the Body Electric [CF:116-40342S]

the Body Electric draws its inspiration from great American poet, Walt Whitman?s work "I Sing theBody Electric." Two years earlier, while writing a setting of Whitman?s Crossing Brooklyn Ferry forbaritone and chamber orchestra, I became enamored with many of the poems from his collection,"The Leaves of Grass." I had not revisited Whitman?s poetry since high school and that distanceprovided a fresh look at Whitman?s poetry. In the spring of 2009, I came back to this collectionand decided to write another work inspired by Whitman?s poetry, this time for chamber orchestraalone. Writing a work that attempted to capture the mood of this epic poem seemed impossible. Becauseof the inherent abstract nature of text-less music, writing a work that was a musical blow-by-blowof the poem seemed equally impossible. For me, the solution was to take three fragments of thepoem and focus on conveying their particular moods. In the score, I have included the followinglines at the beginning of each section: "the Body electric", "A divine nimbus exhales", and "the Bodyat auction." the Body Electric was written for the 2009 Wellesley College Composers Conference and waspremiered on the final concert of the conference with Jim Baker conducting. Clint Needham