Click here to access The Voice of Isaac, Parts 3&4
Although premiered at Jordan Hall in March 2003 by a children’s chorus (PALS) with baritone soloist, The Voice of Isaac has subsequently been presented with solo adult voices and can effectly be presented in several possible ways including adult singers (chorus and soloists) only, as well as a combination of adult and children singing choral and solo parts.
04/29/07, the Haverford and Bryn Mawr College Choruses, Thomas Lloyd Conductor
02/09/09, Indiana University Contemporary Vocal Ensemble and Conductor's Orchestra, John Leonard, conductor
The Long Bright is an hour-long cantata on breast cancer. The premiere was held at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia and served as a fundraiser. raising over $40,000 for breast cancer research. The Long Bright was awarded the 2005 Theodore Front Prize for Chamber and Orchestral Music from the International Alliance of Women in Music.
This work was commissioned in celebration of the 200 Year Anniversary of the Handel Society of Dartmouth College, America's oldest town/gown organization. Eight Frost poems (in the public domain) are arranged into four movements, each embodying universal themes, in a structurally dramatic arch. Movements I and IV are about art and the creative process. The second movement has to do with the nature of time and the ephemeral. The third movement portrays the struggle of the human spirit through the confrontation of opposites. The final movement questions what the art of the future should be.
I chose this text because I think it asks us to acknowledge the minor misdeeds and omissions we permit in our everyday lives. So often we make small allowances for ourselves, fudge things that are difficult for us, or mistreat our loved ones in little ways. Most of the time we allow ourselves to ignore these things, hoping that nobody, perhaps not even ourselves, will notice. I think that those small things are often far more important than they seem, and I hope that this text, and this piece, will remind us to be more careful of ourselves and of one another.
This piece is written in a gospel style but has aspects of jazz and modern "classical" writing as well. There is a good deal of call and response and the piece is quite rhythmic. The opening solo, "I have a dream" may be sung by any male voice-type. The "Shouters," male and female voices in unison, sing a repetitive riff on the text "From the hills of New Hampshire! From New York’s mighty mountains!...
This piece is almost certainly a concert finale - the ending is "big."
It was composed in honor of Brown vs. Board Education, May 17, 1954 and
In this work I try to give musical representations of joyful shouts and jubilant song, the vast calm of the sea, mystical murmurs by rivers and mountains, and human hope in the "strong right arm" of the King of the universe. I am a melodic composer, and I try to use a supporting harmonic language that is interesting and challenging to the performers, yet accessible and comprehensible to listeners.
