The sad mother

The sad mother is the second release in a series of Art Songs that I have composed to English poetry from the period 1850-1950.

It is a musical setting of the English translation (done by the poet Langston Hughes) of a poem by Gabriela Mistral (April 7, 1889 – January 10, 1957), a Chilean poet and the first female Latin American poet to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (1945). Gabriela Mistral was the pseudonym for Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga. Her poems include themes of Christian faith, love and sorrow. She was a lay member of the Franciscan order and this Catholic faith and belief in the afterlife, influenced her poetry and outlook on life. As well as being a poet, Gabriela Mistral became an internationally renowned figure in literature and education.

The song is interpreted by the soprano Annie Fassea.

Love and the Butterfly

Love and the Butterfly is the first release in a series of Art Songs that I have composed to English poetry from the period 1850-1950.

It is a musical setting of a poem by Alice Dunbar Nelson (July 19, 1875 – September 18, 1935), an American poet, journalist, and political activist. Among the first generation born free in the South after the Civil War, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance. She achieved prominence as a poet, author of short stories and dramas, newspaper columnist, and editor of two anthologies.

The song is interpreted by the soprano Annie Fassea.

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“The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.”

— Song of Songs 2:12