Later
my sister became too ill

for the clinical trials
but there was a tease
around Easter
we could still

hope, more will
than possibility, a straw
false lease
I began to tell
her about the Water Lilies
watched her stare

at each panel as if I
were a merchant unfolding my wares

to make them so real
so literal

she might climb the tiers
of painted air the way lilies
rise
out of shit and silt
So Monet writ
his “terrible blizzard of loss that will

even erase
her features” John Berger writes

of the portrait of his young wife’s wrestle
with death; saw
painted light unlike the real

is not transparent—more a wall
and she, now, a corpse on an easel
-Donna Masini

This video is by David Humphrey, and visually sets the vocal setting. It is called: 4 Painting

Kurt Rohde writes: This setting of Donna Masini's "Water Lilies," poems found at the center of her collection of poems "4:30 Movie," were composed at my home in San Francisco during the COVID pandemic for soprano Stephanie Lamprea. The electronics in this recording were produced in collaboration with Joshua Jandreau. The live performance version uses a Max patch created in collaboration with Alex Van Gils.

These poems are abstracted re-tellings of the poet going to MOMA and seeing Monet's "Waterlilies" and coming away thinking about the paintings, the artist, the time the were created, and her sister who was dying of cancer at the time of her visit.

In addition to panning, I use 4 effects in my settings: reverb, delay, hi-pass filters, & granular synthesis. In many cases, I re-order the word of the poems to create an alternative narrative. For the final setting, the singer sings with a fixed media track using a combination of recordings I made of birds, and recitations of the poem by the singer Stephanie Lamprea.

The piece is designed to accommodate the innumerable qualities & abilities of the singers who perform it. It is meant NOT to be the same way with each performance, but rather, should reflect what the singer sees & hears inside of the space of the music I have written.

The piece have 9 movements:

Water Lilies 1
Water Lilies 2
Water Lilies 3
Water Lilies 4
Water Lilies 5
Water Lilies 6
Water Lilies 7
Water Lilies 8
(Water Lilies Floating)

The recording is of Stephanie Lamprea. It was edited, mixed, mastered & produced by Joshua Jandreau.