Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-1993

Abstract

SPIRITS is a work about infamous Hoosiers, commissioned by the Indiana State Orchestra Consortium (16 orchestras) BEN BOHNOMMES ROUGE is the surreal fusion of two distinctive - but strange bedfellow - Indiana characters: Gen. Lew Wallce (a military hawk, and author of "Ben Hur") and the eccentric imagist poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972) who taught for one semester at Wabash College before being fired (1914) for smoking, and sleeping with the chambermaid. The piece begins with a brief quote from the epic Miklos Rozsa score for the sword and sandal classic, BEN-HUR (1959, starring Charlton Heston), but quickly dissolves and collapses into a surreal, poetic and smokey - yet nostalgic - 1914 dream state. "Ben Bonhommes Rouge" was the brand of imported French cigarettes Ezra Pound favoured. Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

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Copyright © Michael Schelle, all rights reserved.

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