A Page Out of Zen

for tenor and piano

I - A Page Out of Zen
II - Linekin
III - Situs
IV - Jarred

Text by Stephen Campiglio

Duration - approx. 12 minutes

Program Notes:

A Page Out of Zen  was written for and with the assistance of David Tayloe.

I first encountered the poetry of Stephen Campiglio when I joined a “spoken word improv trio” with him and the drummer Jay Wood. I appreciated the imagery and the “rawness” of his poetry (especially when he is reading them to a drum and Fender Rhodes accompaniment), and asked him to send me a sampling of poems for a possible cycle. Of the collection he sent me, these four stuck out as a set almost immediately. They all have the same tone to me, and I felt that combined they would make a nice set. I sent them to David, who agreed, and I got to work. Three of the songs came very quickly, but I was having trouble with “Jarred”. I loved the poem, but I had trouble hearing it in a sung setting, it just kept wanting to be spoken. It was after a few failed attempts that I got the idea of only using part of the poem. But really that’s not the case, because the whole poem is in there, David just doesn’t sing most of it. And so, with the final piece of the puzzle in place, I finished the set.

This collection of notes is just a temp for now, so if you’re reading this then you are either David, his accompanist, or I have forgotten to replace the program notes and have sent it out…Either way, these pieces will be a fun set, and until I’ve had a little more time to think that’s all I’m going to say about them. Enjoy!

 –Ryan Jesperson
12/1/2012 West Hartford, CT

To be premiered by David Tayloe in April, 2012.

Spring, 2013: The UMKC Opera Dept. will perform portions of Songs from Behind the Curtain.

Fall, 2012: Joseph Abad will perform Icarus in Hartford, CT.

Fall, 2012: Jordan Jacobson will perform fragments and memories with the HICO Orchestra in CT.

fall, 2012: Bobby Watson and the UMKC Big Band will premiere Rhapsody for Dean Moriarty in Kansas City, MO.

fall, 2012: Ashly Evans will premiere Birdsongs in Houston, TX.

Spring-Summer, 2012: Jeux pour Jumeaux will be performed in San Francisco, CA.

June 7th, 2012: BA(da)SS will be performed by Ryan Ford in West Hartford, CT.

June 7th, 2012: Jordan Jacobson will perform fragments and memories in CT.

June 7th, 2012: Chris Belluscio will perform Boombox Serenade in West Hartford, CT.

June 7th, 2012: Not Death, but Love will be premiered by Ineo Saxophone Quartet.

June, 2012: The Invisible, Magic, Soccer Phone will be premiered in Middlefield, CT.

June 7th, 2012: Joseph Abad will premiere Icarus in Hartford, CT.

May 27th, 2012: Jordan Jacobson will perform fragments and memories in CT.

May 6th, 2012: "Indeed this very Love" from Sonnets from the Portuguese will be broadcast on kineticsradio.com.

Dec. 3rd, 2011: Ryan defends his dessertation, Songs from Behind the Curtain at UMKC.

July 17th, 21st, 24th, 2011: Music Faculty from the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival will perform ...and those seven dwarfs in a series of concerts in Western Maine.

June 16th, 17th, 23rd, 24th, 2011:Orphée Redux will be performed by Rhymes With Opera on their East Coast Tour (NYC, Baltimore, Hartford, Boston).

June 12th, 2011:Selection from Songs from Behind the Curtain will be performed at the John Duffy Composers Institute in Norfolk, VA.

May 13th, 2011: The Ineo Quartet will perform the 1st movement of Not Death, but Love on their Fischoff Competition program in South Bend, Indiana.

March 19th, 2011: The Ineo Saxophone Quartet will perform ...and love is fire... from Not Death, but Love at the NASA conference in West Point, NY.

Feb. 25th, 2011: I. Jest will be premiered by Robert Olson and the UMKC Orchestra in Kansas City, MO.

Feb. 14th, 2011: Hebdomas Squatinae will be performed at the Nebraska at Kearney New Music Festival.

EVENT HISTORY