Beth Anderson

Comment

Year: 2003

Duration (in minutes): 3 minutes

Difficulty: High (professional)

Category: solo woodwind instrument

Instruments: flute

Publisher: Self-Produced

Description: COMMENT is a series of variations on a theme derived from setting the words to Dorothy Parker’s four line poem, of the same name. The poem compares life to song and experiences that happen by chance, and makes fun of the idea that relationships are likely to succeed.
We are unable to reprint the poem in these notes due to copyright restrictions but the poem is available in collections and is all over the internet due to various poets’ interest.
The music begins cheerfully but very soon there is a little theme signifying that sadly, love has gone wrong (dotted half-notes a Major sixth up and then a minor second down). This is followed by a variation on the cheerful section, an older but wiser variant (with one note missing and a minor second down). Then the “love has gone wrong” theme with longer note values (in augmentation) is followed by a hyperactive variant of the lost love idea and an inverted variant because life is sometimes upside down. The “love has gone wrong” theme is now upside down, lost & depressed (Major sixth down followed by minor second up; inverted). The soloist trills and slides down to the lowest note on the flute, middle-C. There is a manic variant with lots of running around followed by an introspective variant with longer note values. The next one is a variant entitled “tensely cheerful despite all odds”. The last comment is “appearing calm while getting ready to be hysterical” within 6 bars of the end.
It has been recorded twice. The new one will be out on an MSR CD in 2013 entitled "The Praying Mantis and the Bluebird".