Six Fragments of Gertrude Stein (for Soprano and Ensemble) (1979)

Fragments
1. When I Sleep
2. What Do I See
3. A Very Valentine
4. Why Do You Feel Differently
5. A Clock in the Eye
6. He Likes

Composer note
It was a fun and pleasurable effort to go back and revisit what is essentially my Opus 1, Six Fragments of Gertrude Stein for flute and soprano from 43 years ago (1979).

It’s a work I’d always been fond of, as one of my oldest “musical children,” and to look at the musical languages in it again while changing the instrumentation to soprano saxophone, cello, accordion, and piano for Wein Modern and my longtime friend René Staar.

Just a few years before I wrote the original, I was studying the voice-leading of Hindemith and 12-tone exercises of Krenek. These seem to have rubbed off a bit.

This arrangement fit this work like a glove, and allowed me to suggest, in the largest movement, a kind of highly controlled hysteria through a 1950’s baby-Darmstadt sound (which is something I'd typically never emulate) and the influence of the revered Webern and Second Viennese School. Funny, also, that after this work I delved deeply into consonant Minimalism and begin a diverse stylistic journey which has resulted in my own personal musical voice.

But I can still see fingerprints in this work that follow me to this day…

— Aaron Jay Kernis (2022)