Program Notes

The Recitation was written for the 2020 Music at the Anthology Jr. (MATA Jr.) Festival in New York City, New York.

The piece is directly inspired by Thomas Wilmer Dewing’s 1891 painting of the same name. The painting depicts two young women standing on what at first glance appears to be and endless horizon of ocean but is actually a room to which they are confined. At the turn of the 20th century, upper class socialites were often diagnosed with “neurasthenia”, an ill-defined mental health disease characterized by fatigue, depression, anxiety, and more. Neurasthenia was generally attributed to the overwhelming weight of modern industrial society. Men who were diagnosed with the disease received the “West cure”, where they were sent to the American frontier to engage in outdoor and athletic activities. Alternatively, women were prescribed “rest cures”, where they were confined to their homes to “clear their heads”. In the process, these women lost any social mobility, often were not allowed to engage in intellectual activities like reading, and sat quietly in the presence of their thoughts. Neurasthenia was used as a tool for female oppression.

I have interpreted that the two women in the painting are experiencing the turmoil of neurasthenia remedies and their side effects. The drowsy seascape Dewing creates inspired me to begin the piece with slow, blurry tones defined by senza vibrato double stops that emulate the blankness of mind in the heads of the women. The sudden shift to a crisper, more tenacious tone characterized by spiccato reflects the desire the diagnosed women had to return to their lives and their frustration with the confinement. The col legno section provides a feeling similar to the beginning while still connected to the previous section, reflecting the struggle of staying afloat while being held under water. That theme carries directly into the next section, which emulates the sensation of mental drowning and its hopelessness through the downwards shifting chromatic chords. Next, the music is completely submerged and breathless, referencing the darkest depths of the diagnosis. I wanted to give these two women the “happy ending” they may not have received in reality, so the music builds in ascension through upwards chromatic chords with an abrupt unison ending, expressing that the women saved each other from drowning, risking their final breaths.