| Description |
"Spoonful of Honey" is about a longing for sweetness. Building on the relationship between spoken words and music, this piece also highlights the wonderful capacity of the piano to create a singing sound, even though it is a percussion instrument.
Like many other music teachers, I often make up words to music that students play in order to help them shape melodies naturally. When I composed "Spoonful of Honey", I started the other way around: by making up some new words that I thought had some musical potential. the words with which I started were: "May I please have a spoonful of honey?" The smoothness of the words in my mouth as I spoke them, along with their lilting rhythm, conjured up the image of inviting the experience of rolling honey around on my tongue, an image that somehow beckoned me towards musical expression.
I intend for this music to be accessible to early advanced students, and still be appropriate for the concert stage.
--Deborah Yardley Beers |