…Imaginative brass and vocal sounds produce a
varied fabric which is unified by recurring vertical
structures…The texture varies from homophonic to
intricate contrapuntal and pointillistic styles which
call for rhythmic precision amid frequent tempo and meter
changes. The text is the source of various monosyllabic
vocal sounds which are enhanced by allusive vocal
inflections….A women’s chorus, divided into
singing and speaking choruses, and a male narrator
(tenor) supply an assortment of sung and spoken sounds
which are both contrasting and imitative of the brass
sonorities….In its wordless text, the chorus uses
natural vocal sounds such as “ah,”
“oh” and “uh,” along with unusual
sounds such as “dzh” which produces a buzzing
sound. Vocal inflection is emphasized as several of the
syllables are spoken with a rising sound with a shake, or
with rising and falling sounds. These inflections give
the syllables a more expressive quality. Overlapping of
the same rising and falling sound (“oh”) by
the divided chorus produces an echo-like
effect….The breathy “ah” sound and the
loud whispers are mysterious and suggestive, as are the
kissing sounds….Loud exclamations…are
answered by imitative trumpet figures of seconds and
octaves over a major seventh. The singing chorus
occasionally mirrors the trumpet line, either in unison
or octaves; in the midst of a particularly violent brass
section the chorus sings with the trumpets in sustained
octaves on “ah-ee” while the speaking chorus
interjects screams which effectively convey the emotional
sense of the text….”Chance” or free
chords in which each singer may select a tone of her own
choosing are frequently used at the close of
sections……
Keats’ Ode is itself
a paean, a group of songs of rejoicing in honor of
Apollo. In the poem, each of nine past poets offers a
song for the entertainment of the god. Each of the
divergent songs is unsurpassed, but none is universal.
But when Apollo joins the combined players, it is his
song that proves to be the most beautiful and universal
of all. Fine selected parts of the “Ode” that
present trumpet and/or harp imagery associated with the
poets Homer, Spenser, and Tasso. Homer’s harp and
trumpets call to war, Spenser’s silver trumpet
evokes “a hymn in praise of spotless
chastity,” and Tasso’s harp beckons
“youth from idle slumber, Rousing them from
pleasure’s lair.”
Paean represents an
expansion in Fine compositional thinking. Although still
inspired by Graham’s use of Greek mythology (recall
Fine’s Alcestis and Persephone), Fine
used Paean as an opportunity to experiment with
aspects of indeterminacy, improvisation, phonetic text,
and quarter-tones. In addition, she had not written for a
brass ensemble before….Paean begins with a
twenty-two measure passage for brass that resembles
keyboard writing. Chords of stacked fourths and registral
articulations of seconds set the mood for the forthcoming
text. Fine took advantage of dynamic envelopes, usually
progressing from soft to loud, and several mute changes,
to create color and excitement. The unaccompanied chorus
enters using phonemes, such as “ah mm ah uh,”
and, for the most part, Paean moves from
incoherent vocal sounds to finally sung text at the end.
Spoken passages by the narrator from Keats’ text
supply the war imagery for the next section of the piece.
The chorus interprets these with shaking rising and
falling sounds, screams, kissing, whispers, and an
improvisation such that “the effect should be one
of mass wailing and lamentation” while the brass
pursue a martial chordal texture with an occasional
melodic passage from the first trumpet.
In addition to the
beginning, the brass ensemble has several sections alone.
One sounds improvised, but Fine notated with complex
rhythms of 7, 8, and 10 in a 3 / 4 meter and quasi-serial
techniques in which some of the pitches are either
permutations, retrograde, or truncated versions of a
twelve-note row stated at the beginning of the
passage….Paean ends recalling its beginning,
a favorite closure for Fine.
–Marilyn Bachelder, “Women in Music
Composition: Ruth Crawford-Seeger, Peggy Glanville-Hicks,
and Vivian Fine,” Master’s thesis, Eastern
Michigan University, 1973, and Heidi Von Gunden,
The Music of Vivian Fine, Scarecrow Press,
1999