Adam Scott Neal
composer
Adam Scott Neal composer
I have gotten a lot of hits from people researching John Keats, Persian literature, and Abstract painting. Please, keep scrolling below. I may just have the complete Keats poem you are looking for...
STACK THE DECTET [flyer]
Sunday, April 1, 2007. 7:30 PM.
Florence Kopleff Recital Hall, Georgia State University
FREE and open to the public.
STACK THE DECTET was a concert featuring works by composers Brian Bondari, Adam Scott Neal, and Daniel Swilley. Swilley's work Pantheod was the impetus for this concert, which grew into commissions for Bondari and Neal, who wrote additional pieces for the same instrumentation to fill the concert. The ensemble is an expansion of the ensemble used by Igor Stravinsky in his work L'histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale), with three instruments from each family instead of two.
L'histoire Pantheod
Flute
Clarinet Clarinet
Bassoon Bassoon
Trumpet Trumpet
Horn
Trombone Trombone
Percussion Percussion
Violin Violin
Viola
Contrabass Contrabass
PROGRAM: (click title for program information)
Feridoun by Brian Bondari
Gallery by Adam Scott Neal
I. Clyfford Still
II. Willem De Kooning
III. Franz Kline
IV. Robert Motherwell
V. Barnett Newman
VI. Adolph Gottlieb
VII. Mark Rothko
VIII. Lee Krasner
INTERMISSION
Pantheod by Daniel Swilley
I. Zephyr
II. Dusketha
III. Breama
IV. Salamander
ABOUT THE PIECES
Feridoun by Brian Bondari
The Story of Feridoun:
According to Ferdowsi's The Shanameh and Persian lore, Zahhak was the son of the Arab nobleman, Merdas. As a young man, Zahhak was deceived by the devil Ahriman to kill Merdas and take his throne. Zahhak, a foolish young man, agreed to this scheme, but was wary of murdering his father. Ahriman offered to kill Merdas and dug a pit in an area of the garden where Merdas walked and prayed every morning. Ahriman disguised the pit with leaves and branches. The next morning when Merdas went to pray in his garden, he fell into the pit and died. Zahhak ascended his father's throne.
After Zahhak became king, Ahriman appeared to him in the form of a young man skilled as an excellent chef. Zahhak trusted Ahriman to prepare all of his meals and was well pleased with the delicious spread of fine foods made from many different animals and birds. Zahhak was so impressed with his cook that he told the young man to ask for his greatest desire. Ahriman had waited for this opportunity and asked Zahhak for permission to kiss his shoulders. Zahhak agreed. Ahriman kissed each shoulder and then disappeared from the court. From the location of each kiss, a black snake emerged from Zahhak's shoulders. Zahhak had the snakes cut from his shoulders, but two more snakes appeared in their places. Zahhak's doctors tried many methods for curing this illness but could find no remedy. Ahriman again appeared to Zahhak, this time in the form of a powerful physician. He told Zahhak that the only cure for this malady was human brains. He said that to keep the snakes from doing harm, Zahhak must kill two people each day and prepare food for the snakes from the brains. Ahriman said that maybe the snakes would die over time if fed brains daily.
About this time, Zahhak sent his troops to attack Iran. Zahhak's army was successful and captured the Persian leader, Jamshid. Zahhak ordered his men to saw Jamshid's body in half and then usurped Jamshid's throne, palaces, and immense wealth. Zahhak took Jamshid's two daughters as prisoners and made them guardians and nurses of his snakes. Each day when Zahhak's guards brought the two unfortunate men to the royal kitchen to feed his snakes, Jamshid's daughters, who were benevolent and could not tolerate cruelty, released one of the captives. They used sheep brains in the place of of the freed man’s brains.
Zahhak ruled with evil and injustice for many years. Scores of innocent men were murdered to provide brains to feed the snakes. Revenge and anger grew in the hearts of the people. One night, Zahhak had a dream in which three warriors appeared before him. The warriors turned to face him; the youngest attacked him. This young warrior brought his mace down on Zahhak's head, bound his arms and legs with leather straps, and dragged him to Mount Damavand with a large crowd following him. Zahhak awoke, screaming in terror. He summoned his wise men, learned scholars, and dream interpreters to his court. One man, less fearful than the others, interpreted the dream. He told Zahhak that his days as a ruler were drawing to a close and that another, named Feridoun, would soon rule in his place. Zahhak ordered his men to search the countryside for Feridoun and bring him to court.
