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About the Score

A song cycle for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, and piano. 17′. The songs: 1. That Old Gang of Mine (baritone solo) 2. All Alone (soprano solo) 3. The Prisoner’s Song (tenor solo) 4. Tea For Two (mezzo-soprano solo, duet with baritone) 5. April Showers (brief solos for all)

Commissioned for Conspirare and Craig Hella Johnson. Premiered online June 11, 13, 2021. During the 2020 pandemic Craig Hella Johnson asked me for a work for four soloists with piano for an April Conspirare “virtual” concert. (It would later be postponed to June, but I had already written the piece with April on my mind.) My first idea was to find optimistic poems from the end of the last global health crisis, 1918’s Spanish Flu, which was also when World War I was ending. But I didn’t find much that suited me, so I expanded my search to popular song lyrics of the time. With their themes of solitude, loss, love, dreams, and hope, these songs from 1921 to 1924 spoke to me, especially for a choir missing “That Old Gang of Mine.” Each of these lyrics speak of our separation from, and our love for, each other, and of our hopes for reuniting. All of the music is entirely new. I’ve employed the singers as a solo quartet: that is, each singer takes substantial and brief solo turns, and all act as backup singers to each other.

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