Patterns Barry D. Truax

This work presents Amy Lowell’s much anthologized poem “Patterns” in a live, theatrical performance surrounded by a soundscape created from a reading of the poem by Diana McIntosh and various Victorian sounds such as a ticking, chiming clock, spinning wheel, birdsong and a stream. Lowell (1874-1925), a descendant of a distinguished New England family, professed no great love for the “new woman”, but in this poem the suffocating patterns of conventional femininity are symbolized by the stiff brocaded dress the speaker longs to throw aside.

  • Year of composition: 1996
  • Genre: Electroacoustics
  • Format: Fixed media
  • Instrumentation: female speaker and 2 soundtracks
  • Software used: PODX system for sound synthesis and composition
  • Duration of the submitted work: 6:00
  • Publisher: Cambridge Street Publishing
  • Premiere: February 20, 1996, Winnipeg, Art Gallery, Groundswell concert
  • Disc publication: Patterns is available on the Cambridge Street Records CD Twin Souls, CSR-CD 0102 performed by Diana McIntosh

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