Triove: Siam Mais

Jason Andrews » Compositions » Triove: Siam Mais

Siam Mais was first preformed April 19th, 2008 at Florida Southern College’s Anne MacGregor Jenkins Recital Hall. It was performed for Phi Mu Alpha’s American Composers Recital directed by Brandon Bair. Although the recital itself was one of the most awkward recitals I’ve seen during my career at Florida Southern the performance went well. I was very pleased with both Matthew Habib, tenor and Sara Gibbs, piano performance. They were great to work with for the couple of weeks prior and really gave me an insight into writing for these particular instruments.

I started to write Triove simply because Habib asked me to write him a piece. We had shared several classes together in the past and liked each others work. After years and several projects later I finally begun to work on it. I knew I had to get some lyrics from somewhere. It just so happened that I possessed but one book of poetry: Blinking with Fists by Billy Corgan. For those of you who do not know, Billy Corgan is a famous singer/songwriter and also the lead singer and guitarist of the band the Smashing Pumpkins. This was a pretty natural choice for me for I have greatly been influenced by him and his music over the years and it was an honor to be able to incorporate his work into mine.

I am free
To give my heart freely
With no string attached
To roam, to hurt
To be devastated as I so wish
To be ravished by freedom
My youth
So bound do I knock against her cages
If she holds lock and key
I am free
To give you my heard
This notion suits me, bears wight
What is false and old is no ours to hold
We have never possessed anything true in our whole lives, except maybe each other
I see myself in you and that is a dangerous thing
But is this friendship alive?
Does it breathe when no one is listening?
Does it know when I am sleeping?
Stories can be retold
Until they are polished smooth
I give my heart to you in this story
Because my heart has no end

The title is interesting because Mais is simply Siam backwards. When I began writing this piece I took that into consideration. The piece is written in an A -B – B – A format. This means that the first melody and/or section is done once the second melody and/or section is done twice consecutively and then the first melody and/or section is repeated.