love words - Transposed Score

INSTRUMENTATION
Piccolo
Flutes 1, 2, and 3
Oboes 1 and 2
English Horn
Bassoons 1 and 2
Clarinets 1, 2, and 3 in B-flat
*Alto Clarinet
Bass Clarinet
*Contralto Clarinet
*Contrabass Clarinet
*Contrabassoon
Soprano Saxophone
Alto Saxophone 1 and 2
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone
Trumpets 1, 2, and 3 in B-flat
Horns 1, 2, 3, and 4 in F
Trombones 1, 2, and 3
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
Double Bass
Timpani
Vibraphone
Marimba
Percussion 1
Suspended Cymbal
Hi-Hat
Percussion 2
Chimes
Bass Drum
*These instruments are ad libitum. Any and all may be omitted as needed, and their parts are scored in other instruments
throughout the work.
PROGRAM NOTES
love words is inspired by the poem “Romance” by Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay (printed below). While many of his
poems deal with typical poetic topics like love, McKay was anything but typical. A Jamaican immigrant who lived most of his
life in the US, an activist involved in socialist and communist movements, an atheist who later converted to Catholicism, and a
bisexual, McKay’s life bucks the traditional narrative of Black male identity in the 20th Century.
In poems like “Romance,” love is viewed through a complicated lens, one that ignores obvious distinctions like gender, and
embraces the messiness of sexual desire and impermanence. love words is an expansion of my previously-composed setting of
this poem, which served as the opening of my work Love Words | Mad Words, a cycle of McKay’s poetry for countertenor and
chamber ensemble.
love wards was commissioned by the Pride Bands Alliance (formerly the Lesbian and Gay Bands Association) for their 2022
conference in my hometown of Chicago, IL, celebrating the fortieth anniversary of their formation in the city. McKay’s work
is therefore fitting, as he spent his final years in Chicago.
"Romance" by Claude McKay
First printed in Harlem Shadows: The Poems of Claude McKay, Harcourt 1922 (US Public Domain)
To clasp you now and feel your head close-pressed,
Scented and warm against my beating breast;
To whisper soft and quivering your name,
And drink the passion burning in your frame;
To lie at full length, taut, with cheek to cheek,
And tease your mouth with kisses till you speak
Love words, mad words, dream words, sweet senseless words,
Melodious like notes of mating birds;
To hear you ask if I shall love always,
And myself answer: Till the end of days;
To feel your easeful sigh of happiness
When on your trembling lips I murmur: Yes;
It is so sweet. We know it is not true.
What matters it? The night must shed her dew.
We know it is not true, but it is sweet—
The poem with this music is complete.