Robert Carl

Soprano, Alto Flute, and Piano

Composer's Note:

Things As It Is is a song cycle on poems by the American poet Chase Twichell.
I came to know Chase coincidentally, as the wife of the novelist Russell Banks, with whom I composed the opera Harmony. But over time, in repeated encounters with her poetry, I came to realize she is a major figure in the field. More importantly, the work speaks deeply to me. Chase is a practicing Buddhist, and so we share a spiritual tradition. And her poems have an ability to pierce into the essence of an experience, in the moment, that is rare and clarifying.

These texts present a challenge. They are very much about the enveloping silence behind all phenomena, and as a result, it might seem that music can get in the way of their intended meaning. I can’t claim to have solved this conundrum, but I have tried to find ways to dig beneath the surface, to try to extract sonic essences that reflect some of the intensity and focus of the poetry. The songs are concentrated, and I try to extract moments that count.

The eight poems are presented as four pairs. I see common thematic aspects between the words in each linked set, and I’ve tried to retain some sort of musical element that is common to each.

Finally, the work’s title comes from the final poem in this set, which is also the titular one of Chase’s most recent collection. Its seeming grammatical lapse is intentional. The great Soto Zen master Shunryu Suzuki spoke the line in answer to a query on the meaning of the Chinese Chan poem Sandokai. When told that in English translation it was incorrect, he stated firmly it was exactly what he meant.