Sindbad

27 min.

April 5, 2005
Yale School of Music, New Haven, Connecticut
Walter Van Dyk, actor; The Peabody Trio

Commissioned for the Peabody Trio by the Commissioning Music/USA program of Meet the Composer

Donald Barthelme

I. The Beach
II. Classroom
III. Sindbad’s wives look back
IV. The Beaux-Arts Ball
V. Tennis
VI. At night
VII. Experience
VIII. Water cannon
IX. Waltzes
X. Teaching

Donald Barthelme’s short story Sindbad first appeared in The New Yorker magazine about twenty years ago. Like many of his pieces Sindbad is a postmodern fairy tale, a skeleton of traditional narrative fleshed out with recomposed characters and situations. Barthelme develops in the even-numbered sections the character of a night school teacher too timid to teach in the daytime, and in the odd-numbered sections the character of the eponymous adventurer. I chose ten of the twelve sections of the Barthelme story for recitation, and then framed eight of those ten with music. The music for Sindbad was commissioned for The Yellow Barn Music Festival, The Peabody Trio and actor Walter Van Dyk through the Commissioning Music/USA program of Meet The Composer. I began writing the music in the summer of 2003 with the support of a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and continued it during the winter of 2004-05 in Rome.

“in every possible sense, a knockout”

 
“a subtle and imaginative piece”

 
“a delightful adventure”

 
“very smart and a lot of fun”

 
“moments of surpassing beauty, moments where one is driven to stop and consider, to contemplate the play of meaning”

Read Complete Reviews of Sindbad »

• April 5, 2005: The Peabody Trio with Walter Van Dyk, narrator, Chamber Music Society at Yale, Sprague Hall, New Haven, Connecticut
• April 6, 2005: The Peabody Trio with Walter Van Dyk, narrator, Gala Music Series, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
• April 9, 2005: The Peabody Trio with Walter Van Dyk, narrator, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa
• May 27, 2005: The Peabody Trio with Walter Van Dyk, narrator, American Academy in Rome, Italy
• May 29, 2005: The Peabody Trio with Walter Van Dyk, narrator, Holywell Music Room, Oxford University, England
• July 23, 2005: The Peabody Trio with Walter Van Dyk, narrator, Yellow Barn Music Festival, Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts
• November 20, 2005: The Mannes Trio with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Mannes College of Music, New York City
• January 29, 2006: The Mannes Trio with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York
• September 17, 2006: Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble with Will LeBow, narrator, First Church, Boston, Massachusetts
• September 21, 2006: The Peabody Trio with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
• March 14, 2007: Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
• March 17, 2007: The Peabody Trio with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Market Square Concerts, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• October 8, 2007: Sequitur with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York City
• October 9, 2007: The Peabody Trio with John Shirley-Quirk, narrator, Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore
• October 10, 2007: Sequitur with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Amado Recital Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
• October 27, 2007: The Peabody Trio with John Shirley-Quirk, narrator, Music on the Edge, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• March 27, 2008: Left Coast Chamber Ensemble with Michel Taddei, narrator, 142 Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley, California
• March 31, 2008: Left Coast Chamber Ensemble with Michel Taddei, narrator, Green Room, War Memorial Performing Arts Center, San Francisco
• November 21, 2008: Steven Beck and friends with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Bargemusic, Brooklyn, New York
• November 22, 2008: Steven Beck and friends with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Bargemusic, Brooklyn, New York
• January 11, 2009: The Peabody Trio with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Alys Stephens Center, Birmingham, Alabama
• March 2, 2009: Sequitur with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York
• March 5, 2009: Sequitur with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Redhouse, Syracuse, New York
• October 18, 2009: Trio Cavatina with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Heritage Hills, Somers, New York
• January 31, 2010: Trio Cavatina with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, New York
• March 22, 2010: Meridian Phase 2 with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York City
• May 22, 2010: Aileen Chanco and friends with David Ogden Stiers, narrator, Music at the Mission, Old Mission San Jose, Fremont, California
• October 19, 2010: Cygnus Ensemble with Harold Meltzer, narrator, African Art Museum, Tenafly, New Jersey
• November 14, 2010: Cygnus Ensemble with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Christ Church, Bronxville, New York
• January 30, 2011: Sequitur with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Italian Academy, Columbia University, New York City
• February 8, 2011: Cygnus Ensemble with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Third Street Music Settlement, New York City
• July 30, 2011: Calvin Wiersma, violin, Claire Bryant, violoncello and Phillip Bush, piano with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East, Bennington, Vermont
• October 23, 2012: Sequitur with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
• February 11, 2013: Prometheus Trio with Nathan Wesselowski, narrator, Helen Bader Recital Hall, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• February 12, 2013: Prometheus Trio with Nathan Wesselowski, narrator, Helen Bader Recital Hall, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• April 21, 2013: Cygnus Ensemble with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts
• November 5, 2013: Cambridge University students with Harold Meltzer, narrator, West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge University, England
• March 7, 2014: Third Street Music School Settlement students, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York City
• May 29, 2014: Buckley Chamber Players with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
• March 1, 2015: Nadia Shpachenko and Friends, with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Sundays Live, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
• March 3, 2015: Nadia Shpachenko and Friends, with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Cal Poly Pomona, California
• September 4, 2015: Harumi Rhodes, violin, Tanya Tomkins, violoncello and Eric Zivian, piano with Harold Meltzer, narrator, Moab Music Festival, Star Hall, Moab, Utah