Justin Anthony Spenner: In Normandie
Justin Anthony Spenner: In Normandie
Composer: Justin Anthony Spenner
Poet: Richard Meacock
Voicing: High Voice & Piano
Date: 2018
Duration: 6:00
About: This sparse, haunting micro-song cycle paints a scene which contemplates the passing of time, mortality, and legacy. Each stanza of the poem reflects on a different grave, and the movements of the cycle correspond to the varied flows of thought articulated by the narrator.
Composer Notes
Text / Lyrics
In Normandie
Autumn moves haltingly
With quiet tread. He crosses
The salt marsh
And stands in the gap
Between fields and garden.
On the stone post,
Where no gate hangs,
He lays a hand, cold
As the dwindling sun.
Where he shifts
Onto the ragged lawns,
The blanched birch and poplar leaves
Curl and rattle and twist.
The gateway into the German cemetery
Is massive, blockish, the door narrow
As if to keep out wanderers,
Or keep in the dead.
Every dark granite cross
Serves graves on front and back.
These stones do not speak,
They whisper secrets only
Of the unbekannt
In intricate intimacies
Of decomposition.
In Bayeux hangs the tapestry
Muted in the dim museum lights.
Its enigma beats in the black room
As the wings
Of of an egret, lifted high to catch
The migrating winds.
Somewhere in the histories
Of William and Harold,
When battle rolls like thunder,
A river of russet starts to widen.
Above it, knights fall
From horses, astonished
In their deaths. The fatal arrow
Flies, bursts into Harold’s eye.
He squints through the shattered occipital orbit
At what has happened here.
The grave where they buried Bim
Is tidy, his nineteen years cast
Succinctly between birth and death,
Reduced to a single, inscrutable dash.
This cemetery tries to order what cannot.
It masks the shocking
Nothingness that lies underneath
With white marble and clipped turf,
With little plants in predictable rows. T
he wildness of what went before
Is masked, deadened, gravestones
The teeth of Cadmus’ dragon,
Awaiting the metamorphosis
Into bayonets and fighters.
Over Omaha beach seagulls
Battle the landward wind
Cutting the skies with curved wings
Like swords.The memorial
Rises steely from the sands into the sky.
Its birth is in the blood
Of young men deep under the sand.
It is comfortless, this beach,
And even the cries of children
Dissipate into the grey horizon
Stifled as a mouth full of sand.
Autumn steps through
The grove of silver birches.
Like thin fingers, cold air
Slips across the threshold.
I close the door.
Performer Notes
Source Notes
“In Normandie” was commissioned as part of the 2018 Source SongBook, celebrating the festival’s 5th anniversary. It was premiered on August 5th 2018 at Westminster Hall in Minneapolis, MN by Jacob Christopher, tenor & Mark Bilyeu, piano.
Composer Info
Though primarily a performer, Justin Anthony Spenner has been commissioned for both art song and choral works throughout his career. He has been praised as a “Standout” with “boisterous comic energy” by the Star Tribune, and is known in new music circles for his artistic honesty and engaging versatility. Recent operatic performances include Schaunard (La Bohéme) with Theater Latte Da, Joey (The Most Happy Fella) and Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte) with Skylark Opera Theatre, John Sorel (The Consul) with Arbeit Opera Theatre, Morales and Dancairo (Carmen) with Pine Mountain Music Festival, 2nd Priest/Armored Man (Zauberflöte) with Lakes Area Music Festival, and Billy Bigelow (Carousel) with American Gothic. As a concert soloist, he has enjoyed performances with St. John’s Music Series (The Messiah, Nikolai Messe, Coronation Mass), ODC Dance Company (The Path of Miracles), Dakota Valley Symphony (In Terra Pax), and South Metro Chorale (Ein Deutsches Requiem), as well as various recital programs throughout the Midwest. In his life as a new music specialist, he has performed world premieres of works by Joey Crane, Tiffany Skidmore, Sam Krahn, and Josh Musikantow. His choreographed staging of Schubert’s Die Winterreise was labeled as “Breathtaking” by the Shepard Express. An avid educator, Justin maintains a full studio, and presents opera immersion classes which highlight the importance of creation, storytelling, and community.
Poet Info
Richard Meacock was a beloved teacher, activist, gardener, poet, painter, and tea drinker. He was a revolutionary educator who fought for LGBTQ+ rights, and, along with his husband Martin Stern, kept the best garden you'll find in the St. Croix River Valley. He also wrote exhaustively, literally stuffing notebooks of poetry and prose into jacket pockets and side-table drawers. These troves of poetry are still being found by Martin, a year after Richard's death in 2019.