Lang: difficulty, without words

• Composer: David Lang (1957-)
• Format: Score & Set of Parts - Format guide
• Instrumentation: String Quartet (Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello)
• Work: difficulty, without words (Suite from "the difficulty of crossing a field") (2002)
• Binding:
• ISMN: 9790073005712
• Size: 8.9 x 12.0 inches
• Pages: None

Description

In 2002, I wrote an opera with the playwright Mac Wellman, called the difficulty of crossing a field'. Based on a one page story by the writer Ambrose Bierce, it examines the life and possible death of a slave owner in the pre-civil war American South, who walks across his field and disappears, in plain view of his family, his neighbors and his slaves, forever altering the relationships among them. Everyone around him has his or her own sharp view of what his disappearance means, of why it had to happen, what it means about America, and of what will happen now that there is a hole' where a man used to be. "the difficulty of crossing a field" was commissioned by Carey Perloff and the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. It was intended to cross between opera and theater worlds, mixing arias with spoken text, emotional melodies with intense drama, and a sly commentary on the nature of American slavery. It is written for 5 principals and a small chorus, and the accompaniment is for string quartet on stage, both as the "orchestra" and as part of the set. The original production was 22-24 March 2002 at the Theater Artaud in San Francisco, starring Julia Migenes as the wife of the missing planter and 2004 Tony-award winning singer Anika Noni Rose as the leader of the chorus, with music performed onstage by the Kronos Quartet. Soon after the premiere of the opera, I extracted and arranged 6 short sections of the piece into a little suite for string quartet alone, called difficulty, without words'. Both the suite and the complete opera are dedicated to Carey Perloff.