“En Route” sets my adaptations of three poems by Blaise Cendrars.  The piano part is based on 4-pitch diatonic chords, which are manipulated in various ways.  In this first one, chance procedures determined the direction, duration, and key of each arpeggio.  The violin and voice parts were written over that, using the three pitches left over from each chord.

The second uses treble piano chords and violin harmonics; the third is a canon between voice and violin, with large seven-pitch chords played on the piano with a board studded with push-pins.

The texts:

1.
Everyone talks about sunsets
Travelers always talk about the sunsets here
There are lots of books that just describe the sunsets
The sunsets of the tropics
Yes it’s true they’re splendid
But I much prefer the sunrise
The dawn
I don’t miss a single one
I’m always on deck naked
And I’m always the only one to admire them
But I’m not going to describe the sunrises
I’m going to keep them for myself

2.
The sea is still sea-blue
The weather is still the finest weather I’ve ever known at sea
The crossing is still the calmest and most uneventful that one could imagine

3.
We don’t want to be sad
It’s too simple
It’s too dumb
It’s too convenient
There are too many reasons for it
It’s so easy
Everybody’s sad
We don’t want to be sad anymore