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| music by Curtis
Bryant, words by Stephen Bluestone THE LAUGHING
MONKEYS OF GRAVITY is a four-part song cycle
based on a lyric meditation on comedy and
loneliness; it is the title poem in a volume
by poet Stephen
Bluestone. The main characters in
the meditation are movie comedians Bryant chose four of Bluestone's poems and set them for coloratura soprano voice with an expanded Pierrot ensemble (flute, and piccolo; clarinet and alto saxophone; percussion; violin; cello; piano). He tailored the vocal writing to the extroadinary voice of soprano Arietha Lockhart who premiered the set on an all-Bryant/Bluestone concert in 2003 at Fickling Hall on the Mercer University campus. Lockhart was joined by Kelly Via, flute; Monty Cole, clarinet & sax; Giselle Hillyer, violin; Barbara Altman, cello; Brian Nozny, percussion and Roger McVey, piano. The samples below are from the premiere performance. To play the files click the 
to the left of the song title. Please
enjoy. Thanks for listening.
 To
view an excerpt of "The Laughing Monkeys of
Gravity" in PDF format click the image to launch
the file. Control-click to
download a selection. To order a score
and/or instrumental parts contact Curtis Bryant directly
by email, phone or snail-mail. The songs
are also available in a piano-only
version. PRICES (not including shipping): Piano/Vocal Score: $15.95 Full Score (score only): $24.95 Complete Performance Set: $39.95 Full score (4 songs) (97 pages), includes flute (recorder, piccolo, slide whistle), Bb clarinet (alto saxophone), violin, cello, percussion (2 timpani, marimba, chimes, vibraslap, triangle, bass drum, tam tam, trap set: kick, SD, sus. cym., ride bell, hi & lo wood block, tambourine, HH) THE LAUGHING MONKEYS OF GRAVITY – Program Notes Bryant first began work on THE LAUGHING MONKEYS OF GRAVITY in 2000 with a planned premiere by Atlanta soprano Cheryl Boyd Waddell. He suspended work on the project with news of Cheryl's illness and untimely death and only resumed work on the set three years later. At this time he met soprano Arietha Lockhart who committed to the song cycle's premiere. The individual sections of this work depict the conflict between human desire and the indifferent world, which is the essence of comedy. The song cycle is dedicated to the memory of Cheryl Boyd Waddell. The first song, "The Settlement" (Oliver's Pratfall), opens with the quotation of a fragment from the trademark Laurel and Hardy "cuckoo" theme, played on the recorder and clarinet. The cuckoo motif derived from this theme finds its way into the instrumental texture throughout the song. "The Settlement" takes on two contrasting dance tempos as the music weaves through the text evoking Laurel and Hardy's comedic style, first a gloomy fox trot, then a mischievous two-step. Bluestone's line "All bricks must fall on Oliver Hardy's head" is a reference to a scene from the 1932 Laurel and Hardy film Helpmates. The title line for Bryant's song cycle as well as Bluestone's book, "the laughing monkeys of gravity," is also found in this poem. "Dancing Out, Dancing Back" (Lou Costello) opens with an instrumental introduction in character with the often highly dramatic and symphonic title themes of Abbott and Costello films. The sense of expectation is foiled by another punchy fox trot rhythm for the entrance of the vocal part. Subsequently a bouncy waltz meter conveys Costello's sense of panic at the reality of being trapped inside a cage of hungry lions after he has nonchalantly tossed the keys beyond reach outside the metal bars. The scene is a reference to the film Africa Screams (1949). The third song, "Oracles of Lefts and Rights" (The Three Stooges), opens slowly with a disguised reference to the "Three Blind Mice" theme used in many of the Stooges' films. While elements of this theme find many forms within the song, quotations from other signature themes and motivies can be found as well, along with frequent tempo changes: "Swinging" (presumably left and right punches), "With a snore" (snoring in threes), "Briskly" (with total abandon) and finally "Kind of Blue," as the poet steps back and walks sadly home in the afternoon drizzle towards a reality far less appealing than the slapstick of black and white inside the dark theater's walls. The fourth song, "In the World's Machine" (Charles Chaplin), opens in a lopsided 5/8 meter marked "Briskly Waddling." A second "Romantic" theme in a slower tempo is derived from a melody used in Chaplin's film The The Gold Rush (1925). Chaplin often composed the music for his own films, but this particular melody is a reworking of a "Romance" for piano by Brahms. The music abruptly changes into a stride rhythm marked "Brawling," which is then usurped by a slower "Seroius" tempo in 3/4 meter with a mechanical ostinato in the right hand of the piano part. This evokes an image of Chaplin's "Little Tramp" character trapped inside the cogs of the "worlds machine" from the film Modern Times (1936). The song closes on a dark note with the poet pondering what vision Chaplin, now dead, sees "in worlds beyond the road." – Notes by Curtis Bryant and Stephen Bluestone Back to top |
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| Curtis
Bryant
Music • 5485 Lakeside Drive • Union City, GA
30291, USA • Telephone: 770-964-3063 Entire site Copyright © 2010 Curtis Bryant Music. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. |
from an
earlier era: Laurel and Hardy, Charlie
Chaplin, the Three Stooges, Buster Keaton, Lou
Costello, Harold Lloyd, and others. In their
moments of loneliness, these comedians salvage
the dignity of the human spirit and affirm the
will to endure. There are many references in
the ten sections of the original poem to the
films in which these comedians appear, but the
situations the poet explores are universal and
easily understood. In each of its sections the
poem shows how these classic comic masters
connected friendship and love, fear and
laughter, and comedy with tragedy, in the
struggle to prevail in an indifferent world.
