A cycle of six songs on various poets, reflecting on life, death, and nature.


voice and piano / 18 min.

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Program Note

In 2010 I set a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay to music for our daughter Allegra to sing on her high school senior recital. As she continued to study voice at college and her voice blossomed, I composed more songs, consulting her on texts, eventually shaping a set of songs eclectic as to poets, but unified by themes of life and death and nature. As Allegra is not currently singing, it falls to the wonderful soprano Nina Berman to premiere the cycle in April 2018.

The songs:
Elegy Before Death (Millay) (2010)
Youth, Day, Old Age and Night (Whitman) (2010)
The Boy in the Egyptian Wing (Dan Chiasson) (2013)
There’s a Certain Slant of Light (Dickinson) (2013)
Angels of Death (Terri Kirby Erickson) (2013)
In Rain (Wendell Berry) (2014)
millaywhitman

dan-chiassondickinson terri-kirby-ericksonberry