The Dong With A Luminous Nose

ENS.2007.2 | 12′
Text by Edward Gorey
Voice & Piano 4-Hands

Score

The Dong With A Luminous Nose


The Music of the Spheres was a weird piece from 2007 setting four rhyming, metered narrative poems from the nineteenth century for voice with synths and drums or electronics. I ahd wanted to emphasize the similarities between contemporary popular music and earlier centuries’ romantic ballads, but never felt satisfied with the several versions I had made of the original score.

Of the original four movements, the first and most substantial, a setting of Edward Lear’s darkling nonsense poem The Dong With A Luminous Nose, was by far my favorite, and I wanted to make a transcription for acoustic instruments that would nevertheless retain the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic flavor of the original. This version for voice with piano four-hands is the result. Hopefully it’s as much fun to listen to as it was to write.