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).
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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.