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Symphony No. 2 .​.​. A Phantasmagorey Ballet (1998) .​.​. live performance

by Thomas Oboe Lee

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1.
The Nursery Frieze 04:33
2.
The Gilded Bat 04:56
3.
The Raging Tide 03:10
4.
The Blue Aspic 02:39
5.
The Utter Zoo 08:08

about

Nineteen ninety-eight marks the tenth anniversary of my plunge into the world of ballet. I continue to take classes three or four times a week. It's fun, athletic, and challenging. And I'm still working on the basic notion of "spotting" in my pirouettes ... So when Max Hobart of the Civic Symphony Orchestra of Boston agreed to premiere a new work of mine I knew it had to be a symphonic ballet.

Coincidentally, I discovered that my favorite cartoonist, Edward Gorey, is also a balletomane. He lived in New York City between 1953 and 1986 and never missed a single performance of the New York City Ballet. Apparently his leaving New York to live permanently on Cape Cod was prompted by the death of George Balanchine in 1983. Among Edward Gorey's many books there is one, "The Gilded Bat," about a young woman, Maud Splaytoe, and her adventures in the ballet world. She dies in the end when the plane she is in flies into a "great, dark bird." Hmmm, I thought, "The Gilded Bat" would make a nice "adagio" movement. To complete the work, I found four other Gorey books that attracted me in mood and texture: "The Nursery Frieze" - dogs running across the edge of a nursery ceiling, barking out words whose sequence provides no sense or meaning, e.g., "Archipelago, cardamon, obloquy, ignavia, samisen, bandages, wax, Gavelkind, ... " ; "The Raging Tide" - a fantastical story about four creatures, Figbash, Hooglyboo, Naeelah and Skrump, who would not stop abusing each other; "The Utter Zoo" - an alphabet book of zoo animals of Edward Gorey's concoction, e.g., "Ampoo, Boggerslosh, Crunk, Dawbis, Epitwee, ... "; and "The Blue Aspic" - a macabre story of a mad fan, Jasper Ankle, who stalks an opera diva, Ortenzia Caviglia. When he finally meets her at the stage-door after a performance, he stabs her in the throat and cries, "J'ai trouvé Hortense!"

Symphony No. 2 ... "A Phantasmagorey Ballet" is in five movements:

I. "The Nursery Frieze"
II. "The Gilded Bat"
III. "The Raging Tide"
IV. "The Blue Aspic"
V. "The Utter Zoo"

This work is dedicated to my wife, Kristin Beckwith, whom I met ten years ago at the Boston Ballet, and who continues to be my one and only ballet teacher.

credits

released July 15, 2020

This is a recording from a live performance in Jordan Hall on March 8, 1998, with Maestro Max Hobart conducting the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra.

Music by Thomas Oboe Lee

© Departed Feathers Music, Inc. - BMI - 1998

Album artwork credit: The Nursery Frieze from "15" by Edward St. John Gorey.

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Thomas Oboe Lee Cambridge, Massachusetts

Thomas Oboe Lee was born in China in 1945. He lived in São Paulo, Brazil, for six years before coming to the United States in 1966. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, he studied composition at the New England Conservatory and Harvard University. He has been a member of the music faculty at Boston College since 1990. ... more

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