April (text by Sara Teasdale and
Edna St. Vincent Millay) (2012)
I. Overture
II. April (Edna St. Vincent Millay)
III. Song of a Second April (Sara Teasdale)
IV. "The first rose on my rose-tree" (Sara Teasdale)
V. The Garden (Edna St. Vincent Millay)
While flipping through the collected poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay and Sara Teasdale one evening, I found a few poems that share a common emotional ambiguity regarding Spring—particularly April—that I thought would make a good song cycle. The first two poems in this cycle convey Aprils that are, for one reason or another, unusually gloomy despite the Spring season. In the third poem the narrator’s inward focus causes him or her to miss the season’s outward beauty, but in the last poem—in the midst of Winter—the narrator longs for an idealized version of April. The vocal melodies tend to declaim the text simply and often have pentatonic elements. The singer is, to some extent, just another part of the overall instrumental texture.
This piece was composed as my MM thesis.
II. April (Edna St. Vincent Millay)
III. Song of a Second April (Sara Teasdale)
IV. "The first rose on my rose-tree" (Sara Teasdale)
V. The Garden (Edna St. Vincent Millay)
While flipping through the collected poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay and Sara Teasdale one evening, I found a few poems that share a common emotional ambiguity regarding Spring—particularly April—that I thought would make a good song cycle. The first two poems in this cycle convey Aprils that are, for one reason or another, unusually gloomy despite the Spring season. In the third poem the narrator’s inward focus causes him or her to miss the season’s outward beauty, but in the last poem—in the midst of Winter—the narrator longs for an idealized version of April. The vocal melodies tend to declaim the text simply and often have pentatonic elements. The singer is, to some extent, just another part of the overall instrumental texture.
This piece was composed as my MM thesis.
