

for voice and chamber ensemble

Buy the Score
Program Notes
Recordings
Song List & Texts

Premieres

World Premiere
(Ensemble Version)
William Ferguson, voice
Sequitur
Paul Hostetter, conductor

19 September 2011
Merkin Concert Hall
New York City

World Premiere
(Voice & 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

Instrumentation

Fl. (Picc.), Cl (B. Cl.), Perc. [Chimes (C4 – G5), Mar. (C3 – C7), Glock., Sus. Cyms. (Sm., Med. & Lg.), Vib.], Voice, Pn, Vln I, Vln II, Vla, Vc, Cb

Other Version:

Voice & Piano

Work Details

Duration:

ca. 27 minutes

Vocal Range:

A3 – D♯5

Text:

Lyrics by Shirley Kaplan

Publisher:

Biscardi Music Press
No. B48-11-1

Distributor:

Theodore Front Musical Literature, Inc.

Commissioner:

Commissioned by The Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress.

Dedication:

Dedicated to the memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky, and written for Sequitur.

Sample Pages

Recordings

World Premiere Performance (Sept. 19, 2011)

William Ferguson, voice | Paul Hostetter, conductor
Sequitur [Tara Helen O’Connor (fl), Jo-Ann Sternberg (cl), Matthew Gold & Eduardo Leandro (perc), Sara Laimon (pno), Miranda Cuckson & Andrea Schultz (vln), Daniel Panner (vla), Gregory Hesselink (vc), Jeremy McCoy (db)]

Songs

I. Head Out; You’ve Been on My Mind

2007 | ca. 2 minutes
Text by: Shirley Kaplan
Vocal Range: A3 – C♯5
Publisher: Biscardi Music Press No. B48-07-1
(Available on Request)

Read the Lyrics by Shirley Kaplan

Your Subtitle Goes Here

Head Out

Head out.
It’s time.
Pull back from shore.
Ready to sail
bright and early
before
stars are gone.

You’ve Been On My Mind

Time flies by
and
days disappear.
But my dear friend
you’re always near.

You’ve been on my mind
All the talks
even by phone
All the nights
one sits alone.
Say
remember dancing
the jokes
and the words
Telling each other
the real things said
that move around
in one’s dizzy head
Plans for tomorrow
lost loves today
but who knows
we both say
we both say
You’ve been on my mind

II. Play Me a Song

2008 | ca. 3 minutes
Text by: Shirley Kaplan
Vocal Range: B3 – C♯5
Publisher: Biscardi Music Press No. B48-07-2
(Available on Request)

Read the Lyrics by Shirley Kaplan

Your Subtitle Goes Here

Play me a song
Sing me the words
Of places
we’ve been
and
people we’ve loved

In a small bottle
I send you notes
thrown
In a blue sea
Where
Rays fly
on slow wings
grey shadows
are cast on
pale sand

I watch
as
It floats
to Italian shores
where you sit
drinking wine
thinking
of a time
when life seemed
so easy
back then

Majorcan sun
Fades
The sand is still warm
Look to the sea
Majorcan sun
Fades
Look

In a small bottle
I send you notes
thrown
In a blue sea

Play me a song
Sing me the words
Of places we’ve been
and
people we’ve loved.
(repeat)

III. Seven O’clock at the Cedar
(Ode to Kline/de Kooning)

2008 | ca. 4 minutes
Text by: Shirley Kaplan
Vocal Range: B3 – D5
Publisher: Biscardi Music Press No. B48-08-1
(Available on Request)

Read the Lyrics by Shirley Kaplan

Your Subtitle Goes Here
The Cedar Bar is quiet
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.

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.

IV. Do You Remember?

2010 | ca. 1 minute
Text by: Shirley Kaplan
Vocal Range: D♯4 – D5
Publisher: Biscardi Music Press No. B48-10-2
(Available on Request)

Read the Lyrics by Shirley Kaplan

Your Subtitle Goes Here

The old moon’s shadow
in the new moon’s
             arms.
The dream
Flickers by
and you
hold me
             Do you remember?

