Five Weather Reports

Text and concert notes:

• Cloudy, freezing in the outskirts, cold tonight, colder tomorrow, warming Thursday and Friday, cooling off by Saturday, sleet by Sunday, double suns on Monday, and so on, according to the everyday charts, indicating a possible trend — warm, cool, cooler, etcetera, chance of light-to-heavy blister snow, prob- able drizzle washing out the artificial month, gas breaks at Amarillo, Great Chicago, and Texaco City, no moons tonight, shelter animals if necessary, please stay tuned…
• Possible dry storms in the bottoms area, reports not confirmed, estimates of high winds, gauzemen working overshifts, nothing official, stay tuned, remain calm…
• Roving chuff clouds, floxiness hovering above L.A. unpredictable, nothing verified, minimum forecast, probable extensive sunsout, birdfall index high per hundredcount, earlier reports not reliable, premature, lofty hopes for a sunsy weekout, otherwise rain and sleet.
• The wind fence is near completion along the coastal swamps, wind speed down, temperature de-emphasized until same time tomorrow and Sunsday, birdfall seasonal to normal… … Snowslides at Modessa, blowing flox in Great Chicago metro area, enclose the animals…no fishing in the water tubs…possible flooding on the River Odorous… … Seven oval spheres in Scorpio according to the charts, probable deadly Friday, chance of a two-Tuesday mock week, brackish drizzles in the midlands, lozenges melting in the drugstores.
• Two suns cooling at the horizon, restless moons, animals should be sheltered, travelers are warned, all craft should return to port, possible flood on The Jelly, toxic snakes in the treetops, the wind alive again, temperatures will…

About Five Weather Reports:

Five Weather Reports was written for the TAK ensemble in the Winter of 2014 and was developed from an earlier composition for solo soprano and electronics of the same name. The text set in this piece comes from excerpts of David Ohle’s 1974 science-fiction novel Motorman.

Five Weather Reports consists of five songs that set bizarre and absurd weather reports that are heard over the radio by the Ohle’s protagonist, Moldenke. Although the book was published many decades ago, these excerpts take on an intensified contemporary environmental and societal meaning.

One of the key themes from the novel is the deterioration of the Moldenke’s health. Moldenke’s supposed friend, doctor Burnheart, has installed booster hearts to help Moldenke with one of his weak heart. Six sheep’s hearts surgery was a success, as they “help the big one along.” However, there is a caveat: when one heart stops, they all do, and when Moldenke is under duress, the hearts react erratically.

Text set with the permission of the author, David Ohle.