Love Songs (1999)
For medium-high voice and piano, 14′, in four movements
I. your little voice
II. as is the sea
III. there is a moon
IV. if i believe
Sarah Elizabeth Davis, mezzo-soprano; George Cullinan, piano
About the Music
These poems by e.e. cummings, from the set “Amores,” combine images of love and death, an unlikely but instructive juxtaposition. On the surface, they can be read as the narrative of a lover whose loved one has died and who is remembering both the physical and spiritual aspects of his love. But symbolically they can be seen as a person’s understanding of death through or because of the act of loving, as testament to the fact that we never feel our own mortality more than when we are in love. Along with this love/death juxtaposition is another juxtaposition: that of the cosmos (stars, moon, darkness, heavens, god, soul) and the earth (flowers, waters, petals, sea, city). Throughout the set, these images create an extended metaphor for the mystery of finding the sacred amidst the profane.
 Score Sample |
Printed Score – $20.00 | |
| Digital Edition PDF – $10.00 |