V. I Dance the Tango

2010 | ca. 2½ minutes
Text by: Shirley Kaplan
Vocal Range: C4 – D♯5
Publisher: Biscardi Music Press No. B48-10-1
(Available on Request)

Read the Lyrics by Shirley Kaplan

Your Subtitle Goes Here

I dance the tango
like I always did
I twist my body
the steps are long
I hold my head straight
I still look good
I dance the tango
like I always did
I like the bullfights
I smoke cigars
the hour’s coming
for all new things
the joke’s on me then

hold me tight
I’m still alive you see

oh glorious thing
the clock is moving
I love to lose control
I love to lose
I love to see
the clock is moving
catch it

             quick

VI. Falling Fast; Slow Wings

2010 | ca. 5 minutes
Text by: Shirley Kaplan
Vocal Range: C♯4 – D♯5
Publisher: Biscardi Music Press No. B48-10-3
(Available on Request)

Read the Lyrics by Shirley Kaplan

Your Subtitle Goes Here

Falling Fast

the piano keys
move into space
artists think of white
between
shooting stars
falling
              falling fast
no thoughts or times
are ever lost
but
are recalled

Melting maps
memories

the piano keys move into space
the artist thinks of white
between
galaxies
falling
falling

There are other lights
We cannot see
except perhaps
the one
dim star
that comes and goes
like us

Wars and lovers
Oceans hold
The edge
Stories, people
Times
Right now
Start to find their place

Melting maps     memories

Slow Wings

Play me a song
Sing me the words
Of places
we’ve been
and
people we’ve loved

In a small bottle
I send you notes
thrown
In a blue sea
Where
Rays fly
on slow wings

VII. It’s Time to Feel Alright Now; The Edge

2009 | ca. 5½ minutes
Text by: Shirley Kaplan
Vocal Range: C♯4 – C♯5
Publisher: Biscardi Music Press No. B48-09-1
(Available on Request)

Read the Lyrics by Shirley Kaplan

Your Subtitle Goes Here

It’s Time to Feel Alright Now

Head out.
It’s time.
Pull back from shore.
Ready to sail
bright and early
before
stars are gone.

Start a new way
holding moments
of cities
and past days.
Lovers are loving
and
Birds and beasts
Are seen
dancing
With ease and grace
To music only they hear.

It’s time to feel alright now.

Start a new way.
Move quickly.
Here’s to the
life
of sailors
and dreamers
who live without fear
far from shore.

The moon stays the same.
Poets are singing
music is playing
Memories are passing.
The map shows new land.

It’s time to feel alright now.
Start a new way.

It’s time to feel alright now.
It’s time
time

It’s time to feel alright now.
Start a new way
new way

The Edge

Oceans hold
The edge
Stories, people
Times
Right now
Start to find their place

Selected Press

{

“the ensemble is attractively lush…its urbane surfaces seductive.”

The New York Times

Allan Kozinn, "Fragmented Dreams and a Send-Up of a Celebrity," 2011
{

“…especially compelling because it combines his sensitive treatment of voice and text with his expert and imaginative skill at wielding instrumental colors, and one can only hope that there are going to be more such works in this future…”

Journal of Singing

Gregory Berg, "Chester Biscardi: Sailors & Dreamers," The Listener's Gallery, May/June 2012

Click to View All Press Quotes

Your Subtitle Goes Here

“Chester Biscardi’s Sailors and Dreamers (2010) . . . based on richly descriptive, moody poetry by Shirley Kaplan . . . theatrical . . . the ensemble is attractively lush . . . its urbane surfaces seductive.”

— Allan Kozinn, “Fragmented Dreams and a Send-Up of Celebrity”, The New York Times (2011)

“Chester Biscardi is rapidly gaining stature as one of America’s most capable and versatile composers, with a musical voice that if anything is growing more distinctive and compelling over time. Connoisseurs of vocal music will of course be most interested in what Biscardi has written for singers and might be inclined to view these works collectively as his finest artistic achievement. In fact, Biscardi has demonstrated consummate assurance and imagination in all of his compositions, including his many instrumental works. Sailors & Dreamers (like his opera Tight-Rope) is especially compelling because it combines his sensitive treatment of voice and text with his expert and imaginative skill at wielding instrumental colors, and one can only hope that there are going to be more such works in this future to showcase both aspects of Biscardi’s considerable gifts.”

— Gregory Berg, “Chester Biscardi: Sailors & Dreamers”, The Listener’s Gallery, Journal of Singing (May/June 2012)

“The singer who chooses this work will need to have experience in non-classical singing styles, have a large enough voice to be heard without singing full volume all the time, and be a superb stylist with words. A classical vocal approach will not serve this music well. If the voice is not big enough to be heard easily, especially over the chamber version, a microphone might be a consideration. The difficulties of the vocal line are mostly rhythmic. The difficulties in the piano score include many accidentals and thick and widespread chords and clusters requiring a large reach.


The chamber ensemble version of this work is scored for Flute/Piccolo, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet in B♭, Percussion (Chimes, Marimba, Glockenspiel, Suspended Cymbals, and Vibraphone), Piano, Violin I and II, Viola, Violoncello, and Contra Bass. Since the piano in the ensemble score received for review is exactly the same as the piano/voice score, it appears that the instruments, which double various lines in the texture thinly and intermittently, are used primarily for color.”

— Judith Carman, “A Study in Contrasts,” Music Reviews, Journal of Singing (November/December 2011)