Four Finalities

Spotify

score available from
Wise Music

recording available
Mondrian Interiors
Jessica Fotinos, ANAM
ABC Classics, digital, 2015
program note
i. Footsteps
ii. The Thread
iii. Unbroken Snow
iv. An Empty Room

This song cycle was written with long-time collaborator, poet Ross Baglin. In September 2009, I asked if he could write something around the theme of snow for a new choral work. Ross emailed a wonderful first draft of ‘Footsteps’ – but we agreed it would actually work better for solo voice. This was followed a week later by a second poem in villanelle form – ‘Unbroken Snow’, prompting plans for a third to create a set on abandonment and loss. But in the interim, the choral piece took over (The Memory Case) along with work on our second opera, The Parrot Factory. Almost 2 years later in April 2011, ‘The Thread’ emerged and a month after that, a fourth brief concluding poem completed the text.

Prior to setting the text to music, I had divergent thoughts about accompaniment, finally settling on cor anglais and harp to go with the female vocal soloist. The trio enter in that order, creating a counterpoint of bitter-sweet memory. The second song is a duo for voice and harp, depicting the grim news of war. Cor anglais joins the voice for the third song, set in a winter hospice, until the voice itself is abandoned by all accompaniment – now in dialogue only with silence. The solo voice also dominates the opening of the fourth song until rejoined by cor anglais and harp in reprise of the opening song. The score for this un-commissioned song cycle was completed in July 2012 and recorded early the following year in advance of its eventual premiere performance at the Melbourne Recital Centre in 2014: a five–year journey from first words on the page, to songs heard in the presence of an audience.

reviews
“Ross Baglin’s poems set in Four Finalities for female voice, cor anglais and harp take their cues from the refined imagism of T. S. Eliot. The catalogues of luggage, clothes, furniture, snow and flowers—including snow filling flowers!—; the ruminations on “the time / It takes a finger to decide” and the peal of bucolic church bells are put to good use by Greenbaum. The first song of the cycle, with soprano Lotte Betts-Dean throwing herself into its swelling, keening melody, could be one of the more soulful Eurovision winners. The sparing interjections of the cor anglais (David Reichelt) fit the charm of these pensive poems wonderfully and constitute some of the most captivating moments in the cycle.”
Matthew Lorenzon, Real Time Arts, May 2014

“Four Finalities for voice, harp and cor anglais (2012) is a song cycle with a text by Ross Baglin, a poet with whom Greenbaum has collaborated over many years. The theme is “snow” but the treatment is much more abstract and philosophical… the four-movement piece has a pleasing textural structure: voice with harp and cor anglais; voice with harp; voice with cor anglais and then a return to the opening combination.  The most impressive movement for me was the second, characterised by a compelling vocal melodicism and interesting counterpoint between voice and instrument.”
Michael Hannan, Music Trust E–zine, 5 June 2016

“Four Finalities is a song cycle written in collaboration with poet Ross Baglin and performed by mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean. The delicate interplay between Betts-Dean’s forcefully ethereal voice and the harp is utterly captivating, enhanced by a rich and spacious recording sonic.”
Lisa MacKinney, Limelight Magazine, 29 July 2016

Four Finalities for voice, harp and cor anglais (2012) is a song cycle with a text by Ross Baglin, a poet with whom Greenbaum has collaborated over many years. The theme is “snow” but the treatment is much more abstract and philosophical…the four-movement piece has a pleasing textural structure: voice with harp and cor anglais; voice with harp; voice with cor anglais and then a return to the opening combination. The most impressive movement for me was the second, characterised by a compelling vocal melodicism and interesting counterpoint between voice and instrument.”
IsraBox, December 2021