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About the Composer
Joshua Shank
Graphite Publishing
Purple-Stainèd Mouth
A love song about wine.
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Color Madrigals
SATB, a cappella
from the cycle Color Madrigals
“Purple-Stainèd Mouth” is the third movement of Joshua’s 6-movement choral song cycle, Color Madrigals, and uses a poem by John Keats about wine as its text. The piece was commissioned by The Summer Singers (Vicki Peters, conductor) and would be appropriate for advanced high school choirs and above.
Composer’s Notes
Performance Notes
Because of the tight harmonies, little to no vibrato is desirable.
Take a breath only when indicated by a rest.
If a crescendo appears without a starting/ending dynamic it is based on the treatment of the text.
Program Notes
When I read this text the first few times, I always got stuck on the last two lines. I kept associating it with the image of someone whose heart is broken taking refuge in a bottle of wine. The eight lines of the poem that lead up to this are what this person wishes for but, in the end, probably doesn’t get. Anyone who has ever felt heartbroken knows this feeling and, although we usually heal ourselves of our own accord, “drowning your sorrows” can seem awfully inviting sometimes.
A special note: I am especially indebted to Matthew Culloton and Vicki Peters for supporting the creation of such a large work. They and their respective choirs gave all six pieces amazing premieres in three different “volumes” (red/green, purple/yellow and blue/orange).
Text
Excerpt from Ode to a Nightingale
O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cooled a long age in the deep-delvéd earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dancing, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stainéd mouth,
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim—
– John Keats (England, 1795-1821)
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