Previous to Zahhak's dream, a beautiful, strong boy was born to a noble Persian family, descending from the ancient Iranian kings. The parents named this child Feridoun. Feridoun possessed the royal splendor and divine farr of Jamshid. Feridoun's father was taken by Zahhak's men to be used as food for his snakes. Soon afterwards, Feridoun's mother learned of Zahhak's dream that Feridoun would overthrow the throne and became afraid. She took Feridoun, still a young boy, to the upper grasslands and asked an oxherd to raise Feridoun as his own son and keep him safe from Zahhak. Unfortunately, Zahhak learned of the boy's whereabouts and sent men to capture the child. The boy's mother learned of Zahhak's plan to take the child from the oxherd and rushed to the grasslands to rescue her son. She fled with Feridoun across the desert toward Mount Alborz. On Mount Alborz, Feridoun's mother entrusted his care to a wise man who had forsaken the world.
The wise man educated and trained the young boy. Feridoun became a strong and fearless youth. When he turned sixteen, Feridoun went to visit his mother to learn whose son he was. His mother revealed that his father was a noble Persian who was taken by Zahhak to feed his snakes. She also told him about Zahhak's dream and why she hid him on Mount Alborz. When Feridoun heard this secret, he was enraged and desired vengeance. Feridoun vowed to kill Zahhak. His mother cautioned him to be patient and devise a sure method of taking Zahhak before attacking the evil ruler.
Meanwhile, Zahhak lived each day in absolute terror of Feridoun. He knew Feridoun wanted revenge and was afraid of the strong and angry youth. Zahhak assembled his courtiers and told them he wanted a document drawn up stating that he was a benevolent and just ruler who only performed noble deeds so that Feridoun would have no justification for his revenge. Zahhak demanded that all noblemen sign this document. The noblemen greatly feared Zahhak's quick temper and signed the document immediately.
Outside the court an outcry was heard, and a man appeared before Zahhak demanding justice. He cried out to Zahhak that he was Kaveh, a blacksmith, and he demanded justice from the tyrannical king. Kaveh said that he had eighteen sons and that all of them save one had been sacrificed to the snakes. He said that his last son was his light and joy in his old age but, like his brothers before him, had been taken by Zahhak's men to be fed to the snakes. Kaveh demanded justice. Zahhak was afraid of the blacksmith's fearlessness and brave speech and ordered the son be released to his father. Then, claiming that Kaveh had witnessed his benevolence and generosity, Zahhak demanded that Kaveh sign the document just as the noblemen.
Kaveh read the document and was overcome with anger. In rage, he called the noblemen spiritless men, who had been scared witless by an evil tyrant. He shouted that in signing the document, they had sold their souls to hell. Kaveh refused to sign the document and ripped it to pieces. With his son in hand, he stormed from the court in a fury. In the marketplace, he cried to the people to join him in cleansing the earth of the tyrant Zahhak and take Feridoun as their new leader. A large crowd grew around Kaveh, and he lead them to Feridoun. Feridoun took this gathering as the method of revenge his mother asked him to await and dressed in his armor. Feridoun met with his mother, received her blessing, and prepared for battle against Zahhak.
Feridoun's two brothers brought the young warrior the most skillful blacksmiths and metalworkers in the land to craft a weapon for him to use against Zahhak. When the smiths were assembled before Feridoun, he took a staff and drew a mace with a head shaped as a an ox in the dirt. The smiths made the weapon to Feridoun's specifications and brought it to him. Feridoun took the weapon, mounted his great horse, and with his army, set out to Zahhak's palace.
Feridoun and his army rode until nightfall. That night in camp, a man of surpassing beauty appeared before Feridoun. He told Feridoun how to undo Zahhak’s magical powers and take his throne. Feridoun knew that the man was an envoy from God and that the divine farr and good fortune were with him and his men.
The next morning, the army continued its journey to Zahhak’s palace. When he neared the palace, Feridoun grasped his mace and rode directly onto the palace grounds. Zahhak was not in the city, but his guards rushed out to Feridoun who destroyed them with his ox-headed mace. Feridoun fought his way to Zahhak’s great hall and sat on his throne. His army occupied the palace.
