Classical Voice North America: "Sinking Petals, Ozone, Nature’s Quiet Sorrow: Songs Of The Earth"
“Falling out of winter’s fingers and into wastelands of untimely births, a pale, forsaken petal sinks.”
Those vivid, distressing words were written by Sophia Shao, one of nine students at Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School in New York whose poetry is included in the libretto of Lamenting Earth. The song cycle, with music by Vivian Fung, was premiered in 2024 by tenor Nicholas Phan, who has now released the world-premiere recording of the climate-change-themed work for tenor, string quartet, and piano.
Fung’s initial inspiration — and the core of the libretto — was Claire Wahmanholm’s poem “O,” using words such as “osprey,” “ocean,” and “ozone” to speak poetically about the deteriorating climate. Wahmanholm also helped shape the student contributions. The result is a text of surprising range and shocking twists: The beautiful “natural” world as first described is revealed to be an artificial replacement; we find ourselves in a harsh, barren reality that humanity could have prevented…”