An Old Favorite: CYCLE OF FRIENDS Turns 20
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“…exceptionally beautiful on many counts!”
This month marks the 20th anniversary of what perhaps remains my favorite of the pieces I’ve composed over the years.
Cycle of Friends, for soprano, chorus (SATB and sometimes SATB+SATB) and chamber orchestra, is a lush, emotional journey through five texts taken from such diverse sources as Tang Dynasty poetry of China, Sappho and Emily Dickinson, each dealing in its own way with the universal theme of friendship.
The 25-minute piece was premiered on May 3rd, 1996 by the Music Group of Philadelphia, whose founder and Artistic Director Seán Deibler had been an undergraduate teacher and valued mentor. Not only was I very lucky to be one of three composers he chose for a three-year commissioning binge he was on at the time, but the commission came through as I was finishing my master’s degree at the San Francisco Conservatory, where I was studying with Conrad Susa, who was perhaps the best possible teacher one could have had for a project like this.
Looking back at the musical language, I wonder how different it would be if I wrote it today. It is very direct and immediately accessible, but thanks to an unbroken thread of Sondheim-flavored bitterness in the harmony, it is never cloying. At the time the Chestnut Hill Local called it “Exceptionally beautiful on many counts.” The Philadelphia Enquirer compared the sound of it to film music, and indeed there are some sweeping John Williams moments.
This is an overview of the piece with excerpts from the 1996 premiere by the Music Group of Philadelphia along with Orchestra 2001 and soprano soloist Janice Fiore. The complete score of Cycle of Friends can be examined in full-screen detail at Swirly Music, where performance materials can also be acquired. I am also happy to be contacted directly about the piece.
About Cycle of Friends
No guidelines were given for the commission, except that I could use any number of the four soloists who were called for in another piece on the program, and the orchestral forces, which included single winds, one trumpet, harp, percussion and strings. The rest was up to me. I ended up calling for a soprano soloist who appears in the first and final movements with the chorus, and by herself in the fourth movement, which is just soprano and orchestra.
After an initial period of agonizing over what texts to use, I settled on some things I’d found in a small anthology called Friendship Poems. This little book included a variety of poems from all over the world and from all eras. I liked the idea of taking poetry from very different times and places, and combining them to illustrate and illuminate a universal theme, in this case, that of friendship.
There were too many poems in the book that I wanted to set, but eventually I winnowed it down to five very short ones that I arranged in such a way as to create an emotional narrative.
I. “Tell Everyone” — Sappho
I chose this very short fragment from Sappho as an opener. The text is simply:
Tell everyone. Now, today I shall sing beautifully for my friends’ pleasure.
II. “My Old Friend Prepared a Chicken With Millet”
— Meng Hao-Jan (Tang Dynasty era)
This is one of two Chinese poems I used, both in shimmering translation by Innes Herdan. This one is a lilting account of a meeting between two friends.
Wait until the Autumn Festival:
I shall come again,
To enjoy your chrysanthemums.
The musical treatment is bittersweet. Will these two friends really meet again?
III. “Are Friends Delight Or Pain?” — Emily Dickinson
This is the one a cappella movement. In fact, here the chorus is divided into two discrete SATB groups for an interesting texture. The entire movement, you may notice, is on an E pedal, which I thought was fun.
Are friends delight or pain?
Could Bounty but remain
Riches were good —But if they only stay
Ampler to fly away
Riches were sad.
(“Are Friends Delight or Pain” is available as a stand-alone a cappella work and available in print or download format from Swirly Music.)
IV. “Blue Hills Over the North Wall” — Li Po (Tang Era)
This movement is for soprano and orchestra with no chorus. This is a particularly moving poem, again translated by Innes Herdan, and functions as a sort of denouement in my view. It’s the emotional core of the piece. Quite simply, two friends are parting ways. We don’t know why.
Blue hills over the north wall
White water swirling to the east of the city:
This is where you must leave me —
V. “Friendship” — Aztec (Traditional)
I used this is lush Aztec folk poem to close the piece.
Our song is bird calling out like a jingle:
how beautiful you make it sound!
The soprano emerges after a choral outburst with an extremely lyrical setting of these lines. The chorus creeps in gradually as the climax of the work approaches.
Here’s a track containing the two final movements, which are connected without a break.