Feridoun then went to Zahhak’s private quarters and freed the girls Zahhak had imprisoned there. Jamshid’s daughters rejoiced at their rescue and Feridoun sat them on the left and right sides of his newly acquired throne. He promised that Iran would soon be purged of Zahhak and the doings of his evil reign. Feridoun ordered a celebration at the palace.
One of Zahhak’s servants, Kondrow, made his obeisance to Feridoun and helped with that night’s celebration but left the next morning to warn Zahhak of the intruder. Zahhak did not believe that good fortune had forsaken him even when he heard Feridoun was sitting on his throne, had thrown a celebration, and was commanding Zahhak’s men. Then Kondrow told Zahhak that Feridoun had freed the girls in his private rooms and taken them as his own. Zahhak’s blood boiled in anger, and he set out to confront Feridoun.
When Zahhak arrived at his city, he saw that all of his people had taken Feridoun as their new leader. The people threw rocks and bricks at Zahhak’s army, and Feridoun sent his men to attack. The battle was fierce and bloody. Zahhak saw Feridoun giving gold and other treasures to his followers. Jamshid’s two daughters were sitting by his side. Zahhak took his dagger from his belt and leaped towards the throne intending to kill Jamshid’s daughters. Feridoun saw Zahhak and rushed to protect the women. He brought his mace down on Zahhak’s head and crushed his helm. Zahhak fell to the ground. Feridoun was about to end his life when another messenger from God appeared before him. This messenger said that Feridoun should not kill Zahhak, but bind him and imprison him beneath Mount Damavand.
So Feridoun took leather straps and bound Zahhak’s arms and legs together. Then he dragged Zahhak behind a horse to Mount Damavand. Feridoun ordered his men to chain Zahhak in a cave beneath the mountain so he could no longer bring evil to the world. Feridoun summoned his nobles and the freemen of the land to him. He told them that God had chosen him to end Zahhak’s evil reign and restore justice and benevolence to Iran. He vowed to be a generous and godly ruler and bring peace to the country. So, with the divine farr passed down to him by his Persian ancestors, Feridoun ruled the earth for five hundred years.
Gallery by Adam Scott Neal [score]
Gallery is a set of eight miniatures for large chamber ensemble inspired by painters of the 1950s New York abstract expressionist school.
Although some of the movements were inspired by specific paintings, most attempt to depict some general characteristics of each painter's style.
Clyfford Still - 1964 [Listen to Movement I]
Clyfford Still's work often juxtaposes large fields of color, with pieces seemingly "ripped off" to reveal other colors underneath.
Willem De Kooning - Excavation [Listen to Movement II]
Willem De Kooning's
work is forceful, often bordering on the grotesque, and inspired compositionally by Cubism.
Franz Kline - New York, NY [Listen to Movement III]
Franz Kline's paintings resemble Japanese calligraphy,
but the artist was actually depicting his impressions of machinery, bridges, and scaffolding.
Robert Motherwell - Elegy for the Spanish Republic #34 [Listen to Movement IV]
The most famous and long-running of Robert Motherwell's
works was the series called "Elegies for the Spanish Republic," which often employ a similar group of four large black shapes.
Barnett Newman - White Fire 1 [Listen to Movement V]
Barnett Newman called
the recurring vertical line in his work a "zip" and this brief movement divides a field of sound with a quick musical "zip."
Adolph Gottlieb - Untitled [Listen to Movement VI]
Some of the more famous of
Adolph Gottlieb's works are the "Bursts" which feature a vertical arrangment on a white background consisting of an orb over a rough explosion.
Mark Rothko - Red, Orange, Tan, and Purple [Listen to Movement VII]
Mark
Rothko's simple but evocative paintings often feature a vertical layout of rectangles with soft edges.
Lee Krasner - Cool White [Listen to Movement VIII]
Lee Krasner was most famous as being Mrs. Jackson
Pollock, but was a successful artist in her own right, using some similar techniques her husband, but also using collage and other techniques to create
energetic works with large fields of color.
