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Work and Play
 Classical/Vocal music • 2012 • Lyricist: Paul Laurence Dunbar
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Instrumentation |
Cello, Tenor |
Scored for |
Duo |
Type of score |
Score for two performers |
Key |
F sharp major |
Publisher |
Gary Nash |
Language |
English |
Difficulty |
Advanced |
Duration |
12'30 |
Work and Play is a song cycle, composed for tenor and cello, using Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poems The Dilettante: A Modern Type and By the Stream. Many American composers have set Dunbar’s poems to music. His poems, written in a late nineteenth, early twentieth century African-American dialect are strophic, have a consistent rhyme scheme and provide much imagery and lyricism, appearing as if they were written to be set to music.
The melodic and motivic nucleus for this song originates from the composer listening to someone reciting the text, notating the occurring rhythmic patterns and composing melodies supported by these rhythms. The Dilettante: A Modern Type suggests a kind of meandering through life, as it were, with very little sense of direction, just as someone who’s considered a dilettante might be. Written in an F# minor modality, it demonstrates a directionless feeling, while at the same time, uses the strophic nature of the text to support the music. The cello provides a modest pulse and harmonic support, along with complementary countermelodies. The cello also uses a few extended techniques, such as natural harmonics, pizzicato and high register playing.
In stark contrast, By the Stream is light and playful and the opening score expression marking is quarter note = 132, Playful, Dance-like, Quasi Bossa Nova. Using a D major modality, By the Stream is very energetic, with highly syncopated rhythmic passages and the cello used in the same manner as the former movement.
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