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All My Songs for You

BBP|  $3.50  | SSAA in three movements with piano | See individual YouTube links below:

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A Net of Words

Did You Never Know

In All My Songs

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All My Songs for You is a three-movement work commissioned by the Ancora women's ensemble that sets Sara Teasdale poems, all from her 1920 work Flame and Shadow. The music is tonal with colorful harmonies, some jazz-based. Sara Teasdale (1884–1933), an American lyric poet who often focused on themes of love, the beauty of nature, and life’s final transitions, was considered to be one of America’s finest women poets. The work is a meditation on various aspects of love in which each of the songs has a unique focus. These three works can also be performed separately or as pairs as needed.

The first song, A Net of Words, explores the ineffability of love by adding a musical dimension that helps us understand what cannot fully be expressed in words alone. The music is rich, deep, and enveloping. The second song, Did You Never Know, also explores inexpressible love but from a different perspective, that of unspoken and unrequited love. This movement is framed as a duet in which the two singers sing the same text but never exactly to each other. The spare accompaniment and haunted melodies leave us to contemplate that anxious and silent emptiness, too, is an aspect of love. The third work, In All My Songs, gives voice to Teasdale’s epiphany that all her love poems would live on changelessly, even beyond life itself, as she writes: “It will live on in all my songs for you when I am gone.”

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Ave Maris Stella

JWP |  $2.00 | SSA trio or three-part women's chorus  |  a cappella  | YouTube link is HERE

 

This contemporary a cappella setting of an ancient hymn requires three skilled soloists for the trio version or an advanced women's chorus. It employs shifting tonal centers as well as complex harmonic structures. Ranges from meditative to dramatic in the opening verse settings to a tranquil barcarolle that recalls the oar strokes of a gondolier and the gentle swells of the sea. Ends with a modal section reminiscent of the medieval period, though with a modern interpretation. 

 

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Dona eis requiem

SELF | $3.00 | SA or treble voices, (also available in TB and SAB) with piano  | settings of three sections from the requiem mass: Pie Jesu, Agnus Dei, and Lux Aeterna | sound files are available on the publisher web pages

 

Suitable for concert or service use. A modern setting, tonal, and very accessible for singers and audience or congregation.

 

 

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The Ships of Yule

JWP | $2.00 | SSA and SA (also available in SATB, SAB, TB, and TTBB) and piano |  sound files are available on the publisher web pages

 

This setting of Bliss Carman's poem, "The Ships of Yule," is lively and rhythmic and contains elements of a traditional sea chantey. The music is tonal with lots of harmonic color and forays into related keys. The poem refers to Yule, and so the piece is appropriate for Christmas or winter celebrations. 

 

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Winter Circle

from Four Songs of the Seasons

BBP | $2.60 | two-part treble voices or SA and piano | YouTube link is HERE

 

Comments by a director for a recent performance: "Working on your piece was a great experience for me and the singers. It presented good vocal and musical challenges for this age group, all the while being beautiful and captivating--they were always willing to keep working on it!" Here's a link to an interview with Sara Boos, Northwest Girlchoir director, and myself, a "behind the scenes" look at the work and its inspiration, and Sara's thoughts about the piece:

 

Behind the Scenes: "Winter Circle" by Don Skirvin 

Winter Circle is evocative and harmonically rich. The piano plays a constantly moving pattern while the voices float above it, like the stars in the Winter Circle itself. The lyrics consist of short descriptions of each star based on one or more of the following factors: Color and brightness of the star; Constellation in which the star is located; Zodiacal sign star reference; Reference to the star in mythology or in another historical reference such as the Dendera zodiac. To "decode" the lyrics, notice that the color always refers to the color of the star itself and may include another attribute. As an example, Aldebaran is referred to as "the fiery eye of the Bull." It's "fiery" because the star color is red. And it's the eye of Taurus in the constellation of the same name, hence the reference to the "eye of the Bull." The other lyrics can be decoded in a similar fashion. Additional information is available from the composer.

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Winter Reverie

BBP | $3.20 | SSAA and soprano soloist, oboe, and piano | YouTube link is HERE

 

Winter Reverie is a  setting of two evocative Teasdale poems that re-create a winter scene of walking on a snowy night, enjoying a good meal in a restaurant, watching twilight descend under “ice-bowed trees,” and returning thanks for “… the mother who bore me." For more information from the publisher and the text of the poems, along with a link to download a partial PDF of the score, click HERE​

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Winter's Cloak

SELF | $1.50 | SSAA with various divisi a cappella

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A setting of a poem of the same name by Joyce Rupp. The central theme embraces the solace and deep creativity that resides in the quiet darkness of winter. The last lines of the poem are "Let me seek solace in the empty places of winter’s passage, those vast dark nights that never fail to shelter me." The SoundCloud link is to a performance of the work in dress rehearsal. The performance itself was canceled due to restrictions on group gatherings brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The link is HERE.