Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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Punch, Brothers, Punch - (2008)
Mark Twain
for low or medium voice and piano
VERSE Conductor, when you receive a fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
A blue trip slip for an eight-cent fare,
A buff trip slip for a six-cent fare,
A pink trip slip for a three-cent fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
CHORUS Punch, brothers! punch with care!
Punch in the presence of the passenjare![ 4 pages, circa 1' 30" ]
Mark Twain
From the story of the same name, Twain tells of the verse which one cannot get out of one's head. "Passenjare" is a dialect written out for "passenger." Punching or validating a ticket with a hole punch is still practiced on railroads. When I came across this in reading Twain, I found the text most amusing for its faux-teamsters tone and the kind of instruction once given to conductors as employees of a transit company.
tessitura for low or medium voices
The fact that Twain had noted a "chorus" and the several lines for different colored tickets representing different ticket prices, I thought to break apart these lines and make the form an additive song style. The simple parallel descending chords are lightly spiced with the diatonic seventh added throughout as a lowest voice. The repetitive chords, such as at measures 12-13 refer in part to the clattering as a rail car might cross welds in iron rails. The first "verse" only mentions the "blue trip slip."
A second verse adds the "buff trip slip" before the chorus.
A final statement after a third verse and chorus adds all the fares together again in order as Twain noted them, as part of a coda for this amusing setting.
The score for Punch, Brothers, Punch is available for low and medium voices as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this piano-vocal score.
