Wisconsin native Erika Svanoe (b. 1976) is a conductor and composer with several engaging and eclectic works to her name. Her piece The Haunted Carousel won the NBA Young Band Composition Contest in 2014, and her Steampunk Suite for band has appeared everywhere from Wisconsin Public Radio to the American Bandmasters Association conference. After undergraduate studies in Music Education and clarinet at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, she studied conducting at Oklahoma State University and The Ohio State University. After a spell conducting the Augsburg University Wind Symphony in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she is now a full-time comoposer. She is also an avid gamer and game designer. Learn more about her at her website and Board Game Geek. She has also been interviewed by her alma mater.
Svanoe originally wrote Mary Shelley Meets Frankenstein: A Modern Promethean Tango for a saxophone quartet in 2015. A concert band version followed in 2019 on a commission from Andrew Boysen, Jr., and the University of New Hampshire Wind Symphony. A third version for flexible ensemble (the “Frankensteined” Edition) followed in 2020. Svanoe provides written program notes (see below), but really sells the piece in this 1-minute introductory video:
Here are the program notes, excerpted from the flex edition score:
Knowledge is knowing that Frankenstein is not the monster. Wisdom is knowing that the monster is Frankenstein.
Mary Shelley Meets Frankenstein: A Modern Promethean Tango imagines a scenario where the young author meets her own creation, the monster brought to life whom we colloquially refer to as “Frankenstein.” In her novel, the creature is quite sympathetic. He tries to learn from the world around him and find human connection. Victor Frankenstein, the creature’s creator, is horrified and disgusted by the creature and rejects him. Victor ultimately shuns his responsibility as the creature’s father and leaves him to fend for himself, with dire consequences.
I imagine if Mary Shelley were to actually meet her monster, as the creature’s creator she would be quite conflicted. In the novel, the monster is sympathetic and craves human connection. As his creator she is responsible for teaching the creature what it is to be human, but I imagine the horror in seeing her creation brought to life would overwhelm her sympathy. They meet, circling each other in a dance reflective of a tango.
May, the author/creator, is depicted initially by the clarinet, which is the composer’s primary instrument. Frankenstein’s theme is first presented by the baritone saxophone, a half-woodwind, half-brass behemoth of the wind band. Mary is initially curious and sympathetic, while creature pleads for compassion. In that moment when the two come together (quite literally on a unison middle C), Mary’s sympathy is overwhelmed by horror and she begins to panic, while the creature becomes furious with her rejection. With the final notes, we are left asking ourselves once again–who is the real monster?
Check out the flex version:
And the concert band version:
And the original sax quartet: