The Irish poet Æ called Jesse Stuart’s The Man with the Bull-Tongue Plow, from 1934, the greatest collection of American poetry since Leaves of Grass. These five songs premiered ten years ago today, at KMAC Contemporary Museum; and the recordings below (recorded at St. Francis in the Fields, Louisville), sensitively sung by Steven Paul Spears and played
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More anthology
Thank you to North Star Music for including two songs in their “Modern Music for New Singers” editions: “Orpheus” in the mezzo-soprano vol. 1 book & “The Giver of Stars” in the baritone vol. 1 book. These are robust anthologies (eight, so far, and counting!). (Orpheus was written for the Governor’s School for the Arts
Read on »The Giver of Stars a few years later
I wrote “The Giver of Stars” at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in 2020, just on the eve of pandemic shutdowns and disruptions, confusion and the pervasive smell of hand sanitizer. The text by Amy Lowell, could be read on two levels: a prayer of supplication, and/or an allegorical love poem. Being only one
Read on »Anthology
Thank you to NewMusicShelf for including “Like Men and Women” from Songs of Insects and Animals in their new NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music for Tenor, Volume 1
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