Daniel Asia
Pines Songs 15’
(fl, cl, vn, c, pn, pc)

Victor Babin
**Sun Shafts 22’
(cl doubles sop. sax), bass cl, tbn, c, pn)
"Sun Shafts" by Victor Babin is a delightful setting of ten poems by Judith Steinberg, a poet who was living in Cleveland in the early seventies when Victor Babin wrote the work. The first half is light-hearted, the second is serious. The work is attractive; the idiom is conservative. It is the last piece Babin wrote before he died. I have the score and parts. Recorded Golden Crest GCCL 202.

Robert Beaser
The Seven Deadly Sins 17’
(pn or orch)
"The Seven Deadly Sins" is an extremely powerful piece, either in the piano or orchestral version. The poems by Anthony Hecht are thorny and difficult to understand, but Beaser gets their intensity and puts it into stunning music. The songs vary in style; the second has a Ravel tinge, the third and fifth are jazzy. (Beaser was born in 1954.) Published Helicon Press (European-American). Piano version recorded by Albany Records TROY054.

*Songs from the Occasions 23’
(vn, vl, c, fl, cl, hn, pn, cond)
"Songs from the Occasions" is a setting of six poems by Eugenio Montale. Beaser sets the first and last in English, the rest in Italian. His music is tonal but the pieces are complex and anything but a return to the 19th century. The fifth song in Bflat minor invokes "Tosca", possibly because Montale was an opera critic, but none of the others carries such obvious connotations, at least not to me. The piece packs a wallop and audiences love it, unless they are died in the wool serialists. Published Helicon Press (European-American).

William Bolcom
**Open House 30’
(chamber orch)
William Bolcom's "Open House" is a setting of seven poems by Theodore Roethke with whom Bolcom had studied at the University of Washington. They trace Roethke's development from his rather fierce early poems to a kind of serenity at the end. Along the way the touch on the humor of "The Serpent" and the sensuality of "I Knew a Woman." Bolcom is a master of different styles and this cycle covers a broad range, from a kind of 60's thorniness at the opening, through a bit of Mahler in "The Waking", a rock sound in the fifth song, a Western ballad in the sixth, and a chorale like affirmative conclusion. The piece is very moving. Published by E.B. Marks. Recorded Nonesuch H-71324.

Alla Borzova
**Mother Said 15’
(cl, horn, perc, pno, vn, vla, c)
“Mother Said” is a cycle of settings of Hal Sirowitz’s witty and touching poems by Russian emigré composer Alla Borzova. It is musically fresh, inventive and delightful. Still unpublished.

Benjamin Britten
Nocturne 25’
(orch or chamber orch)

Ronald Caltabiano
**Passages 17’
(fl, ob, cl, bn, hn, perc, hp, 2vn, vla, cl, db)
Ronald Caltabiano’s “Passages” for large ensemble and tenor uses the same motivic elements through the five songs but changes colors and moods dramatically to match the highly descriptive Jim Barnes poems. Published by Merion Music, Theodore Presser.

Tom Cipullo
**Rain 10’
(fl, v, vl, c, hp, pn, 1 perc)
The Brothers 8’
(fl, c, pno)
“Rain” by Tom Cipullo is a beautiful, highly atmospheric setting of a scena by William Carpenter which moves seamlessly between fantasy and reality. Still unpublished.

John Corigliano
Poem in October 17’
(chamber orch or stg 4, fl, cl, ob, hpsch or pn)
John Corigliano's "Poem in October" is a lovely setting of Dylan Thomas. The style is thorougly ingratiating, conservative for the time in which it was written, and serves the poem very well. Published G. Schirmer.

Nathan Currier
**A Kafka Cantata 37’
(fl/alto fl, cl/bass cl, vn, vla, c, pno, perc)
Nathan Currier’s “A Kafka Cantata” picks up the characters from Bach’s “Coffee Cantata” but instead of quarreling over coffee, the father and daughter argue over Kafka. The recitatives telling the story are in English. The arias, which are all writings of Kafka, are in German. It is highly dramatic and expressive. The Kafka texts are fascinating and the music matches them. It is not yet published.

Jacob Druckman
**Animus IV 22’
(pn doubles elec pn, elec org, v, tbn, 2 perc, tape)
"Animus IV" by Jacob Druckman was written for the opening of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Like the other pieces in Druckman's Animus series, this is a sort of struggle between the tape and the soloist with the instruments joining in on both sides. It is humorous and serious, highly dramatic with no overt action. Published Boosey & Hawkes. Recorded on Summit Records DCD 173.

Charles Fussell
**Cymbeline 30’
(soprano, ob, cl, tp, tbn, pn, perc, v, vl, b)

Miriam Gideon
Seasons of Time 10’
(pn, or fl, c, pn doubles celeste)

Louis Gruenberg
The Daniel Jazz 15’
(cl, tp, stg 4, pn, perc)
"The Daniel Jazz" is a setting by Louis Gruenberg of one of Vachel Lindsay's sermon poems. It is a retelling of the story of Daniel in the lion's den as one might hear it from a baptist pulpit. I sing it in preacher's robes from a pulpit or a lectern. It is witty but also beautiful. It was written in 1925 and sounds very fresh today. Published by Universal.

Daron Hagen
**Songs of Madness and Sorrow 24’
(fl, ob, cl, bsn, horn, tmp, 1 perc, pno, 3 vns, vla, c, db)
“Songs of Madness and Sorrow” by Daron Hagen is conceived as a theater piece for tenor and ensemble of 11 players, but it works very well in concert with or without minimal staging. The texts are drawn from newspaper articles, diaries, and hospital records describing events in northern Wisconsin at the end of the 19th century when suicides, lapses into madness, and huxterism were all taken for granted as daily occurences. It is recorded by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony (for release on the Arsis label in Spring 2004). Hagen has arranged the work for voice and piano and approves of it being performed that way if the full ensemble is not possible. Published by Carl Fischer.

Hans Werner Henze
**Voices full evening
(15 - 19 players, one of everything excerpts poss. many doubles)
The Tedious Way to the Place of Natasha Ungeheuer 55'
(fl, cl, vn, c, pn, hn, 2tbn, tuba, bass cl, sax, b, perc. elec org)
"Voices" by Hans Werner Henze is a full evening piece for mezzo and tenor and an ensemble of at least 15 players who play at least 40 instruments. Everyone is constantly running around to play keyboard or percussion. It is in five languages and is political in content: not only about revolution, but about freedom. It is in a huge range of styles and is wonderful in its entirety. It can be excerpted successfully and I have done a 20 minute suite from it several times. Published by Schott. Recorded Decca Head Series 19/20

Peter Jona Korn
**Eine kleine Deutsche Stadt 27’
(orch)

William Kraft
**The Sublime and the Beautiful 15’
(fl, cl, vn, c, pn, perc, cond.)
"The Sublime and the Beautiful" by William Kraft is a contrasting look at the nature of beauty in two movements -- the first is by Dostoevsky (in English) and is somewhat humorous. The second is Rimbaud (in French) and is totally serious. Recorded CRI SD 547.

Lowell Liebermann
A Poet to His Beloved 15’
(fl, stg 4, pno)
“A Poet to His Beloved” on poems of Yeats is beautiful in a haunting way. Lowell Liebermann has written large sections of it in an almost static chordal way with gorgeous harmonies contrasted against rapid, dramatic parts. Published by Presser.

Bruno Maderna
**Venetian Journal (da Boswell) 20’
(ensemble of 16, one of everything, and tape)
"Venetian Journal (da Boswell) is a scena written by Bruno Maderna on a text by American playwrite Jonathan Levy who wrote it as if James Boswell had written it. It is comic with a touch of pathos. When Maderna wrote it, many people criticized him for his use of quotations--he was ahead of the movement that made it commonplace--but now it seems only to delight listeners and critics. Published by Ricordi.

The Widow of Ephesus (from Satyricon) 15’
(ensemble of 16, one of everything)
"Satyricon" by Maderna is an opera in which all the arias are separate little scenes and can be arranged in any order. I can sing many of them, but the most substantial is the extremely witty telling of the story of the Widow of Ephesus. Published by Salabert. Recorded on Stradivarius STR 10061 and Harmonia Mundi SCD 9101.

