Sleep, love Sleep (2018) Mezzo-Soprano and Piano, 3'30"

​ Serenade - from Magnolia Leaves (1897) by Mary Weston Fordham (1843-1905)

 

Sleep, love sleep,
The night winds sigh,
In soft lullaby.
The Lark is at rest

With the dew on her breast.

So close those dear eyes,

That borrowed their hue

From the heavens so blue,

Sleep, love sleep.

​

Sleep, love sleep,
The pale moon looks down 

On the valleys around, 

The Glow Moth is flying, 

The South wind is sighing, 

And I am low lying, 

With lute deftly strung, 

To pour out my song, 

Sleep, love sleep. 

 

Promenade Across Existence (2017) Mezzo-Soprano and Piano, 3'

Text by Megan Kaminski 

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Here I Am (2017) Small Song Cycle for Soprano and Piano, 2'15"

​ Text by Megan Kaminski 

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Dalliance of Butterflies (2017) Tenor and Piano, 2'15"

Text by Elizabeth Schultz

​

A single monarch rises up

above the lake, pirouetting,

solo, choreography in orange

and black against fluid blue.

Conjured from air, another

appears, doubling color and 

motion, twirling, twining,

looping, turning to rhythms

from distant forests, a pas

de deux, wings fluttering,

multiplying upon the lake's

surface. Lifting together,

circling, bending, they bow

to the long journey ahead.

 

 

Wild Night (2017) Tenor and Piano, 2'15"

​ Text by Elizabeth Schultz

​

The night surged,

tormenting trees.

The lake charged,

rushing ragged.

​

Amidst such crashings,,

such heavings,.

my sleep snapped:

my halyards clanked,

my anchor dragged,

my mind unmoored.

Trees bashed in

my windows, and

the seas washed in.

​

Adrift, I imagined

hummingbirds serene

in their flickering.

Grasping at twigs, 

they concentrated 

on emerald essence.

 

Where To Start (2017) Mezzo-Soprano and Piano, 2'15"

​ Text by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg; Then It's Over

​

The blue breaks through

the setting clouds, an old fire,

while the field lays down

its colors for the night.

Sky tumbles over itself

day to night, tension to calm.

What we think happened,

and what no one but the wind saw---

all lost to the first falling star.

Nothing hurts for a moment.

Those you love shine

whether still here or long gone.

A wide darkness envelopes

the world, takes your hand,

shows you where to stop

looking and where to start.

 

Chasing Weather (2017) Soprano and Piano, 3'

​ Text by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

​

Unpredictable as love that will outlive us,

the clouds fold fast, twist themselves wide.

​

The supercell spins blades in rusty speed,

then leans to the west, sweetening its tune

by forgetting the melody. The taste of sun lingers.

​

Crows wait for the shadows the moon will throw.

Wind picks up its luggage, puts it down again

until there is nothing left to move.

​

What's gone seems gone for good no matter how often

the song returns, broken light reddening the horizon

like a heartbreak or a question we can never get over.

​

Time chases time. Dirt chases rain. Wind chases everything.

The weather finds us with ease, knowing from long ago

where we live, so why embark on the hunt for what

can never be caught? Let the dark of the dark find you.

Invite the weather in to chase its dreams inside your own.

 

The Afterlives of Trees (2017) Small Song Cycle for Tenor and Piano, 5'15"

​ Text by Wyatt Townley

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The Fountain (2017) Tenor and Piano, 4'15"

​ Text by Wyatt Townley

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The Shriek of Silence (2017) Mezzo-Soprano and Piano, 5'45"

​ Text by Thomas Hood; "Silence"

​

There is a silence where hath been no sound,,

There is a silence where no sound may be,

In the cold grave --- under the deep, deep sea,

Or in wide desert where no life is found,

Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound;

No voice is hush'd --- no life treads silently,

But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free,

That never spoke, over the idle ground:

But in green ruins, in the desolate walls

Of antique palaces, where Man hath been,

Through the dun fox or wild hyæna calls,

And owls, that flit continually between,

Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan---

There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone.

 

 

Between Kiss and Kiss (2016) Song Cycle for Tenor and Piano, 15'30"

​ This song cycle entitled, Between Kiss and Kiss, contains six movements with poetry by James Joyce from his book Chamber Music (1909). All of the poems share the common aspect of love. Each movement plays to the different complexities that love encompasses. This cycle is meant to depict the arch of a day. It begins with “Dawn Prevails” which gives the imagery of the sun rising. While the last movement, “Summer Lullaby”, deals with the end of the day as the poet asks his lover to sleep peacefully. The entire cycle can also be imagined as a transformation of a relationship, whether romantic or platonic. 

​

Movement I: Dawn Prevails

From dewy dreams, my soul, arise,

From love’s deep slumber and from death,

For lo! the tress are full of sighs 

Whose leaves the morn admonisheth.

 

Eastward the gradual dawn prevails

Where softly-burning fires appear,

Making to tremble all those veils

 

Of grey and golden gossamer.

While sweetly, gently, secretly,

The flowery bells of morn are stirred

And the wise choirs of faery

Begin (innumerous!) to be heard.

 

Movement II: I Hear Them

All day I hear the noise of waters

Making moan,

Sad as the sea-bird is when, going

Forth alone,

He hears the winds cry to the water’s

Monotone.

 

The grey winds, the cold winds are blowing

Where I go. 

I hear the noise of many waters 

Far below.

All day, all night, I hear the flowing

To and fro.

 

Movement III: In Time Gone By

Love came to us in time gone by

When one at twilight sly played

And one in fear was standing nigh —

For Love at first is all afraid.

 

We were grave lovers. Love is past

That had his sweet hour many a one;

Welcome to us now at the last

The ways that we shall go upon.

 

Movement IV: Rain Has Fallen

Rain has fallen all the day.

O come among the laden trees:

The leaves lie thick upon the way

Of memories.

 

Staying a little by the way 

Of memories shall we depart.

Come, my beloved, where I may

Speak to your heart.

 

Movement V: All My Riches, All My Happiness

This heart that flutters near my heart

My hope and all my riches is,

Unhappy when we draw apart

And happy between kiss and kiss:

My hope and all my riches — yes! —

And all my happiness.

 

For there, as in some mossy nest

The wrens will divers treasures keep,

I laid those treasures I possessed 

Ere that mine eyes had learned to weep.

Shall we not be as wise as they

Though love live but a day?

 

Movement VI: Summer Lullaby

Sleep now, O sleep now,

O you unquiet heart!

A voice crying “Sleep now”

Is heard in my heart.

 

The voice of the winter 

Is heard at the door.

O sleep, for the winter

Is crying “Sleep no more.”

 

My kiss with give peace now

And quiet to your heart —

Sleep on in peace now,

O you unquiet heart!