PROGRAM NOTE:
Jabberwocky began as an exploration of Lewis Carroll’s magical nonsense text. While this poem is still clearly a story to be told, the words themselves led me to explore new vocal sounds. My version of this piece stems more from improvisational theater than from a traditional musical setting of the text. Originally, I experimented with the poem acappella, until I had a shape and a sense of how to tell the story. Then I added a percussionist - resulting in a structured improvisation. I later incorporated Jabberwocky into my chamber opera, Wonderglass, a dream-like journey through the world of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice” stories.

In performances of Jabberwocky, the visual focus is on my mouth and hands. By isolating the audience’s “exterior” visual dimension, this frees the audience to explore their own “interior” visual interpretation and allows each individual imagination the space in which to complete its own pictures. Jabberwocky was premiered at the Seattle Festival for Contemporary Music in 1990 with percussionist, Paul Guerguerian. It is included in my recording, listen, it’s snowing (CRI/New World).
- Susan Botti

"…Botti's composition 'Jabberwocky' effectively turned Lewis Carroll's satirical poem into
a shockingly expressionistic musical narration of decapitation and gore;
her voice ranged from singsong whispers to ghoulish shrieks." 
   -- Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times