The Partch Ensemble, based in Los Angeles, commissioned Anne LeBaron to compose a scene from her opera LSD: Huxley’s Last Trip for an upcoming recording session of new works composed for the Parch Ensemble (in lieu of the cancelled concert which had been scheduled for REDCAT in downtown LA this past spring).
The opera is being scored for chamber ensemble combined with a collection of microtonal instruments built by Harry Partch. “Double Helix” scene, which Anne completed last week for the Partch Ensemble, is set at the Eagle Pub in Cambridge. Francis Crick shares with James Watson and others in the bar that the structure of DNA was revealed to him while under the influence of LSD.
We at Composers Edition are looking forward to publishing the full score of this new work from Anne LeBaron next year.
Meanwhile, the Hear Now festival in Los Angeles is featuring Anne LeBaron’s piece based on Gertrude Stein texts, Is Money Money, one of the compositions just published with CE.
Is Money Money, for soprano, clarinet, bass clarinet, viola, cello, and contrabass, along with an assortment of call bells, launches with Gertrude Stein’s assertion: “All the trouble really comes from this question is money money.” The composition was in response to a commission with the mandate that the piece be about money. The texts I selected are from Stein’s “Money” and “All About Money, first appearing in 1936 in The Saturday Evening Post. The first performances of Is Money Money were given by the ensemble Sequitur at Joe’s Pub in The Public Theater, New York, on Feb. 3, 4, and 5, 2000.
Tags: Anne LeBaron, Double Helix, Is Money Money, LSD: Huxley's Last Trip