Water Lilies 7

suddenly welts

weals, wrestle
onto my skin, a series

of trails
I am my own walls

my body’s rash atelier
rails

something writes
from inside, tells
retells

my sister dragging the tail

of her oxygen tank; the weariest
days, shadows, trees

ills swell

nothing to erase
nothing to ease
I come to the wall

and the wall

all welter, swells
-Donna Masini

This video is by David Humphrey, and visually sets the vocal setting. It is called: 7 Skin

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.