by Robert Stewart

    There was some serendipitous convergence present in the creation of So This Is Nebraska, a piece for choir, flute and clarinet, also a lot of hard work and more than two decades worth of time.
     A meeting of the muses, and a combination of the minds, of a Seward County choir, composer and poet have led to the completion of the piece and it will soon be performed in Seward.
     So This Is Nebraska was written by U.S. poet laureate Ted Kooser of Garland and included in his book Sure Signs, a poetry collection published in 1980.
     Concordia University professor and a cappella choir director Kurt von Kampen was looking for a piece of music for the choir to perform at North Central Division–American Choral Directors Association (NCACDA) annual convention to be held in Omaha beginning on Wednesday, March 1. He also wanted to work with fellow CU professor and composer Jeffrey Blersch.
     "If by some stroke of luck we get accepted, we'd like to have you do something," von Kampen told Blersch.
     Choirs must be invited to perform at the convention which is held every three years, and competition can be somewhat fierce, according to von Kampen.
     "North Central is considered one of the really strong conferences. There's a lot of really great choirs in this conference," he said. "You're singing for the choral professional world basically."
     Von Kampen sent a tape of a CU a cappella performance to the NCACDA and the choir was selected to perform. Blersch now needed to create a piece for the choir.
     While discussing the project one day, Blersch had an idea.
     "Jeff said, 'How about if we do a Kooser poem?'" von Kampen recalled.
     The two went to Chapters Bookstore in Seward and asked proprietor Carla Ketner to recommend a Kooser book. Sure Signs was one of the books they got and So This Is Nebraska was one of the first poems they turned to.
     "We almost just opened up to this poem," von Kampen said.
     Von Kampen then called Kooser to get his permission to use the poem.
     "I called him up and said, 'We have this poem, we want to do a setting of it, can we have your blessing for it?'" von Kampen said.
     Kooser granted permission for the poem to be used and Blersch got to work setting it to music.
     Kooser said he has had other poems set to music, but they were primarily solo settings. This was one of the first choral settings of a poem he has written. He said he has mostly enjoyed the experience in previous encounters.
     "When it goes well it's been quite a good experience," he said.
     Blersch faced some challenges in adapting the poem. The rhythm of poetry does not always adhere to the rhythm of music and it was his first experience working with secular material. He primarily works with choral and organ music.
     "This was the first piece of non-church music that I had written," he said. "The challenge was to figure out how the piece could be done musically."
     He focused on ways to utilize the choir's strengths in the composition and used the imagery in the poem as a way to approach the music.
     "One of the things that struck Kurt and I first about this poem is the tremendous amount of imagery throughout," Blersch said. "To me that's the really interesting thing about music is how the sound images can reinforce the images found in the poetry."
     Von Kampen said concrete examples of this can be found in the choir's performance of the piece.
     "When we sing the word 'waiting' we're holding the note really long. It fits great," he said.
     Listeners will also be able to pick up a staccato rhythm in the music to match the rhythm and imagery of the line "clucking with chickens or sticky with honey" from the poem.
     Kooser acknowledged the difficulty in taking something that is written for a different kind of performance, reading, and adapting it to be sung.
     "(When writing) you think of how it will sound read aloud," he said. "But poems are not designed according to scales on a bar."
     Blersch said it took about two months to complete the first draft of the piece. He turned it over to von Kampen who made some comments and suggestions, but von Kampen said the piece emerged almost fully-formed from the first draft.
     "The first thing he wrote is very close to what we're doing," he said. "The changes we made have been very minor."
     Both Blersch and von Kampen said having the choir and composer working so closely together was a great aid in fine-tuning the piece.
     "It was nice to have the composer right here," von Kampen said.
     "It's really a neat process to hear the choir right there," Blersch said.
     Von Kampen said he invited Kooser to rehearsals of the piece, but scheduling conflicts have kept him from hearing it yet.
     Those who have heard it or sung it and have a connection to Nebraska have been moved by the setting and the poem, von Kampen said.
     "I think only about 20 percent of the students in the choir are from Nebraska, but they've come up to me and it's so emotional for them to be singing about their home," he said. "Kooser has truly tried to capture the essence of Nebraska in this poem."
     The choir's first performance of the piece will be at the NCACDA convention in Omaha at the Holland Performing Arts Center on Saturday, March 4, at 9:45 a.m.
     Kooser will be present to give a brief introduction to the poem and to hear the setting for the first time. He said he is looking forward to the experience.
     "It's an honor to have your words dressed up like that," he said.
     Blersch said he will be on hand for the performance and is eager to see the piece in concert.
     "I wouldn't miss it. I'm really excited about it," he said. "It's a tremendous honor for me to have one of my pieces sung at the convention."
     After their morning performance the choir will take So This Is Nebraska, and their entire concert repertoire on the road for a nine-day tour of the U.S., beginning at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan., the evening of March 4.
     "It will be interesting to see what people think of it," von Kampen said.
     He will provide a brief introduction of the song while on tour outside of Nebraska to give the audience the background of the poem, but he said audiences with no Nebraska connection should have no trouble enjoying the piece.
     "It's a great poem regardless," he said.
     The choir will be back in Seward and performing the piece on Saturday, March 18, giving a home concert at 7:30 p.m. at St. John Lutheran Church.