Euclid Avenue Songs, for SATB chorus, contains settings of three texts by three different authors, and while each pertains in some way to the history of Cleveland, Ohio (my hometown)—specifically to its most famous street—the three texts tell a story that will resonate in many an American city.
The text of the first movement, “Millionaire’s Row,” was penned by Mark Twain following his visit to Cleveland in the 1860s, when Euclid Avenue was indeed one of the country’s ritziest places to live. The music evokes both old-time Americana and the sarcasm of Twain’s text.
The second movement, “The Blizzard,” takes its text from an interview given by Helen Keller in 1913, after she spent three days snowed in at the Statler Hotel (a building, later converted to apartments, which would be my home for several years). The music imagines the event from Keller’s utterly unique perspective—despite the historic level of destruction wrought by the storm, she found profound joy in the experience.
The final movement, “Euclid Avenue,” contains an excerpt from a poem by Hart Crane, a native Clevelander. Though the text is fairly abstract, it hints at the coming decay of Euclid Avenue’s grand reputation. The music changes styles several times, mirroring the disjointedness of the poem. It also contains a couple of brief but unmistakable allusions, meant to symbolize an important chapter of my life which also took place on Euclid Avenue: my tenure as a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus.
Euclid Avenue Songs was written in 2010, and heavily revised in 2012. It was premiered in 2012 by a chorus comprised of members of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and the Cleveland State University Chorale.
Recording: The Cleveland Chamber Choir; Scott MacPherson, conductor (Shaker Heights, Ohio, 2015)
I. Millionaire’s Row
Mark Twain (1835–1910), from a letter dated November 15, 1868
“Cleveland contains one of the finest streets in America—Euclid Avenue. Euclid is buried at one end of it—the old original Euclid that invented the algebra, misfortune overtake him! It is devoted to dwelling-houses entirely, and it costs you $100,000 to ‘come in.’ Therefore none of your poor white trash can live in that street. You have to be redolent of that odor of sanctity which comes with cash.”
II. The Blizzard
Helen Keller (1880–1968), from an interview given November 1913
“I am stirred to the depth of my being by the storm, and my body, mind and soul are better for this great experience—the greatest of its kind in my life. Few times in my life has it been given me to feel sensations akin to those I have experienced as a captive of the blizzard in Cleveland during Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
“I knew it was storming before I was told. The rooms [in the Statler Hotel], the corridors, everywhere within the building, vibrated with the power of the storm without—when I knew it was storming as it never had before in this part of the world, I wished to rush out and throw myself into the snow and ride upon the tempest. … I put my hands in the snow on the window sill. It was softer than the softest down. I made a ball of it and pressed it to my cheek. I drank deep of its odor, for it has an odor soft and sweet as the daintiest perfume.”
III. Euclid Avenue
Hart Crane (1899–1932), excerpt from the poem “Euclid Avenue”
My friends, I never thought we’d fail.
That dirty peacock’s pride, once gory God’s own story:
It didn’t belong no more; no, never did glory
Walk on Euclid Avenue, as didn’t Wm.
Bleached or blacked, whichever ’twas. What milk
We’ve put in blasted pigs! I says…O, well—
But I say, what a swell chance, boys. No more
Cancers, jealousy, tenements or giblets! Death, my boys,
Nor blinkers either—
Four shots at who-knows-how—
Many-it-was unsupervised
Grabbed right outa my mouth that final chew—
Right there on Euclid Avenue.
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