Lynday Promane, mezzo-soprano
Stephen Boda, organ
Michael Murphy, glockenspiel
Evan Bowen, tam-tam and chimes

April 10th, 2022
Saint Matthew's Anglican Church, Islington

1. Stabat mater dolorósa
juxta Crucem lacrimósa,
dum pendébat Fílius.

2. Cuius ánimam geméntem,
contristátam et doléntem
pertransívit gládius.

3. O quam tristis et afflícta
fuit illa benedícta,
mater Unigéniti!

4. Quae mœrébat et dolébat,
pia Mater, dum vidébat
nati pœnas ínclyti.

5. Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si vidéret
in tanto supplício?

6. Quis non posset contristári
Christi Matrem contemplári
doléntem cum Fílio?

7. Pro peccátis suæ gentis
vidit Jésum in torméntis,
et flagéllis súbditum.

(Organ solo: "...and they led Him away to be crucified.")

8. Vidit suum dulcem Natum
moriéndo desolátum,
dum emísit spíritum.

9. O, Mater, fons amóris
me sentíre vim dolóris
fac, ut tecum lúgeam.

10. Fac, ut árdeat cor meum
in amándo Christum Deum
ut sibi compláceam.

11. Quando corpus moriétur,
fac, ut ánimæ donétur
paradísi glória. Amen.

---------

The sorrowful mother was standing
beside the Cross weeping,
while the Son was hanging.

Whose moaning soul,
depressed and grieving,
the sword has passed through.

O how sad and stricken
was that blessed [woman],
mother of the Only-begotten [one]!

Who was mourning and suffering,
the pious Mother, while she was watching
the punishments of the glorious son.

Who is the person who would not weep,
if he had seen the mother of Christ
in such great suffering?

Who would not be able to be saddened
to behold the Mother of Christ
grieving with the Son?

For the sins of his people
she saw Jesus in torments,
and subjected to lashes.

(Organ solo: "...and they led Him away to be crucified.")

She saw her sweet Son
dying forsaken,
while he sent forth [his] spirit.

Come now, O Mother, fountain of love
Make me feel the power of sorrow
that I might mourn with you.

Grant that my heart may burn
in loving Christ the God
that I might please him.

When the body will decay,
grant that it may be bestowed on [my] soul
the glory of paradise. Amen.

Stabat Mater (2021) for soprano, organ and percussion

"For misfortunes and sorrows,
The songs of the forget-me-not grow,
Every now and then a new flower will spring up,
Like the cerulean eyes of angels."

-Teofil Lenartowicz

Maeve Palmer, soprano
Rachel Miller, mezzo-soprano
Bradley Cherwin, clarinet
Wesley Shen, piano
Bevis Ng, percussion
Andrew Ascenzo, violoncello
Tyler Versluis, conductor 

I. EXORDIUM 
II. CANZONA “ Chmara idzie deszcz będzie… ”
III. PREGHIERA “ Najświętsza Panienko…” 
IV. “Oj żebym ja była u matusi dłużej…” 
V. INTERMEZZO “ Oj chłopcy, dziewczęta!” 
VI. LAMENTO “Chrząszczyk usiadł na gałązce…”
VII. DEPLORATIO “Oj w niedzielny, święty ranek…” 
VIII. ROZALJA’S SONG
IX. SCHERZO “Matka mnie chowają…”
X. MOTETTO “Nie tnij, ojcze, brzózki…” 
XI. CHORALE ULTIMO: “Więcej kwiecia bywa w wiośnie…” 


IX. SCHERZO “Matka mnie chowają…”

III. PREGHIERA "Najświętsza Panienko..." IV. "“Oj żebym ja była u matusi dłużej…”

I. EXORDIUM II. CANZONA "Chmara idzie, deszcz będzie..."

V. INTERMEZZO “ Oj chłopcy, dziewczęta!”

VI. LAMENTO “Chrząszczyk usiadł na gałązce…” VII. DEPLORATIO “Oj w niedzielny, święty ranek…”

X. MOTETTO “Nie tnij, ojcze, brzózki…”

VIII. ROZALJA’S SONG

XI. CHORALE ULTIMO: “Więcej kwiecia bywa w wiośnie…”

Alison Yun-Fei Jian, piano 

May 2025

Canadian Music Centre

[Cover art: Laura Makabresku]

In anticipation of fatherhood in 2017, I composed Four Lullabies, solo piano pieces which were premiered by Lara Dodds-Eden in Toronto. I decided without prompt or logic to compose four more of these lullabies almost seven years later.

