Famous Last Words for speaking keyboard player and assorted items on fables by Paul Mann
(2017/rev. 2021)
This piece was made possible through the generosity of the Fromm Music Foundation of Harvard University. It was written for and is dedicated to one of my oldest and dearest of friends, the brilliant musician and one-of-a-kind person Genevieve Lee. It uses five original fables written by poet Paul Mann, who is her husband, and who is also brilliant and one-of-a-kind; the piece is also dedicated to him. Each fable is simple, revealing, cryptic, painful and funny, if not spectacularly powerful. The piece in full is approximately thirty-minutes in length. The five fables are:
I - The Messenger
II - Old Woman
III - The Song
IV - Rat-Girl
V - Something Found
The texts to the five fable can be found HERE.