Pantheod by Daniel Swilley [score]
Pantheod draws inspiration primarily from the John Keats poem Song of Four
Faeries. The titular faeries, named Salamander, Zephyr, Dusketha and Breama, are each associated with an element: Salamander to Fire, Zephyr to Air, Dusketha to Earth, and Breama to Water. Pantheod gets its title from the word pantheon, which is a monument or temple dedicated to all the gods of a religion, or in this case Keats’s faeries and their associate elements. Pantheod was composed with the aid of the computer programs MusicGen and AthenaCL.
Song Of Four Faeries by John Keats
SALAMANDER.
HAPPY, happy glowing fire!
ZEPHYR.
Fragrant air! delicious light!
DUSKETHA.
Let me to my glooms retire!
BREAMA.
I to green-weed rivers bright!
SALAMANDER.
Happy, happy glowing fire!
Dazzling bowers of soft retire,
Ever let my nourish'd wing,
Like a bat's, still wandering,
Faintless fan your fiery spaces,
Spirit sole in deadly places.
In unhaunted roar and blaze,
Open eyes that never daze,
Let me see the myriad shapes
Of men, and beasts, and fish, and apes,
Portray'd in many a fiery den,
And wrought by spumy bitumen.
On the deep intenser roof,
Arched every way aloof,
Let me breathe upon their skies,
And anger their live tapestries;
Free from cold, and every care,
Of chilly rain, and shivering air.
ZEPHYR.
Spirit of Fire! away! away!
Or your very roundelay
Will sear my plumage newly budded
From its quilled sheath, all studded
With the self-same dews that fell
On the May-grown Asphodel.
Spirit of Fire--away! away!
BREAMA.
Spirit of Fire--away! away!
Zephyr, blue-eyed Faery, turn,
And see my cool sedge-bury'd urn,
Where it rests its mossy brim
'Mid water-mint and cresses dim;
And the flowers, in sweet troubles,
Lift their eyes above the bubbles,
Like our Queen, when she would please
To sleep, and Oberon will teaze.
Love me, blue-eyed Faery, true!
Soothly I am sick for you.
ZEPHYR.
Gentle Breama! by the first
Violet young nature nurst,
I will bathe myself with thee,
So you sometimes follow me
To my home, far, far, in west,
Beyond the nimble-wheeled quest
Of the golden-browed sun:
Come with me, o'er tops of trees,
To my fragrant palaces,
Where they ever floating are
Beneath the cherish of a star
Call'd Vesper, who with silver veil
Ever hides his brilliance pale,
Ever gently-drows'd doth keep
Twilight for the Fayes to sleep.
Fear not that your watery hair
Will thirst in drouthy ringlets there;
Clouds of stored summer rains
Thou shalt taste, before the stains
Of the mountain soil they take,
And too unlucent for thee make.
I love thee, crystal Faery, true!
Sooth I am as sick for you!
SALAMANDER.
Out, ye aguish Faeries, out!
Chilly lovers, what a rout
Keep ye with your frozen breath,
Colder than the mortal death.
Adder-eyed Dusketha, speak,
Shall we leave these, and go seek
In the earth's wide entrails old
Couches warm as their's are cold?
O for a fiery gloom and thee,
Dusketha, so enchantingly
Freckle-wing'd and lizard-sided!
DUSKETHA.
By thee, Sprite, will I be guided!
I care not for cold or heat;
Frost and flame, or sparks, or sleet,
To my essence are the same;--
But I honour more the flame.
Sprite of Fire, I follow thee
Wheresoever it may be,
To the torrid spouts and fountains,
Underneath earth-quaked mountains;
Or, at thy supreme desire,
Touch the very pulse of fire
With my bare unlidded eyes.
SALAMANDER.
Sweet Dusketha! paradise!
Off, ye icy Spirits, fly!
Frosty creatures of the sky!
DUSKETHA.
Breathe upon them, fiery sprite!
ZEPHYR AND BREAMA.
Away! away to our delight!
SALAMANDER.
Go, feed on icicles, while we
Bedded in tongue-flames will be.
DUSKETHA.
Lead me to those feverous glooms,
Sprite of Fire!
BREAMA.
Me to the blooms,
Blue-eyed Zephyr, of those flowers
Far in the west where the May-cloud lowers;
And the beams of still Vesper, when winds are all wist,
Are shed thro' the rain and the milder mist,
And twilight your floating bowers.