In the endless pursuit of novelty, it seems strange for a contemporary composer to revisit anything, whether it be form, instrumentation or genre. It is equally strange to think that Mendelssohn wrote eight volumes of "songs without words", or that Schubert wrote 36 piano sonatas in 13 years, or that Bach wrote hundreds of fugal passages. To write "in" a format is both a challenge to say something new, but to also wrestle with the expectations, limitations and sensibilities of that format. In this case, how could I again write four pieces of slow music, most of which rises rarely above a mezzo piano? 

Having finished these new lullabies, I can put a marker in the ground, and dwell on how much has changed for me, personally and artistically in these six and three quarter years. To revisit and talk to an old friend with new thoughts and perspectives. The lullaby is lodged in everyone's memory. It is the first music we hear. There is also the strange relationship with death which fascinates me, and occasionally works its way into the folk lullabies of many cultures (in Greek mythology, Thanatos and Hypnos were brothers).

Are these lullabies really for my own children? I have concluded that they are probably not. In fact, they are probably lullabies for myself, an aestheticised respite from a world of harshness.

I. Notturno; quasi senza tempo

II. Molto moderato

III. Dondolando dolcemente

IV. Teneramente

Certain instants of seeing were like "flowers on the grave":

Capriccio Canonico for two oboes

"As I turn the corner,
my shadow overtakes me."

"Embittered Cat" (detail), Aleksandra Waliszewksa

Katzenjammer II for violin, viola and piano

Caution Tape Sound Collective concert

Array Space, March 24th 2016

Amahl Arulanandam, cello
Evan Bowen, percussion
Branko Džinović, accordion
Wesley Shen, piano

featuring: March rain



Quartet: "Forti Contritione"(2016)

March 29th, 2016

I. quarter note = 60
II. Come un segreto...
III. Affascinante 

Walter Hall, University of Toronto Faculty of Music

Michael Bridge, accordion
Michael Murphy, percussion



3 Unuttered Miracles for accordion and percussion (2016)

Premiered June 5th, 2016 at Gallery 345

Maeve Palmer, soprano
Angela Schwarzkopf, harp
Amahl Arulandalam, Amina Holloway, cello

Text by Lindsay Mason
Supplementary artwork by Timothy Goertzen

Recorded and edited by Nathan Chandler @ Unicyle Audio

IV. Sleeping Alone (Five Poems)

Tyler Versluis: DMA Recital of Works
October 30th, 2016
Walter Hall, University of Toronto Faculty of Music

Sophie Dupuis, violin
Amina Holloway, violoncello

The Happy Isle draws inspiration from a 19th century Gaelic Cape Breton song, An Innis Àigh. Surprisingly, the song is not a reference to Cape Breton Island itself, but rather Margaree Island close by. The tale of the "mythical island" is quite common in folklore of the British Isles and Eastern Canada, where stories of mythological paradise mix with homeland nostalgia.

Art: Maxfield Parrish

The Happy Isle for violin and violoncello (2016)

Cecilia String Quartet

January 24th, Walter Hall, University of Toronto Faculty of Music

String Quartet "Bogusławów"

MacMillan Theatre, University of Toronto Faculty of Music
March 24th, 2018

University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Uri Mayer, conductor

Rick Harper, audio

LAUDS for symphony orchestra (2017)

Reading by the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, directed by Gregory Oh.
July 10th, 2018, Wilfrid Laurier University.

Tragic Overture: "Phaeton" for symphony orchestra (2016)

Druskininkai, Lithuania
June 2019

Alena Budziňáková-Palus, accordion
Diemante Merkeviciute, Brigita Pažerauskaitė, violin
Gabrielė Zaneuskaitė, viola
Ana Čirkova, cello

Saint Vitus' Dance is an archaic term for the infection now known as Syndenham's chorea. The infection, typically accompanied by rheumatic fever, caused jerky, uncontrollable movement in the sufferer, which resembled a bizarre style of dancing. In early modern Europe, sufferers would pray to Saint Vitus, patron saint of dancers, epileptics and actors for release from the unfortunate symptoms. In other cases, the cause of this "dancing mania" was unknown and unexplainable. In medieval Europe, there are records of entire crowds of people becoming "infected" with an uncontrollable desire to dance with no social explanation. Often the dancing would continue for weeks and sufferers would collapse in exhaustion or ecstasy.

St. Vitus' Dance for accordion and string quartet (2019)

Cynthia Smithers, soprano
Tyler Versluis, organ

Recorded at Saint Matthew's Anglican Church (Islington)on July 27th, 2020 by Pouya Hamidi.

Magnificat in B for solo soprano and organ (2020)

Cynthia Smithers, soprano
Tyler Versluis, organ

Recorded in Saint Matthew's Anglican Church (Islington) on July 27th 2020 by Pouya Hamidi.

Nunc Dimittis in B for solo soprano and organ (2020)

Composer of contemporary classical music. Toronto.

Tyler Versluis

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