David Del Tredici

I. The Lobster Quadrille
II. 'Tis the Voice of the Sluggard
Dream-Conclusion

In Wonderland, Part I was inspired by chapter from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. In it, Alice comes upon the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon, two of Carroll's many bizarre characters, who describe to her and then perform in an amusingly awkward manner the dance known as The Lobster Quadrille. Between sections of the dance the Mock Turtle sings a song. As soon as they have finished this, they ask Alice to do something for them in return, and she obliges, rather timidly, with her song, 'Tis the Voice of the Sluggard. As a conclusion to the piece, I added the ending scene from the book in which Alice awakens from her dream to reality once again.

A word, perhaps, on some of the musical industries of the piece:

The Lobster Quadrille is in seven parts.

1. Dance I (Brass and Strings)
2. Song (Verse I) (Folk Instruments)
3. Dance II (Woodwinds and Percussion)
4. Song (Verse II) (Folk Instruments)
5. Dance II (Dance I & II combined)
6. Song (Verse III) (Folk Instruments)
7. Coda

In this movement I was intrigued with the idea and possibilities of writing music which worked both separately and then when superimposed simultaneously one atop the other - hence the special partitioning of the orchestra in half (brass, strings - woodwinds, percussion). The three-verse Song for Soprano and Folk Instruments acts as a kind of Trio between the different dances.

My musical image for the second movement, Alice's song, came from a phrase in the text, "...she hardly knew what she was saying; and the words came very queer indeed." That is, I endeavored to write a music which sounds slightly 'out of kilter' with itself - strangely out of focus. As the text itself is contradictory (the title Alice announces is 'Tis the Voice of the Sluggard, but the first line she sings is, 'Tis the Voice of the Lobster) so, too, is the music. Much of the time the Soprano and Orchestra perform the same melodic line, but they never coincide properly; one is always getting ahead of, or behind, the other. Then I found irresistible the idea of musically suggesting the 'voice' of the Lobster itself, which of course, is like the sound of one hand clapping!

Alice's return to reality is accomplished by Wonderland music's gradual emphasis of the oboe's 'tuning' A, and the open strings of the orchestra, ending finally with a written-out version of the actual tuning ritual an orchestra always performs at the beginning of any concert. This to me was the 'dull reality' mentioned in the text.

The work is scored for Amplified Soprano-Narrator; a Solo Concertino Group of Mandolin, Banjo, Accordion, two Soprano Saxophones; and Symphony Orchestra. It was commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts and is dedicated to Aaron Copland.