| Five
True Remarkable Occurrences (2005-8)
for voice & guitar
Composer
Facsimile Edition, 8 minutes
 mp3
The " remarkable occurrences" are
five short, humorous pieces for mezzo and guitar. The first, Eating
Democrats, was commissioned by conductor George Mabry as one
of four such offerings, including one of his own, for his wife,
mezzo-soprano Sharon Mabry, on her birthday. Mabry premiered the
piece in 2007 on a Dimensions in New Music concert at Austin Peay
State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. The
dedication reads: " To Sharon Mabry, diva straordinaria, in
celebration of her birthday on July 16, 2005"
The other four are titled:
Mrs. Czermak's Descent, Traffic, Wheeler-Peelers, and Other
Engagements.
See
texts below.
To order the score: elizvercoe@yahoo.com |
Sharon Mabry |
Stanley Yates |
Texts
Eating Democrats
Alfred Packer ate five prospectors whom he was guiding over a high Colorado
plateau in 1874.
The judge who sentenced
Packer to hang indignantly pointed out that "There was
only six Democrats in all of Hinsdale County and you ate
five of them."
The Department of Agriculture
startled the official community by dedicating its cafeteria
to Alfred
Packer. Then the General
Services Administration removed the plaque and accused them of "bad
taste."
Vera Czermak
Vera
Czermak jumped out of her third story window when she learned
her husband had betrayed her. Mrs. Czermak is recovering
in the hospital after landing on her husband who was killed,
the newspaper Vecerny Pravda reported today.
Traffic
In 1895
there were only two cars in the whole state of Ohio.
They collidded. .
Wheeler-Peelers
Grand Rapids Michigan. A local striptease
joint must build ramps to accommodate
handicapped strippers, state officials have ruled.
Other Engagements
Taipei. A young Taiwanese man
has written seven hundred love letters to his girlfriend
over the past two years — trying
to get her to marry him. His persistence finally brought him
results. A newspaper
reported yesterday the girl has
become engaged to the postman who delivered all of those
letters.
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