Aviary

It all started with William Butler Yeats' poem, "The Wild Swans at Coole." One October day, as I was reading and reflecting on this wonderful poem, a melody for the opening line ("The trees are in their Autumn Beauty") came to me. Several hours later, seated at the piano, I had written the opening song. In the following days, as I worked on it, the idea came up to write a song-cycle of poems on the subject of birds. After a bit of searching, I came across a beautiful book edited by Billy Collins, former American poet laureate, called "Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds." The book, which features more than 100 works by authors from Catullus and Chaucer to those of today and wonderful illustrations by David Allen Sibley, offered me a wealth of material from which to choose. I decided to take on Wallace Stevens' classic "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." In addition to being a great work, the haiku-like structure of the poems gave me an opportunity to express a wide range of musical voices. The listener will hear echoes of composers whose music has influenced me greatly, including Stravinsky, Bartok, Copland, and Bernstein. The other poem I chose to set was a lovely piece by Annie Finch, "Great Grey Owl." This work has a more popular, jazz-influenced feel to it; think Alec Wilder. From the inception of this project, I had a performer in mind, my friend and colleague, Gary Wood to whom these songs are dedicated. Gary is a first-rate choral conductor and has led various choirs at Salem State University over the past 25 years. He has a lovely baritone voice and sings in a variety of styles.