‘Now Say Nay’ for soprano and ensemble is a setting of the poem ‘Now’ by Dylan Thomas. Though Thomas claimed that the poem meant nothing, the theme of death pervades most (if not all) of its five stanzas in some way. What is most striking is its curious stanza structure, word repetitions, half rhymes and … Read more
Commissioned by the NOTUS Contemporary Vocal Ensemble and premiered at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Dominick DiOrio, ‘Virginia – The West’ is my first a cappella choral piece. It is a setting of Walt Whitman’s poem of the same name, a rather tricky one to set, as it contains several characters, parentheticals, changes of … Read more
‘Hunger,’ for soprano and string quartet, is about self consumption. The three poems, each from a French poet and written during the latter half of the 19th century, represent different kinds of consumptive or destructive sentiment, almost always directed inward. The first of these, ‘Chanson d’automne’ by Paul Verlaine, is overtly melancholy, constructed of short … Read more