Breathtails

Notes

Commissioned by Mutable Music.

Music: Anne LeBaron

Poems: Charles Bernstein

First performed November 14, 2013 by Thomas Buckner (baritone), Ralph Samuelson (shakuhachi) and the Flux Quartet at Roulette in New York.

Breathtails was developed through an intensely collaborative process with the poet Charles Bernstein. The ethereal, breath-infused sounds of the shakuhachi served as the initial inspiration for the central subject of Breathtails, namely, the breath. Commissioned by Mutable Music for Thomas Buckner, it is scored for baritone, shakuhachi, and string quartet. The libretto, divided into twenty-one sections, has thirteen distinct poems and seven text-less Breath Interludes. The singer improvises the interludes at pre-established locations in the score, guided by a variety of textured white papers labeled with the senses of sight, touch, and smell.