Richard pearson Thomas: Tuna Supreme!

By Sarah van der Ploeg

Photo by Natallia Nagorniak on Unsplash

Ah, the holiday season.  A time for nostalgia, music, sending cards, decorating homes with lights, and - above all - enjoying special holiday foods! Favorite recipes and treats have the power to transport us in time to our childhoods, or make us feel suddenly closer to family, friends, and loved ones we may not otherwise get to see.  Just a few nights ago, my mother and I were surprised to discover we were simultaneously making my great-grandmother’s Dutch Sinterklaas cookie recipe while halfway across the country from one another!  Whether it’s grandma’s babke, an uncle’s spiced cider, or your cousin’s famous cheesy bread, everyone has one or two special dishes that signal holiday cheer.

So, without further ado, let Fourth Coast Ensemble offer you a new recipe to add to your tradition this year: “Tuna Supreme!”

Photo: Elliot Mandel Photography

Performed by the quartet and pianist Kuang-Hao Huang in the spring of 2019, composer Richard Pearson Thomas’ humorous Fish ‘n Chicks song cycle culminates in this zany finale.  As text, Thomas sets a real recipe taken out of “Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook, 1950.”  After a dramatic piano glissando, the close vocal harmonies mimic a Hollywood trio from that era, proclaiming excitedly: “TUNA SUPREME.  A treat from the deep.  A perfectly grand dish for women’s luncheons!”  Yes, we have officially landed in 1950.

The music then flies off into the joyous “Fast swing tempo” of the recipe itself: a casserole with very specific ingredients, some of which may seem rather odd to our 21st Century gastronomic sensibilities.  But the enthusiasm is infectious: from the walking bass line in the piano, to the rhythmic tenor and bass spoken section (you’ll know it when you hear it!) under a semi-improvisatory soprano vocalism, to huge crescendos and vocal glissandos, it’s a cooking experiment in Technicolor!  And then, just when you think it’s over, Thomas reels you back in for one last dive through the animals celebrated earlier in the cycle, bringing it all to a true Hollywood finish.
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What a treat!

Author

Soprano Sarah van der Ploeg has been a member of Fourth Coast Ensemble since 2017. A lover of many musical styles, she came to classical singing from origins in musical theater and viola by way of arts policy, and still believes all of those pieces make a more perfect whole. Sarah particularly loves art song’s ability to tell a huge story in a compact, intimate, exciting package.