This new concert-length song cycle features the verse of poets that for Hagen have fueled a lifetime of song composition. Co-commissioned by Lyric Fest and The Brooklyn Art Song Society, the new work is scored for vocal sextet in various solos and ensemble movements, accompanied by piano four hands. With sopranos Justine Aronson and Gilda Lyons, mezzo-sopranos Elisa Sutherland and Meg Bragle, tenor James Reese, baritone Steven Eddy, and pianists Laura Ward and Michael Brofman.
PROGRAM NOTE
I love singers and combining words and music. I recognize that over the past 45 years words have inspired the core of my musical output. This song cycle (co-commissioned by two dedicated and excellent vocal ensembles—the Brooklyn Art Song Society and Lyric Fest of Philadelphia—and composed at Yaddo during August 2018) is a musical “closing argument.” As such, it is a summation of the “pieces of evidence” I have created during a lifetime spent writing vocal music.
The songs are sung by two sopranos, two altos, a tenor, baritone, and piano. There are twenty-four of them, and they are divided into four sections, which I associate with different periods of life. The first, Summer, features words about the American experiment by Walt Whitman, Orson Welles, Aaron Copland, Joseph R. McCarthy, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Paul Robeson, Stephen Crane, Roy Cohn, Donald Trump. The second, Autumn, features words mainly about love and middle age by Gwen Hagen, Mark Campbell, Rhianna Brandt, Christina Rosetti, William Butler Yeats, Sappho, Tobias Schneebaum. The third, Winter, features words mostly concerning advanced age and faith by Thomas Ken, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Seamus Hagen, William Blake. The final movement, Spring, features texts about death and rebirth by Daron Hagen, Roland Flint, Paul Goodman, and Dante Alighieri.
A performance of one of the songs in the cycle, “Pomodoro,” with words by Mark Campbell.