The Ballad of Rosie Composer (aka "De-Composing")
a satirical madrigal I wrote based on some of my experiences of meeting with skepticism about my composing activities. I would like to say "the situations are people represented here are works of fiction" -- but they are not, although I exaggerate!
classical
opera
contemporary classical
orchestral
choral
medieval
sacred music
symphonic
psalms
renaissance
thomas wilson
cos
requiem
gloria
contemporary composers
karen peace
living composers
moondance winner
ppac award
small ensemble
string quartets
women composers
colorado vocal arts ensem
cvae
chamber orchestra of the
Lyrics
Good ev'-ning, my name is Ro-sie com-po-ser
It's so nice to meet you, an hon-or for sure
I've brought you a C-D, the fruit of my la-bors;
could you kind-ly spare a few min-utes for me?
Be fore I will lis-ten I should like to know, dear,
what school you at- tend-ed and for what de-la gree?
I'm e-ver so bu- sy and can't take the time out
for ev'-ry com- pos- er who comes beg-ging to me.
What kind of mus-ic do you try to write now,
ro-man-tic me- dei-val, post mod-ern or what?
I stud-ied at Juil- liard andwon't con-de- scend
to tor-ture my- hear- ing with mus-i-cal smut.
I can't tell you what it is called, sir, but if you
will take a few mo-ments and list-ten to it,
I'm sure that you'll it see that it's quitewor-thy mu-sic
it's not like I've writ-ten writ-ten a big pile of shhhhfalalalala!...-
You don't look the part of a class-i-cal wri-ter
your- gyp-sy- like cloth-ing in spires my dis trust.
My good rep-u ta- tion re quires that I'm cau- tious
I list-en to - on- ly the for best, as I must.
Good morn-ing! my name is Ros ie com- pos-er, may I
give you my card and per haps you might find
some works to your lik- ing; the're upon my - web-site
down- load an-y to which you a may take a shine.
I have n't heard of you, you're just a choir sing-er,
you don't look of - much ac-count, how could you be
A real com- pos- er you for-ward im- pos- ter
You're fak-ing it sure- ly but you can't fool me.
But how can you say that? for you have not lis-tened;
if you had, I'd take your op in-ions to heart.
Do you make such a hab- it of il- lo gi-cal - reas'-ning?
Are you not em - barr-assed to look so un smart?
You don't act the part of a class-i-cal wri-ter
(you're far too buf- - foon-ish I'm sure all a- -la gree (we we a- gree)
real com- po- sers ex ude a de- mean- or
that I don't per - ceive as you're speak-ing to me.
I have on-ly one thing to say to such non-sense:
Cre- den-tials are - - hand-y but still they can- not
Pro- vide guar-an- - tee that the Muse is not act- ive
with- in a com -- pos- erwho has them not.
Take El- gar and Jop-lin, and Tel-e-mann al-so
and Rim-sky Kor-sa-kov as a lot:
Per-haps you'd dis miss them all out of hand simp-ly
be-cause these com-pos-ers all were self-taught? - - - ---
Fa la la etc026..