Songs of Childhood

Work Overview

Instrumentation: voice and piano
Commission: Atlantic Center for the Arts
Premiere: May 2002, Tuscany, Italy as part of a residency, sponsored by the Atlantic Center for the Arts; Karen Holvik, soprano; Laurent Philippe, piano.
Duration: 8 minutes

Program Note

I love subjects regarding the life and world of children and have recently wanted to write songs about them. The opportunity arose when I received a call from the Atlantic Center for the Arts and composer Richard Danielpour asking me if I would be interested in attending a residency in Tuscany where song cycles by six American composers would be rehearsed and premiered. Songs of Childhood was the result of this wonderful time. The four songs that comprise this cycle are set to poems by Christina Rosetti, a nineteenth-century English poet. The cycle begins and ends with simple, but lush lullabies. In between, I portray the playful world of children with a humorous pancake song, then a dreamy song asking whether the moon is tired.

Text by Christina Rossetti from the collection Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book (1872).