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presents
Music
from
past productions
Kurt
Vega, composer
Mystic's multi-media
approach to the text, places a special emphasis on music and the composer.
Kurt Vega, in composing for our past productions of Yeats:
Lenten Plays ; Dominica's
Smile
and Tortoise
Shout has proven himself to be a sensitive and innovative interpreter
of the word. Below are some sample clips of Kurt's music with the
accompanying text. Kurt will be collaborating with us on the upcoming
productions of Vagrants
in Love and Between
Earth and Sky by Sandy McIntosh.
More of Kurt's music
can be heard by going to his page
in the IUMA site.
Music from 
Music
at Top of Show <(click on link to hear music)
Act I Scene 1
A skeletal steel
set suggests a street in Soho, beaux art, fire escapes. Stage right is
a raised platform with a sculptor's loft. Several clay scultures in progress.
Stage left is a musician's loft with a lone guitarist. Sounds of the street,
horns, trucks, etc. blend into a percussive patter. Mimes, representing
pedestrians cross stage performing business. Guitarist begins to play.
Norman and Willie run on stage. Norman falls.
NORMAN
I've tripped again.
WILLIE
Over a crack in your brain.
NORMAN
I need a crutch.
(meditates)
Or some such.
WILLIE
(bent over listening)
Shhh.
I need to hear the rattling of the trains.
How else can I tell who's on their way,
or who's decided to stay?
NORMAN
Stand up. You bend so much
you'll end up needing a crutch.
Besides, the subway sounds too much
like the rattling of chains,
or like rumblings in a hungry gut,
or like a wind sailing stormy rains
to flood our collars.
(meditates)
or some such.
(tries to take a swig from an empty beer can,
shakes it, then puts it in his pocket)
Life's hard.
I never once got to drink
from a delicate glass.
Music from
"The
original music was rich, very artistic. It was a powerful experience."--
Sister
Mary Theresa Wojcicki, SCC Assumption College for Sisters Academic Dean
Song
of the White Heron from Calvary <(click
on link to hear music)
by William Butler Yeats
Motionless under
the moon-beam,
Up to his feathers
in the stream;
Although fish leap,
the white heron
Shivers in a dumbfounded
dream.
God has not died
for the white heron.
Although halffamished
he'll not dare
Dip or do anything
but stare
Upon the glittering
image of a heron,
That now is lost
and now is there.
God has not died
for the white heron.
But that the full
is shortly gone
And after that
is crescent moon,
It's certain that
the moon-crazed heron
Would be but fishes'
diet soon.
God has not died
for the white heron.
Music from 
"An
evocative score by Kurt Vega created the atmosphere of mystery and
danger where Mr. Gaertner’s highly-charged language seemed at home."--Deal
Hudson, Credo
Opening
Women's Chorus <
(click on link to hear music)
VERONICA, ELLEN
and DOMINICA enter dsr, holding lanterns, searching the horizon.
VERONICA
Lord,
as the hard black
edges
of cliffs
are turned to silver
by moonlight,
so let our souls
radiate
your light.
Glow in our hearts,
and on my tear-glazed
cheeks:
let their glistening
salt
guide my husband
home to me.
DOMINICA
We wait,
our souls shrouded
in dark green,
our hopes, as weeds
twisting in the
sea.
Lord,
spill down your
radiance,
burn away the mists
shrouding our souls.
ELLEN
The whitecaps are
devouring teeth.
Her husband is
devoured.
The waves toss
upon the horizon,
as dirt from a
grave digger’s shovel.
There! There!
A white boat!
Music from 
" The
electronic music by Kurt Vega is startling and prepares us for something
unusual."
--Victor
Gluck, Backstage
Re-examination
of Freedom < (click on link to hear
music)
by Ruth Krauss
One
If I were freedom
I'd be an apple
Two
If I were freedom
I'd be hurricanes
of sugar canes
Three
If I were freedom
I'd navigate all
the drunken rivers
and if I drown
I go down
in a carnival of
sky
and if I ride
the World rides
with me
over the sunken
drunken sun and whee-ee-ee-ee-eeeeeeee-
Four
If I were freedom
I'd never be Aunt
May
who thinks she
is the USA
and her left leg
is Florida
May: or
is it my right
no
my left
I'll
have a Civil War
I'll
sell Louisiana to Napoleon
Louisiana
files away
Left Leg:
Napoleon Napoleon
la
la la la la-----
Five
If I were freedom
I'd be that mud
puddle
where Sir Walter
Raleigh laid his cloak
no I mean I'd be
that cloak
laid by Sir Walter
Raleigh in the puddle of Queen Elizabeth I mean
the puddle for
Queen Elizabeth I mean
once there was
a puddle and there was a queen and
along came Sir
Walter somethingorother and laid
down his cloak
for her
if I were freedom
I'd be that cloak
for her
and the world my
Queen
I mean
Six
If I were freedom
I'd be a small
tree
at the edge of
the night
in the wild skyscrapers
then a lonely sea
and the blue waters
rushing
would do your heart
good
I'd be
Song
If I were freedom
I'd love you
in the demented
batteries
I'd love you
on the sidewalk
I'd love you
and glasses are
empty but
I'd love you I'd
love you
abandoned thus
to the fury of symbols
If I were freedom
and suddenly there
is the wilderness
I'd love you
yes all hands are
lost when the ship goes down but
I'd love you
the shadows crowd
on the shore
I love you
tell me the truth
before the ferryman's return
I love you I love
you
and everything
is full of the sea
If I were freedom
I'd love you
dirty calabash
I'd love you
my lion
I'd love you I'd
love you
if I were freedom
on feathers in
my head if there were snow
on cards on the
tables on the chairs
the waves distill
you
and the night
salt white stuff
on stones
I love you
so that one discovers
strawberries at the rim of fire everyday
I love you I love
you
which is a condition
that becomes a festival
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