Island Elegy and Aubade
for Soprano(s) & Piano (with opt. Melodica)

Details:

1. My Beautiful Island (in the present) - The character is that of a young woman who sings joyfully and exuberantly of the beauty of her island - a magnificent paradise.

2. Oh Home of Sweet Tranquility (20 years later) - The woman is beginning to realize that her cherished island is beginning to disappear due to the encroaching waves, storms and ever increasing heat. The bloom of her idealism and youth has been replaced with something more dreadful.

3. The Song Itself We Have Forgotten (an additional 20 years later) - The island clearly is doomed due to rising seas resulting in the evacuation of the entire island. She is experiencing a slow simmering shock, is dis-regulated, mumbling, and thoroughly disbelieving in what is taking place. Out in the distance I imagined an ocean liner on the horizon. She’s standing on a long line to be transported to the ship that will take her to an unknown destination and destiny.

4. Aubade - (a love poem welcoming or lamenting the arrival of dawn) As expressed by a seagull riding the wind above the ocean, my take of it relates to the arc of universal existence - Beginning, Middle (life expressed), End.


Performance Note: Island Elegy and Aubade may be performed by 3 sopranos - one for each song- or by one soprano. In the latter case the final Aubade may be performed via a previously recorded multitrack rendering of all three parts or two parts with the soprano singing the top part. Alternatively, the pianist can accompany the soprano, (who sings the top line) by playing the bottom two parts on a melodica, piano or electric keyboard.

Instrumentation: Soprano(s) & Piano (with opt. Melodica)
Duration: ca. 25'
Composed: 2023
Published by: Subito Music Publishing