A Barlow Commission composition, “Delights & Shadows” was premiered Saturday, 24 March 2007, in the McKay Auditorium of Brigham Young University Hawaii in a recital presented by the School of Music.
Daniel Bradshaw’s new work was beautifully performed by Metropolitan Opera star, Ariel Bybee; Chicago Symphony violinist, Alison Dalton; and BYU-Hawaii faculty member, Stacy McCarrey, piano. Bradshaw’s music and Ted Kooser’s poetry made a beautiful marriage.
The music was inspired by Pulitzer-prize winning poet, Ted Kooser, who is also the current U.S. Poet Laureate. Bradshaw created musical settings for five poems from Kooser’s collection, “Delights and Shadows: “Dishwater,” “After Years,” “A Glimpse of the Eternal,” “Winter Morning,” and “Lobocraspis griseilfusa.”
“Kooser’s style of poetry greatly influenced the musical style,” said Bradshaw. “He grasps the split second moment in simple, clear, understandable words that also have deep meaning. I wanted to let the poetry speak for itself.”
The setting of “Lobocraspis griseifusa” illustrates how the collaboration succeeded. Lobocraspis griseifusa is the Latin name of a moth from southeast Asia whose food is the tears of the water buffalo. Writes Kooser:
“This is the tiny moth who lives on tears,
who drinks like a deer at the gleaming pool
at the edge of the sleeper’s eye, the touch
of its mouth as light as a cloud’s reflection.”
Bradshaw’s setting of this piece has a delicate, dreamlike quality accented with the violin’s imitation of fluttering moth wings.
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| Alison Dalton, violinist |
“Working with Kooser’s poetry brought my composition to a new level,” said Bradshaw. He has written simple Primary songs as well as very complex music. “I feel this work,” he continued, “is a balance somewhere between those two extremes.”
“If there is anything I’d like people to come away with from the piece,” said Bradshaw, “ it is that the everyday things we see are deeply meaningful and potentially very spiritual.”
Bradshaw said he feels fortunate to be one of the many recipients of a Barlow Commission. “It has allowed me to work with first class performers,” he said.
Noting the importance of the Brigham Young University Barlow Endowment for Music Composition to the creation of this new work, Bradshaw emphasized, “This piece wouldn’t have been written if the Barlow Endowment didn’t exist.”
Encouraged by Claude Baker, his composition professor at the Indianapolis University Jacobs School of Music, Bradshaw applied for an LDS composer Barlow Commission--not once, but three times. Although he did not receive a commission in his first attempts, Bradshaw followed through with the projects he had proposed. That persistence resulted in the completion of his piano trio, “Synapse” which has been performed by the Southern Virginia University Trio (Buena Vista, VA) and the Jordania Trio (Bloomington, IN).
As part of the Barlow Commission application process, the composer is required to have a close working relationship with the intended performing group or performer.
“The importance of making connections,” said Bradshaw, “is illustrated by this project.”
A conversation with Alison Dalton after a Chicago Symphony performance, came back to Bradshaw, and he contacted her to see if she was interested in the project. She was. Dalton has known and worked with Ariel Bybee for a number of years, and invited her to be part of the project.
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| Ariel Bybee, Metropolitan Opera Star |
Bybee was also interested. Her husband, Jim Ford, is on the faculty of the English Department at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He happens to work with a visiting professor, one Ted Kooser. The connections were made, and the commission applied for and received.
“It is an astounding, forward thinking endowment,” said Bradshaw. “ It would be interesting to find out how many projects it has inspired. A lot of things are happening because it is there to get the projects started.”
Bradshaw recently completed a doctorate in Music Composition at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he studied with Claude Baker, Sven-David Sandstrom and David Dzubay. He continues to be inspired by the music of his father, the late Merrill Bradshaw.
“Delights and Shadows” will be performed again 13 September 2007 at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. A Chicago performance date is pending.
