Instrumentation: soprano and piano
Duration: 8 minutes
Author: M. Pound
Commissioner: CMASH (San Francisco, CA)
Premiere: Ann Moss, soprano; Heidi Moss, soprano; Steven Bailey, piano on Old First Concert Series. San Francisco, CA
Program Notes: How often do you get to say you met your wife through a performance of a piece you wrote for her and a mutual friend? I did just that, starting work on a piece back in the summer of 2012 that got premiered in late August of the same year. Going through a personal upheaval in my life, this poem was the perfect vehicle for creating the work I needed to create. It was a purging, really, and later I would discover it was the perfect setting for her as well.
From a technical standpoint, my aim in writing these two little pieces was to see if I could set a short text in two similar but completely different ways. I did this in an earlier piece of mine (the outer movements of my song set Chicago Songs) and I felt this technique would be the right approach for this poem as well.
Besides their expectant, quietly intense natures/moods, what these two settings share in common is an interest in exploring the outer extremities of the piano for expressive purposes. In Song of Solace, the vocal line seeks clarity and comfort in the middle registers, while the piano acts as a kind of buttressing force that often lashes out in a spirit of hostility and chaos. In Song of Regret, the vocal line moves in a smoother, more step-wise fashion, while the piano explores the upper ranges of the piano with ringing bell-like chimes that act as a constant reminder but to what we can only guess.
The vocal lines in both pieces come across as direct and heartfelt responses to an impending sense of conflict, and one’s natural tendency to go to a calm and serene place when confronted with inner turmoil.