Owen Bloomfield: When the Ravens Descend (2008/10)
for soprano and Bohlen-Pierce soprano and tenor clarinets
When the Ravens Descend is a work in three movements that is inspired by a poem of the same name by Rae Crossman. While the first two movements, Alpha and Ravens, were written in 2010, the third movement, Wanderer, was completed in 2007. Alpha and Ravens expands on the musical language used in Wanderer. While Wanderer is based around BP pitch sets, the other two movements combine those pitch sets into a mode that is used throughout in transposition. When the Ravens Descend explores the melodic, polyphonic, and heterophonic tendencies of the BP scale. Particulars such as tendency tones and the notion of a tonic are brought into relief. The outer two movements are instrumental, the first for soprano and tenor BP clarinets and the third for two soprano BP clarinets. The middle movement, Ravens, is scored for two soprano clarinets and contains Crossman’s poem sung by soprano voice.
The poem graphically explores the death of a deer after being hunted down by wolves and scavenged by ravens. While this is the surface text, the poem has an existential element that asks us about our own perspectives on mortality and the instance of death.
When The Ravens Descend
by Rae Crossman (published with permission by the author)
what flits
through the skull
of the starving deer
staggering
out of the cedars
onto the frozen lake
legs buckling
upwind of death
nostrils crusted with ice
breath in heaves
does the eye of the deer
see
the beak of the raven
as it’s pecked
from the socket and swallowed
does the ear of the deer
hear
the raven’s call
for the wolf
to tear open the throat
what leaps
when the belly’s ripped
into the ethereal forest
what exhalation
above the din
from the rib cage perch
what story now on the wind
and
what will flit
through my skull
when the ravens descend
what will rise
besides the steam
when my guts
are dragged out across the snow