elizabeth vercoe composer

Echo Jive (1987)
for mixed chorus & piano
Composer Facsimile Edition, 5 minutes


Echo Jive is a short, humorous choral work.  It was commissioned by Hampshire College for the Hampshire College Chorus conducted by Ann Kearns.  The chorus gave the first performances of the piece in Amherst and Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1987.

The piece is an amusing and jazzy setting of an anonymous 19th century poem consisting of a dialogue between Echo and a Lover (during which Echo rather gets the best of Lover).

See score sample and text below.

To download the score: Echo Jive

 
Text 

Echo and the Lover (anon., Macaronic Verse, 1862)

Lover    Echo!  mysterious nymph, declare
               Of what you're made, and what you are.
Echo                                          Air!
Lover     'Mid airy cliffs and places high,
                Sweet Echo!  listening love, you lie.
Echo                                        You lie!
Lover     Thou dost resuscitate dead sounds—
                Hark!  how my voice revives, resounds!
Echo                                          Zounds!
Lover      I'll question thee before I go—
                Come, answer me more apropros!
Echo                                        Poh!  poh!
Lover     Tell me, fair nymph, if e'er you saw
                So sweet a girl as Phoebe Shaw.
Echo                                        Pshaw!
Lover     Say, what will turn that frisking bunny
                Into the toils of matrimony?
Echo                                        Money!
Lover     Has Phoebe not a heavenly brow?
                Is not her bosom white as snow?
Echo                                        Ass!  no!
Lover     Her eyes!  was ever such a pair?
                Are the stars brighter than they are?
Echo                                        They are!
Lover     Echo, thou liest, but can't deceive me.
Echo                                       Leave me!
Lover    But come, thou saucy, pert romancer,
               Who is fair as Phoebe?  Answer!
Echo                                        Ann, sir.