American Waters

Lisa Neher

Unaccompanied Voice
8 minutes
2014
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Performance Instructions: Text:

My Bonnie
Away you rolling river
I cannot cross
Build me a boat
I cannot cross o're you rolling river
Down by the river
Down the sea
Over
Away
I'm bound away
Bound gently down
Across
Over the ocean

Are you performing my music? Yay!

Please let me know: lisanehermusic@gmail.com
That way I can get performance royalties from ASCAP!
Thanks!

Recordings of this piece are available on my website:

www.lisanehermusic.com

or on SoundCloud:
www.soundcloud.com/lisa-neher

Questions? Just email me!

Program Note:

American Waters explores bodies of water as literal and metaphorical barriers between us and the places
and people we know and love. As a nation of immigrants, our histories are rich with stories of family
coming to the United States across oceans or traveling from one side of this continent to another. My
great-grandparents emigrated to the U.S. from Ireland, leaving family and friends behind, and my own
career has taken me to regions far from my native waters of Puget Sound. This piece digs into the
emotional toll of these moves through the lens of water.

I created the text for this piece by stitching together fragments of folk songs from the U.S. and the
United Kingdom. These fragments are like hints of memories from the past which are reinvented with
new melodic lines. Whispered sounds emulate the noises of splashing surf and crashing waves.

“American Waters” was born out of a music and film course I took in graduate school. The original version
was composed to accompany a montage of early black and white footage of rivers, waterfalls, and ocean
surf from the Library of Congress. Later I expanded the piece to exist on its own. Please contact me if you
are interested in performing the version with video.
 3

Vocal Music by Lisa Neher

American Waters
Unaccompanied Voice (high and low keys available), 6 minutes

Goddess Cycle
Mezzo-Soprano, Clarinet or Flute and Piano, 10 minutes

Listen to All Things Burning

Mezzo-Soprano and Alto Flute, 6 minutes

Snapshots
Song Cycle for Voice (high, medium, and low keys available) and Piano, 6 minutes

Stranger, You Delighted Me: 5 Animal Songs

Song Cycle for Medium Voice and Piano or Harp, 20 minutes

White Horizon
Chamber Opera for Tenor, Baritone, and Chamber Ensemble, 22 minutes

About the Composer:

Composer and mezzo-soprano Lisa Neher (b. 1985) writes theatrical, story-driven music for instruments
and voices. Trained as a stage actress, her compositions are shaped by her keen sense of dramatic timing
and feature aching, lyrical phrases, energetic rhythmic motives, and intense harmonies. Lisa’s particular
passion for text and poetry has led to works such as her chamber opera White Horizon, about a nineteenth-
century Arctic expedition gone wrong, and her song cycle Snapshots, which she performed at the Cortona
Sessions for New Music in Italy. She draws inspiration for her instrumental works from the natural world,
evoking the joyous bubbling of streams, the delicacy of sprouting plants, and the eerie mystery of deep
ocean life with evocative timbres.

Born just south of Seattle, Lisa is an outdoor enthusiast and triathlete. She spends her free time distance
running, watching science fiction movies, and baking delicious treats involving copious amounts of
chocolate.

Get in touch with Lisa!

Email: lisanehermusic@gmail.com
Web: www.lisanehermusic.com
Facebook: @LisaNeherMusic
Twitter: @LisaNeher
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/lisa-neher
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American Waters
Fragments of Traditional Folk Songs Lisa Neher (ASCAP)

q = 60 (approximate) Very free, but don't drag

  
wave sounds crashing on a beach



 
  
p n p n mp sfz n pp n

   
     
Voice

sh sh - u sh - pl - sh sh
[ʃ] [ ʃ - u] [ ʃ - pl - ʃ ]
Slightly stricter time

distant

   
n mp sfz n p mf n
  
5

   
p n mp
      

sh - oo - mm mm sh - pl - sh mm
[ ʃ - u - m] [m]

 
p with a sense of loss mp mf p mf

                
9
         
3 3

   
mm My Bon - nie A - way a - way, you rol - ling rol - ling
a haunting echo
mf p

    
p
  pp
13

       
3 3

    
3 3

    
      
ri - ver! Ah mm
poco
q = 76, Urgent

  
  pp sfz
  
 
 
p n p sfz n n mf

16

        

sh sh - pl - sh sh - pl - sh I can - not cross
mournfully empasize [k] sound in "cannot" and "cross"


p pp mf

      
20
pp
p mp 3
 
port. 3

     
 
       
sh I can - not I can - not cross, my Bon - nie. Build me a

with increasing need dramatic breath!

 
 

24 mf f mf cresc. poco a poco
 3 
          
3
 
           
boat, my Bon - nie, build me build me a boat, build me a boat, buildme I can - not cross

Copyright © 2014 by Lisa Neher (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.Composer must be informed of all performances. Are you performing my music?
Yay! Please let me know: lisanehermusic@gmail.com. That way I can get performance royalties from ASCAP! Thanks!
 dramatic
dramatic
slide 5

                
breath! f
 
f
      
28 3

    
3
I can - not cross o're you rol - ling ri - ver, down by the ri - ver down the stream.
unraveling
32 mf
 mp pp  n pp n

    
3 3

           
Down down o - ver a - way a - way a - way
lyrical, warm

   

35 p mp p mf mp


   
3

        
sh a - way sh a - way I'm bound a-

 port.
     
p mp sfz p mp
    
40 folk-like
port.

 
    
  
way sh - plu - sh I'm bound gent - ly down a-

       
not too loud mf
44 p mp
           
      
3 3
cross o - ver, my Bon - nie, bound down Ah Ah

48 mf mp accel. poco a poco

   
mp

        
       
         
bound bound a - way bound a - way Ah A - way a - way
accel. rit.
ff


cresc. poco a poco

         
molto espressivo, passionate

       
52
 
        
     
quick breath
a - way a - way bound a - way a - way Ah keep momentum
going!
slide from high to low- A little more rhythmic
pitched whisper


q = 60 (approximate), extremely free simple, completely alone


sfz ff p p mp p

    
 
55 n sfz n

    
   
3
    
sh sh - u sh - pl - sh O - ver the o - cean
rearticulate Very free Repeat final bar a few more
the "mm" distant times if desired.
 pp p n p n pp p
59 n

       
 
 
 
 
 
3

   
I can - not cross. Mm. sh - pl - sh sh - u sh - pl - sh