OUROBOROS

for solo soprano, two high voices, electric guitar, violin, cello + media; ~22min written for Beth Morrison Projects with poetry by Laura Henriksen & Yaz Lancaster (2022)

The ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a snake eating its own tail. It's often used to symbolize the cyclicality of life and death. When I was a child, I witnessed the beheading of a snake with a large knife outside of my grandparents' home in South Carolina by a neighboring elder. Following this experience, I had a recurring dream for many years of my own beheading– either as myself, or as the snake.

Setting poetry written by both Laura Henriksen (author of October Poems and Help Me I Am In Hell) and myself, this song cycle is centered on the reccurent nature of terror(s) and trauma. I was interested in exploring the ways things can haunt us– whether as rational or irrational fears, ghosts, memories, or even love. On a secondary level, each song of OUROBOROS is self-referencial to various treatments of sound in visual horror experiences; examining the ways in which sonic qualities can cause dread or anxiety, or create ominous, foreboding atmospheres. Horror as a genre is both an invaluable archival resource (as it reflects the fears or sociopolitical issues of regions, time periods, and generations); and a cyclical force as there are things that in some way, always in some way evoke fear.

The song cycle begins with the retelling of my nightmare in A True Story. It then moves through narratives brought forth by Henriksen's poetry in Vampire and Black Dog/Help Me, where the "Final Girl" (portrayed by Eliza Bagg) is cursed by love, then memories and a hostile society. By the interlude Over, the Final Girl has given in; and is fully possessed by her haunting in Chimera. OUROBOROS comes to an unearthly and desolate conclusion with the Final Girl singing "It was the absolute end" in I Am in Hell, and uttering her last breath in Weeds.

Premiere: Eliza Bagg (Final Girl/solo voice), Sonya Headlam (voice II), Heather Jones (voice III), Andrew Noseworthy (electric guitar), Doori Na (violin), Laura Metcalf (cello), with Brandon Kazen-Maddox (ASL artist/interpreter)

Beth Morrison (Creative Producer), Dani Joseph (Associate Producer), Mandy Ringger (Lighting Designer), Orlando Alvarado (Sound Engineer), Jeff Davolt (Stage Manager)

World premiere 10/28-29/22 @ Harlem Stage (NYC)