Three Poems from Felt (after Alice Fulton)
poetry reading with computer music
c.8:00
March 2005
The computer music is for 8-channel fixed media, though it may be performed in a reduced version for 4 channels.
Heidi Dietrich Klein, recitation
Heidi Dietrich Klein, recitation
Alice Fulton, recitation
Beverly Moon, recitation
Jessica Leza, recitation
Nancy Hoffman, recitation
Heidi Dietrich Klein, recitation
Alice Fulton, recitation
Joseph Klein, recitation
Kelly Kruse, recitation
Amanda Halverson, recitation
Heidi Dietrich Klein, recitation
Lola Haskins, recitation
Alice Fulton, recitation
score (pdf)
audio recording (Soundcloud)
Recorded 2004/2006 (Ithaca, NY; Denton, TX); Alice Fulton, recitation.
Webcast of 15 April 2011 program at Cornell University (performance begins at 51:37).
photographs
TCMN performance with Heidi Dietrich Klein (2005)
photographs
Performance of Cornell Set and Three Poems from Felt at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY; 15 April 2011).
I have been an admirer of Alice Fulton's poetry for several years now, and have used her evocative turns of phrase as titles for two of my previous works. I had wanted to compose a musical setting of her poems for quite some time, but had difficulty finding the appropriate medium, as her words seemed to resist a traditional musical setting. It finally occurred to me that I was really interested in creating an elaboration of a poetry reading — after all, poets often "perform" their own works just as musicians do, so it seemed natural to create a sonic environment around the poet's spoken words. Three Poems from Felt was drawn from Fulton's 2001 collection of poems, which lent themselves particularly well to such a setting.
The work was first performed by the poet on 4 April 2005 at the University of North Texas. It is included on the album Improbable Encounters (innova 873, 2014).