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The Bird is an Alphabet
fcr387 (New Focus Recordings, CD)
FIRST RELEASE (8 December 2023)
Playing time: 60'50"
Tracks: 16
℗ 2023 New Focus Recordings
© 2023 New Focus Recordings
Main country of recording: United States of America
Reviewer: John Dante Prevedini
Review of The Bird is an Alphabet published on 24 January 2024
Robert Baker, tenor (tracks 1-3)
Molly Orlando, piano (tracks 1-3)
The Byrne:Kozar:Duo (tracks 4-7)
counter)induction (tracks 8-16):
Marlanda Dekine, speaker
Nurit Pacht, violin
Daniel Lippel, guitar
Caleb van der Swaagh, cello
Douglas Boyce (born 1970):
A Book of Songs (2019)
1 A Feather For Voltaire
2 The Apple Orchard in October
3 Cy Est Pourtraicte, Madame Ste Ursule, Et Les Unze Mille Vierges
Scriptorium (2021)
4 Tyrian Purple
5 Orpiment
6 Lampblack
7 Verdigris
Ars Poetica (2021)
8 Wilderness
9 Intermezzo 1
10 Returning
11 Intermezzo 2
12 Out There
13 Intermezzo 3
14 Reclamation
15 Intermezzo 4
16 Risk
Douglas Boyce's The Bird is an Alphabet is a collection of his recent chamber works with voice, featuring performances by poet Marlanda Dekine, counter)induction, Byrne:Kozar:Duo, tenor Robert Baker and pianist Molly Orlando. Setting texts by Dekine, Melissa Range, Wallace Stevens, Jorie Graham, and BJ Ward, Boyce approaches songs as a dramatic project, searching for the marriage between material and meaning that will animate the words.
Recorded 11 June 2017 at Sono Luminus, Emmanuel Episcopal Chapel, Boyce, VA, USA (A Book of Songs), 21 March 2021 (Scriptorium) and 24 June 2023 (Ars Poetica) at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY, USA.