Hudson Valley Autumn (2016)
wordless lullaby for unaccompanied voice (C4-E5)
Duration: 2:45
Commissioned by Megan Ihnen
Duration: 2:45
Commissioned by Megan Ihnen
Notes
The fantastic new music superhero Megan Ihnen commissioned me to write an unaccompanied, wordless lullaby for her upcoming album, Sleep Songs: Wordless Lullabies for the Sleeplesswww.kickstarter.com/projects/sybariticsinger/sleep-songs-wordless-lullabies-for-the-sleepless/description. I could try to explain what that project was about, but I think it would be better if you let Megan explain it for you. Click here for info about that on the project's (now closed, but successfully funded) Kickstarter campaign.
To prepare for this piece, I spent some time reading poems about sleep and dreams. I literally just Googled "sleep poems" and was taken to a collection of them on a website. The second poem I read was Margaret Atwood's fantastic "Variation on the Word Sleep." I immediately fell in love with it. I kept reading other poems, but my mind kept wandering back to Atwood's poem.
I was fixated on the idea of writing a lullaby for a lover, not for a child. Such a lullaby needs to be just as gentle, just as tender, but it doesn't have the same power dynamic between singer and sleeper. A parent is likely telling a child when to sleep. But singing a lullaby for one's lover is more of a mutual agreement. For that purpose, I included in my composition the option for a part of the lullaby to be looped from the beginning, and for the singer to sing the second half of the lullaby while the looped recording plays the beginning again. In this way, one voice becomes two, and then when the loop is finished, one again. This could also be achieved with an optional second voice, but I think the looped single voice would have a more interesting effect.
I'll post links to ways you can listen to the recording yourself once it's available!
To prepare for this piece, I spent some time reading poems about sleep and dreams. I literally just Googled "sleep poems" and was taken to a collection of them on a website. The second poem I read was Margaret Atwood's fantastic "Variation on the Word Sleep." I immediately fell in love with it. I kept reading other poems, but my mind kept wandering back to Atwood's poem.
I was fixated on the idea of writing a lullaby for a lover, not for a child. Such a lullaby needs to be just as gentle, just as tender, but it doesn't have the same power dynamic between singer and sleeper. A parent is likely telling a child when to sleep. But singing a lullaby for one's lover is more of a mutual agreement. For that purpose, I included in my composition the option for a part of the lullaby to be looped from the beginning, and for the singer to sing the second half of the lullaby while the looped recording plays the beginning again. In this way, one voice becomes two, and then when the loop is finished, one again. This could also be achieved with an optional second voice, but I think the looped single voice would have a more interesting effect.
I'll post links to ways you can listen to the recording yourself once it's available!