"White Lilies" - A New Mini-Ballet for Vocalist and Orchestra [Forthcoming]
( Image Credit: Square version of the original artwork "Brunswick Beach" by Heather Divoky. Used with permission.)
composition INFORMATION
“White Lilies” is an eleven-minute ballet-intended composition for vocalist and orchestra by composer Mary Bichner. The piece is a brand new musical setting of the 17th-century Scottish poem “James Harris/The Daemon Lover”, which tells the story of a married woman who is visited by her long lost love, whom she thought had died at sea.
The lyrics to the work are a composite of the eight versions of the poem found in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child [1825-1896], with a few lyrical variations and re-wordings added in by the composer to preserve the newly-created melody line and structure.
Singularly, Mary has composed “White Lilies” largely — but not entirely — in the Locrian mode, a dissonant modal scale rarely used in Western music due to its instability. The Locrian mode’s mysterious and unsettling energy lends itself perfectly to the historical poem’s haunting tale.
A piano-and-vocal version of “White Lilies” was composed during November and December of 2023, and premiered at The Lilypad in Cambridge, MA, USA on June 23rd 2024. Mary created the orchestral version of "White Lilies" during September-December of 2024, and it was premiered by The Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra during their "You've Got Mail!: Musical Love Letters" program at the Barbara B. Mann Performance Hall in Fort Myers, FL, USA on February 14th 2025.
While all performances of the work have so far been music-only presentations; a ballet version of "White Lilies", featuring two dancers representing the story's two main characters, is anticipated for the future.
MARY DISCUSSES mini-ballet "WHITE LILIES" ON NPR'S "THREE SONG STORIES" WITH MIKE KINIRY (EXCERPT):
Performance history
*April 11th 2025 at the Boston Athenaeum of Boston, MA, USA (Piano-and-Vocal Version)
*February 14th 2025 at the Barbara B. Mann Performance Hall of Fort Myers, FL, USA with the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra (Orchestral-and-Vocal-Version World Premiere)
*June 23rd 2024 at The Lilypad of Cambridge, MA, USA (Piano-and-Vocal Version World Premiere)
Contact INformation
Currently available to book. For inquires about "White Lilies", and/or to request a demo recording of either the piano-and-vocal version or the orchestra-and-vocal version, please contact the composer at:
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