- Great Blue(1997) soprano, clarinet, piano 9'
- Text: Carolyn Kizer, "The Great Blue Heron," from Mermaids in the Basement (Copper Canyon Press).
- Commissioned by The Commission Project.
- Premiere—2003, by Karen Clift, Burt Hara and Thelma Hunter, Saint Paul, MN.
- Voice range:
Program Note
"Great Blue" (the birder's name for the great blue heron) was commissioned by The Commission Project of Rochester, New York (Ned Corman, Director) for Karen Clift and Burt Hara. Karen and Burt so enjoyed performing Schubert's "Shepherd on the Rock" in 1996 that they asked me to write a new work for that combination. I looked for a poem with a strong third dimension: much as the clarinet sounds the echo-and enlarges the sense of space-in Schubert's song. I found in Carolyn Kizer's spectral heron a presence which symbolizes both a captured memory and a premonition. Like Ms. Kizer's poem, my work is dedicated to my mother, Mimi Thomas.