Beulah In ChicagO
crt, sop sax, db, pno, perc, narrator
text by Frank O'Hara
Duration: 13:00
Date of Composition: 1981
PROGRAM NOTES: Beulah in Chicago is base on four poems (written in 1948, under the title, Suite for Military Band) by late American poet Frank O’Hara. The poems deal with a character named Beulah, who could have well been a ‘20s or ‘30s belle of lakeside Chicago. Played by a small “night-club” combo, the music is a (re)presentation in manner and style of American popular music, tinged with irony and an innocent and sometimes not-so-innocent charm. Compositional details include harmonic progressions that obliquely allude to the standard changes in popular music, the 12-note theme and the contrabass double-stop harmonics in the Habanera, and the various juxtaposed styles in the Interlude. Beulah in Chicago was composed in 1981, and is dedicated to Virgil Thomson (who lived through these musical styles) on his 85th birthday.
NB: Names of movements should appear in the program as follows:
I Gavotte
II Waltz
III Interlude
IV Habanera
V Rhumba a la Jazz
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TEXT:
SUITE FOR MILITARY BAND
By Frank O’Hara
I – Gavotte
When I met Beulah
In Chicago
(o Beulah
in Chicago)
by the shores
of Michigan Lake,
on the shingle,
we would tingle
in fits of bliss
we’d long to kiss
(but we wouldn’t
for Beulah’s sake);
the sea was slurping
on the sand
I was burping
behind my hand
between us two
(sad day) we threw
into
the lake
(o sad mistake)
our fit of bliss
our long to kiss
and drowned them both
(for Beulah’s sake).
II – Waltz
When we’re
gliding a-
long on the
back of a
mare at the
fair-grounds
it’s heaven!
Oh it’s
nice to be
tight on a
night when the
moon filters
down on the
crown of your
panama
hat!
See the
music re-
sound as the
hobby horse
bounds we’ll be
seasick to
together!
And I’ll
take you right
home if you’ll
kiss me and
promise to
loan me the trolley car
fare!
3 – Habanera
Oh, light darkens
the dark stir opens
a vault of blue-air
and dead-green leaves
See: wraiths rise-now
in dead green wrappers
their shrouds of sea-moist
moss velveteen,
and, their voices
like souls of oysters
of dark blue pansies
serenade.
4 – Rhumba a la Jazz
Black satin chassis
(You’re an oldsmobile!)
with a blossom at your valley
and the (Boom! Boom!) drums of Seville
at your back,
there’s a dark dark alley
just outside the next drink
where the (Reet ! teet!) steep deep blue
begins!
“Albert! Albert!
“Let go of my skirt!
“Herman! Herman!
“You’re unbuttoning your shirt!
“You’d better let go of me
“or you’ll get hurt
“my my red (hot!) lacquered fingernails!”
“Honey, lovey, when the boom starts in
“and the (Reet!) beat of the drum
“is talkin’ of sin
“there’s somethin’ doin’
“in every dark place
“and if you holler you’ll find
“a towel stuffed in your face!
Your patent leather hair
(Hey! Guadeloupe!)
is sliding down
in a mesh on your nape
as the rearing trombones glare
and frown
and the whirling trumpets blare
around
and the smoke puffs up
(Bijou! Bijou!)
from the (Red hot!) hard hit
stiff stretched
hide bound drum
at your (Boom! Boom!) back!
Poem used with the kind permission of the publisher, Grey Fox Press.