SKU: CF.V2504

ISBN 9780825898310. UPC: 798408098315. Frederic Sharaf, Sorcha Cribben-Merrill.

Sharaf was moved to write this tribute to all involved in the Boston Marathon massacre—those who were victims, those who died, and those who showed the best of humanity in the aftermath. He imagines the heartbreaking beauty of a dying woman, praying for peace and forgiveness, even of those who perpetrated the event.

SKU: HH.HH583-FSC

ISBN 9790708185987.

‘Shine Perishing Republic’ is perhaps the most anthologized of all the works by American poet Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962). Its Whitmanesque tone and rhetoric are here reflected in a sonata-like first movement form. Influenced by the paintings of Jackson Pollock, the composer wished to saturate his musical canvas with explosive, emotive events. ‘Evening Ebb’ is a nature scene. Musical metaphors – symmetrical chords, inversion structures and canons – are used to to suggest the qualities of sea and reflected sky described so beautifully in the poem. Paradoxically, in spite of these musical conceits, the music floats impressionistically, for the most part in stasis, only developing in a clear direction towards the end.

SKU: FG.55011-699-3

The visionary poems by L. Onerva (1882-1972) have made her the poet of composers. Kuusisto follows the ecstasy and despair, prayer and profanity with a clear vision in Seven songs to poems by L. Onerva (2001/2007).