Philip Martin
**Four Edward Arlington Robinson Poems 12’
(cl, bsn, hn, c, pn, perc)

Larry Moss
Voyages 18’
(fl, cl, vn, vl, c, perc, cond)

John Musto
**Encounters 23’
(orch)
“Encounters” by John Musto is a cycle of songs on poems of Cummings, Lawrence and Synge all of which deal with some kind of encounter ranging from Cummings reaction to a lover’s voice on the telephone to Synge’s description of how twenty-nine Irishman decide to murder a compatriot. Musto uses blues and other American pop styles, as well as a grim version of an Irish jig for the Synge ballad, but the music that emerges is definitely his own. Available from Peer-Southern.

Russell Platt
**In Evening Air 15’
(fl/pc, ob/eh, cl in A, hn, pn, 2vn, vl, c, db)
“In Evening Air” is a lush and beautiful work, largely elegiac in quality, written by Russell Platt who is in his early thirties. Audiences, and I, find it extremely moving. He sets texts by Wendell Berry, Theodore Roethke, Edgar Allan Poe, Edmund Waller, Charles Wright and Galway Kinnell with great sensitivity. The piece is not yet published; I can see that parts are provided.

**Eating Poetry 15’
(vn, clo, pno)
“Eating Poetry” is Russell Platt’s response to the wonderful poetry of Mark Strand. It is in turn witty, beautiful, mysterious and intense. He gets a great variety of colors from the three instruments. It is not yet published.

Bernard Rands
**Canti del Sole 25’
(orch or fl, cl, tp, tbn, pn, vn, vl, c, b, 2 perc)
"Canti del Sole" by Bernard Rands won the Pulitzer Prize and deserved it. It is truly gorgeous and it traces the path and the effect of the sun through the course of a day and a year in a selection of poems in four languages. It is a perfect example of what Rands once described in an interview as what he is trying to do: "I want to write music that people will find beautiful but that takes cognizance of the fact that the twentieth century has happened." Published by Universal. Chamber version recorded by CRI CD 591.

Robert Rodriguez
*Tango 25’
(fl, cl, vn, c, pn, perc, accordian)
"Tango" by Robert Rodriguez is a comic theater piece with a satiric bite to it. It traces through actual news clips the rise of the Tango craze in Europe and American just before World War I, and the increasing denunciations of it by the Catholic church. The opening section is spoken (the news clips). The middle is a letter by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome (sung) in which he grows more and more hysterical and almost succumbs to the tangos being played by the ensemble. The third section follows the aftermath of the Church's actions and the resulting cleaning-up of the tango in New York. Rodriguez quotes liberally and not at all subtly from famous pieces. This can easily be done in concert, but it requires some lighting, a lectern or pulpit, and a number of props, most of which I bring with me.

Ned Rorem
Poèmes pour la paix 15’
(stg orch)
"Poèmes pour la paix" is a early Ned Rorem cycle which has had surprisingly few performances in its string version, probably because it is in French and Americans want things in English (if they want any American music at all) and the French only want French music (if they want vocal music at all.) It is a beautiful piece. Published by Boosey & Hawkes

Erik Satie
Socrate 30’
(orch)

Larry Alan Smith
**Strands 10’
(harp)
**An Infant Crying 15’
(guitar)
**The Scrolls 10’
(fl, cl, vla)
Larry Alan Smith wrote "The Scrolls" as a concert closer and it certainly does that well. It is a hilarious setting of a Woody Allen short story and the music is almost as loony as the words. (Smith was born in 1955). Published by Theodore Presser. Recorded Crystal CD 704.

Louise Talma
**Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird 10’
(ob, pn)
**Diadem 12’
(fl, cl, vn, c, pn)
"Diadem" is in Louise Talma's spare style. The texts are by Medieval lapidaries and deal with the qualities of precious stones. She wrote if for Nadia Boulanger's 92nd birthday. Recorded on CRI 760.

Francis Thorne
**Money Matters 20’
(fl, cl, hn,vn, c, pn)

Lester Trimble
Four Fragments from "Canterbury Tales" 12’
(fl, cl, c, hpsch)

Daniel Welcher
**Evening Scenes 16’
(fl, cl, vn, c, pn, perc)
Daniel Welcher's "Evening Scenes" are three settings of James Agee. The music is tonal which was a departure for him at the time. I find the first song lovely, the second one exciting, and the third truly beautiful with an extremely powerful climax in it. (Welcher was born in 1948). Recorded Crystal CD 704.

Richard Wilson
*The Ballad of Longwood Glen 15’
(harp)

*Premiered by Paul Sperry
**Written for and premiered by Paul Sperry