Composer Round Table discussion with Jocelyn Hagen
and Martha Hill Duncan

GP - H006 "Two Lullabies," by Jocelyn Hagen - SSA, piano
GP - D002 "Songs of Tekahionwake" by Martha Hill Duncan - SSA, piano, hand drum; SSSSAA a cappella

Graphite Publishing: Hello everybody, and welcome to our Round Table. We're talking with composers Jocelyn Hagen and Martha Hill Duncan about their work, specifically Jocelyn's Two Lullabies and Martha's Songs of Tekahionwake. Both are sets of two songs for women's voices, published exclusively through Graphite Publishing. Welcome to you both, and thanks for spending some time with us. Let's dig in:

For both of you, these works are sets of two pieces, and one of the songs is more serious, and the other more playful. One piece uses piano accompaniment and the other is a cappella. Can you talk about the contrast between the two? How do they fit together as a set?

Jocelyn Hagen: Two Lullabies was a commissioned piece that I was very excited to compose because two babies had just come into my life. Each child had a distinct personality, and I wanted to reflect that in these two pieces. "My Bed is a Boat" is a delightful poem by Robert Louis Stevenson and is sung from the perspective of the baby, not the caretaker. Elia, to whom the piece is dedicated, is a very precocious three-year-old now, and has a vivid imagination and fiery spirit. The second piece, however, is somber and reflective, and sung from the mother's point of view. The melody has a wide and low range that I associate with a mature woman, a mother.  The baby for whom "All the pretty little horses" is dedicated to had a rough birth and caused her parents a lot of stress, so this song is joyful yet restrained, hopeful and optimistic. I enjoy the two pieces as a set, but they may be performed independently.

Martha Hill Duncan: Songs of Tekahionwake came about when I was writing songs for my daughter and other young singers. In fact, “Lady Icicle's” first appearance was for solo voice. I was talked into reworking it for She Sings! (formerly the Aurora Women's Choir) and it just seemed to write itself. Choirs love the close harmonies, vocal effects and dramatic tempo changes. It's a lot of fun to perform, a little tongue in cheek, and an audience favourite here in Kingston Ontario. "Lullaby of the Iroquois" is definitely more hypnotic and atmospheric - a young native mother is trying to quiet her "little brown baby" to sleep with the hand drum and piano accompaniment providing the hypnotic lullaby rhythm. This was originally written for three young singers, but made its way into a choral piece. These two pieces seemed to come together as a pair.  At the time, being a new Canadian, I was immersing myself in Canadian poetry and fell in love with E. Pauline Johnson's work.

GP: How interesting that both of you were writing for specific young people in your lives, and women, too. Many conductors and choirs find great importance in supporting women composers and poets in their programming. How conscious are you of this?

MHD: As a woman composer, I have fortunately never felt any bias from being female. There is definitely something slightly different in the cadence of the female poets’ work that I have chosen to work with, and I experience a personal thrill to use earlier women writers who were struggling with societal limitations and expectations of their time. There is a definite feminine draw with “Lullaby of the Iroquois” and  “Lady Icicle.”

JH: I believe that much of my music is feminine, or has a feminine quality, but I'd also like to think that many of my works are free from this kind of labeling. I embrace the fact that I am a woman composer, but I don't believe it is a definitive characteristic of my writing.

GP: What level of choir would be able to perform these pieces well? What is accessible in the writing, and what will challenge the singers?

JH: A top quality, auditioned high school women's choir could perform these pieces well, as well as college and community women's choirs. The first piece incorporates an aleatoric section, a 20th century compositional technique not found in many choral scores, and that is fun to teach and learn.

MHD: Songs of Tekahionwake would be great for any auditioned women's choir, young or old.  There are some tuning challenges in “Lullaby of the Iroquois” for SSA which, when overcome, make for the "night in the camp" atmosphere. “Lady Icicle's” charm and difficulty come from the use of a cappella SSSSAA and varied tempos and vocal effects. All of the challenges can easily be overcome, however, and the outcome and audience response is well worth the efforts.

GP: So, in addition to working through these challenges, what else do you ask of a choir in your writing?

JH: When performing "My Bed is a Boat," the choir definitely needs to act as the story-teller, with a lot of enthusiasm and energy.  In "All the pretty little horses," the choir must shift dramatically into a different role and become very intimate with the audience, just as a mother is intimate with her child.

MHD: "Lullaby of the Iroquois" is a story from the voice of a young mother and "Lady Icicle" feels more like a legend, passed down through the years. Performance of both will benefit from word painting and expressive and tapered phrase work.

GP: Well, thank you both for your insights, and I hope you both keep writing music as intriguing as these pieces.

GP - H006 "Two Lullabies," by Jocelyn Hagen - SSA, piano
GP - D002 "Songs of Tekahionwake" by Martha Hill Duncan - SSA, piano, hand drum; SSSSAA a cappella

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