The J. Peterman Company Owner's Manual No. 44b

Mixed chorus, multi-clarinetist, piano; ca. 14 mins Language: English; Dedication: To the Westminster Singers, Allen Crowell, conductor *A catalog of seven musical styles setting seven clothing items: "Your 15 minutes" (Bernstein meets Ellington, SATB); "Velvet Rose Hat" (Mozart sonata, SA/SSAA); "The Sudan Club" (1930s popular music, SAATB & tenor solo); "British Unflappability" (atonal avant-garde, TTBB); "Vintage T-shirts" (1980s funk, SATB); "Pamplona" (fandango, SATB & narrator); "Clay Hill" (Copland-esque Americana, SATB). If your only acquaintance with J. Peterman is through reruns (or original broadcasts!) of Seinfeld, you've missed something. The J. Peterman Company is a direct-mail and internet retail clothier founded in 1987 by the aforesaid Mr. Peterman, and back in the day, when this music was written, the US Postal Service was delivering Peterman's quirky, oblong catalog monthly to your mailbox, with its evocative hand-painted illustrations and romantic/impressionist/surreal merchandise descriptions that very nearly made the, say, $5 handkerchief, worth the $25 they asked for it. Many of these descriptions seemed plainly obvious to me as subjects for musical text painting; I selected seven from catalog #44 (their "owner's manual") to make a small musical galleryenjoy the tour!