Miranda is a signing chimpanzee James Merrill meets early on in his visionary trilogy, The Changing Light at Sandover.
Miranda’s Kiss is both a programmatic piece describing their meeting (Miranda’s exuberant but hesitant approach, and their kiss, which like most first kisses, wavers between concentrating on the experience itself and one’s excitedly nervous awareness: Yes! I am (finally) kissing her!) and also an evocation of Merrill’s merging of two worlds:
Between one floating realm unseen powers rule
(Rod upon mild silver rod, like meter
Broken in fleet cahoots with subject matter)
And one we feel is ours, and call the real,
The flat distinction of Miranda’s kiss
Floods both. No longer, as in bad old pre-
Ephraim days, do I naively pray
For the remission of their synthesis.
Miranda’s Kiss was written for and premiered by Tony de Mare. It was begun at the Leighton Artist Colony in Banff, Alberta and completed in New York City.
Miranda’s Kiss is part of my ongoing project, A Book of Days. You can listen to Barry Salwen’s live recording of the piece by visiting April 1st.
Here is a score of the piece in pdf format. It’s on my list to make a computer-engraved copy of this autograph score. If it will make it easier for you to program the piece, do let me know, and I’ll make the time to do it soon.
And you are warmly invited to support this very low-key way of publishing: