the air’s alert
a Parisian jumps at the least
sound, it’s the law
of hatred, rule of Ares
a sewer of ire
a weary aisle
of fear, the stairwell
climbs down or up its
own dark rails
Fear has a long lease
retails
see it in the child’s welts
the wallets
of suffering and riot
suffering in the east
the west
What is an iris
to that? A lily? A star?
A sweet
roll from the now-dark café? It’s

the last straw
a waiter (writer)
says (in French); Ariel’s
attack of fear; he wears
he says, a sweater
of refugees, the late
bombed-out sites
The aria
of war
je suis allé
he says, why write?
-Donna Masini

This video is by David Humphrey, and visually sets the vocal setting. It is called: 5 Ruins

Kurt Rohde writes: This setting of Donna Masini's "Water Lilies," poems found at the center of her collection of poems "4:30 Movie," were composed at my home in San Francisco during the COVID pandemic for soprano Stephanie Lamprea. The electronics in this recording were produced in collaboration with Joshua Jandreau. The live performance version uses a Max patch created in collaboration with Alex Van Gils.

These poems are abstracted re-tellings of the poet going to MOMA and seeing Monet's "Waterlilies" and coming away thinking about the paintings, the artist, the time the were created, and her sister who was dying of cancer at the time of her visit.

In addition to panning, I use 4 effects in my settings: reverb, delay, hi-pass filters, & granular synthesis. In many cases, I re-order the word of the poems to create an alternative narrative. For the final setting, the singer sings with a fixed media track using a combination of recordings I made of birds, and recitations of the poem by the singer Stephanie Lamprea.

The piece is designed to accommodate the innumerable qualities & abilities of the singers who perform it. It is meant NOT to be the same way with each performance, but rather, should reflect what the singer sees & hears inside of the space of the music I have written.

The piece have 9 movements:

Water Lilies 1
Water Lilies 2
Water Lilies 3
Water Lilies 4
Water Lilies 5
Water Lilies 6
Water Lilies 7
Water Lilies 8
(Water Lilies Floating)

The recording is of Stephanie Lamprea. It was edited, mixed, mastered & produced by Joshua Jandreau.