Might be the most beautiful thing you've ever written dude!

A quintet I wrote last school year, this piece is a romance of sorts and is dedicated to my wonderful Cassidy. I wrote it with her voice in mind and I was trying to imagine something that would suite her voice well.

Special thanks to everyone who helped make this piece a reality including Cassidy Goldblatt (soprano), Emily Camras (cello), Zan Berry (cello), Katelyn Hoag (viola), Amy Tan (viola), Azariah Tan (piano), Phoebe Wu (piano), Christopher Weiss (waterphone), Chris Schaublin (recording engineer), Emma Azelborn (recording engineer), and Peter Littlejohn (recording engineer).  

regeneration

Read by the Juilliard Orchestra, April 2015

Blooming

This final stanza of Robert Richardson’s longer poem “Annette” was used by Samuel Clemens to adorn the headstone of his beloved daughter, Suzy, who died abruptly at the age of 24. Her death devastated him, and this headstone remains as a memorial to his love.
 
The very short poem deals with the passage of time and its effect on those who have left us, on their legacy. The mention of the sun at the beginning, all the way to the “good night” at the end displays such a passage. The reader pleads with the natural elements to be kind to her grave throughout the years, so that her legacy be forever untarnished by the passage of time. In the same sense, Twain’s use of the stanza revitalizes and secures the legacy of Richardson’s work as well, who may have otherwise been a relatively unknown poet to modern audiences.
 
The music evokes this concept of time by having several extended sections of music where each singer aleatorically sings their line at their own individual tempo, giving each phrase the time they each feel it deserves. The passage of time in these sections thus becomes malleable, shaped by the sensibilities of each member of the choir.
    
   Warm Summer Sun
   Text by Robert Richardson (and Mark Twain)
 
   Warm summer sun,
   Shine kindly here,
 
   Warm southern wind,
   Blow softly here.
 
   Green sod above,
   Lie light, lie light.
 
   Good night, dear heart,
   Good night, good night.
 
Commissioned by The New York Virtuoso Singers
World Premiere by The New York Virtuoso Singers, Harold Rosenbaum, Conductor

regeneration

Levi Fasoldt

Recent comments

Daniel Sawler

Related tracks