Not Less Than the Good
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| photo: David Morneau |
Not Less Than the Good (2016)
[saxophone quartet, narrator, synthesizer, field recordings]
commissioned by New Thread Quartet
duration: ~60 minutes
Not Less Than the Good is a musical sunrise, a celebration of morning as embraced by Henry David Thoreau in Walden. Thoreau wrote about morning as a metaphor for intellectual and spiritual awakening: "The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour."
Commissioned by New Thread Quartet, Not Less Than the Good simulates a sunrise by combining the meditative playing of the saxophone quartet with ambient synthesizers. The music grows from a single quiet note, adding notes and timbres, growing in fullness and depth. Underneath this are sounds recorded during the pre-dawn and early morning hours at Walden Pond: a chorus of insects, the lone song of dawn's first bird which is joined by others in a raucous counterpoint, and the splashing of morning swimmers. The hour-long performance is punctuated by readings of excerpts from Walden—a secular prayer of hope for enlightenment—performed by poet J. D. McClatchy.
I composed Not Less Than the Good for the bicentennial of Thoreau's birth (July 12, 2017). In Walden, Thoreau invites us to reject the life we're expected to live, through a pursuit of self enlightenment, through the effort to wake up. His words remain vital today. "I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor."
I chose to treat Walden as a sacred text and conceived of the project's form as a secular prayer service—a contemporary response to the mass form used by many composers in the Western music tradition, an exploration of spirituality separated from creed and dogma. The inclusion of field recordings made during the pre-dawn and early morning hours at Walden Pond is an acknowledgement of the physical space that inspired Thoreau's thoughts and which persists as a destination for pilgrims inspired by his words.
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World Premiere performance at The Morgan Library & Museum
[lighting deign by Kris Diehl]
project credits
- composed by David Morneau
- based on Walden by Henry David Thoreau
- commissioned by New Thread Quartet [Geoffrey Landman, Kristen McKeon, Erin Rogers, Zach Herchen]
with
- J.D. McClatchy (Narrator)
- Melissa Grey (Creative consultant)
- Michael Fix (Production consultant)
- Kris Diehl (Lighting Designer for world premiere)
and assistance from
- The Walden Woods Project [Matthew Burne, Jeffrey S. Cramer, Juliet Trofi]
- The Thoreau Society [Michael Frederick]
- The Morgan Library [Linden Chubin, Christine Nelson, Paula Zadigian]
- Kelson Productions [Jason Fitzgerald]
- Darien Crago
Performances
Thoreau Bicentennial: Not Less Than the Good (2017.07.19): 51Walden, Concord, MA. [as part of Concord's bicentennial celebration of Henry David Thoreau]
New Thread Quartet with David Morneau (electronics) & the voice of J.D. McClatchy (narration)
Not Less Than the Good, world premiere (2018.06.02): The Morgan Library & Museum, NYC. [in conjunction with This Ever New Self: Thoreau and His Journal]
New Thread Quartet with David Morneau (electronics) & J.D. McClatchy (narration)
Con Vivo Music, Earth Day Concert (04.23): Barrow Mansion, Jersey City, NJ. [preview concert]
New Thread Quartet with David Morneau (electronics) & the voice of J.D. McClatchy (narration)
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script, score, recording documentation
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