A Dog Rag Desiderata
Commissioned by The Bach Children’s Chorus, Linda Beaupré, Artistic Director

I’m a guy who’s always had a dog. My wife says I’m part dog and it’s no coincidence that my name, “Dalglish” when spoken with the original Scottish accent and pronunciation, sounds something close to “dog leash”. Some of my favorite poetry is doggerel, the kind of poem that comes up and licks you square in the face. This song was written by a dog, and it was fun channeling my “inner dog” to write it. Among the various lessons we receive from our dog friends is the one that teaches us how to live in the moment, and how to playfully seek answers to life’s problems.

A few notes on the performance of this song. First of all it’s important to note that the dog narrator is not a small high-strung type dog, but more of an easy-going large hound. In keeping with that character, the diction should have a lazy, close-to-slobbering kind of feel. The bark should be a kind of loose jowl “woof,” rather than an overly anxious “yap.”

There are some fun staging ideas that could be brought into the performance. The lower voices could be the opening and closing barkers and the upper voices do the “Stop it” and this is the way it is written, but the director might feel the “Stop it” role comes naturally and would like to shout “Stop it” at the choir (probably not the first time). The piano interludes could inspire some fun dance moves from the choir as well. Have fun!

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