SSAATTBB, a cappella

Color Madrigals was originally conceived because of a commission during my 10-year residency with The Singers - Minnesota Choral Artists. Artistic Director Matthew Culloton had asked for something short on the theme of love and, having found something by English poet, John Keats, I felt that the work was a bit shorter than we had envisioned. That original text mentioned a color, so I thought I might write something else using a Keats text that mentioned a color and thus was born the first “volume” of my so-called color madrigals; the green and red movements. This was followed pretty immediately by a commission from the Summer Singers (Vicki Peters, conductor) for the purple and yellow movements and, later that year, Matt asked to finish out the set with the blue and orange madrigals.

Program note: It seems that Keats was not a fan of the color orange.  I can’t say that I am either but, after undertaking the task of reading Keats’ collected works to find poems that mentioned colors, I wish he would have enjoyed it a little more because it seems that in his short life he only used the word “orange” once in his poetry.  Granted that it’s one of those words that’s sort of famous for not rhyming with anything, but it still seemed ironic that in 458 pages the color only came up once.

That being said, I was lucky he decided to use it in a great poem.  In the eight lines I excerpted Keats sprays invective on the prideful like a literary skunk (and even mentions another color in the process).  He builds toward a final, desperate accusation to the heavens spitting out consonants like a great snake along the way.

Note: Orange-Mounts of More Soft Ascent is the sixth (and final) movement of the Color Madrigals. It can be purchased and performed separately.

 The Text

By John Keats (England, 1795-1821)
Adapted by the composer

Orange-Mounts of More Soft Ascent
Why were they proud?  Because their marble founts
   Gushed with more pride than do a wretch’s tears?—
Why were they proud?  Because fair orange-mounts
   Were of more soft ascent than lazar stairs?—
Why were they proud?  Because red-lined accounts
   Were richer than the songs of Grecian years?—
Why were they proud?  again we ask aloud,
Why in the name of Glory were they proud?