Composer and PlaywrightSongs for the End of Things (2010)
a Song Cycle for Male Voice and Piano
- “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost Download PDF
- “The Amulet” by Ralph Waldo Emerson Download PDF
- “Further Letters” by Barbara Knight
- “For the Anniversary of my Death” by W.S. Merwin Download PDF
- “Bending Measures” by Richard Wood
Duration: 7.5 min.
Premiere: Performed by Tim Vallier with Jack Blaszkiewicz. Recorded at the Stony Brook University Composers’ Concert on March 30th, 2011.
Songs for the End of Things (2010) is a setting for tenor and piano of five poems that explore many manifestations of “the end,” all through the eyes of one waiting protagonist: the end of love, the end of life, the end of trust, and the end of the world. These through-composed songs are intended for performance as a complete cycle, as they traverse several rhythmic, harmonic, and vocal landscapes in an attempt to capture the protagonist’s changing sentiments.