Three Views on Baldness
mezzo-soprano and piano
composed 2025
ca. 5½ min.
Full Text:
by Philip Venzke, “Chant to Save the World”
Three Views on Baldness
1.
My grandfather
no longer dreams of hair
no longer watches hair
Instead he watches the lawn
Each night the lawn grows
thicker and shorter
In his dreams he knows only this
he has more and more face to wash
2.
I dream of women’s hair
Hair that grows from the lawn
up to the white heads of statues
Each night the hair adds more
and more light to the moon
I watch the hair grow dark
and thick enough to bite
2.
My father dreams of hair
He watches his hair falling
onto the grass in the backyard
Each night the lawn if filled
deeper and deeper with hair
Soon he will wade across the lawn
the sea of hair parting around him
Program Note:
Three Views on Baldness is an extended metaphor traveling through three generations. Inspired by a conversation the Wisconsin poet, Philip Venzke, had with his grandfather, Three Views on Baldness engages the serious implications of aging with humor and wit, which was used to create the musical setting.
Note:
composed for the 7th annual Minneapolis songSLAM
premiered on 31 January 2025 at Icehouse MPLS
hosted by Source Song Festival and Sparks & Wiry Cries
written for Jeannette Lee and Jing-Fang Huang