This is just to say… premiere in Sweden on January 17

The follow-up public concert from this past summer’s activities in the Nätverksläger (New Music Incubator, see my previous post) will take place in Västerås Concert Hall, Sweden on January 17 at 5 PM. 18 composers and musicians from 5 countries will come together for this performance.

My contribution will be This is just to say, a comic, structured improvisation for narrator, vocalist, flute, cello and bass, with texts taken from William Carlos Williams’ poem of the same name and a handful of parodies of it by other authors. The idea for this piece came from an episode of the radio program This American Life, which described the poem as a non-apology apology, and the parodies attempt to take this form to new heights.

This is just to say / I have eaten / the plums / that were in / the icebox
and which / you were probably / saving / for breakfast
Forgive me / they were delicious / so sweet / and so cold

- William Carlos Williams
_____________________
This is just to say / I carved your name, not mine / into the arm of dad’s chair
sorry you were punished / but the wood was so gummy / and my knife was so sharp

- Sarah Vowell
_____________________
This is just to say / At our wedding I disappeared briefly 
 / to have sex with your sister / up against the back of the port-o-sans.


What can I say / the chardonnay was so fresh and cold 
and I, / so full of love and a sense of family.

- David Rakoff
_____________________
This is just to say
 / I have pulled the pin from the grenade on the desk / forgive me, I thought it was my key ring and…

- Jason Nicolas