for Mezzo Soprano and Piano. Par SOREY TYSHAWN. Death by Tyshawn Sorey was commissioned by the L. A. Opera for a streaming premiere by mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms in February 2021, with pianist Howard Watkins. Its text, by the great Black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, imagines just a glimmer of light dawning over a bleak, nightmarish landscape, haunted by death, which the composer explicitly connects to \'the current conditions and precarity of Black life in America in the 20th and 21st centuries\'. (Dunbar himself died in 1906 at the age of 33). This slow and melancholy setting expands the poem into a five-minute lament. This piano/vocal score includes the full text of the poem as well as a brief program note from the composer. Clarifying the racial contexts surrounding the piece, Sorey requests that the roles of both vocalist and pianist be played exclusively by Black American performers. / Date parution : 2022-09-07/ Répertoire / Mezzo-Soprano et Piano

The sheet music for contemporary virtuoso composer Nico Muhly's So Many Things arranged for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano Accompaniment. So Many Things was commissioned by a number of institutions including The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association UC Berkeley and Carnegie Hall. Lasting around 15 minutes Muhly has set three poems to this wonderful music including a lengthy narrative poem by Joyce Carol Oates and two translations of C.F. Cavafy by Daniel Mendelsohn. Muhly has brilliantly managed to take the emotion of the words and replicate them through music creating an astonishingly movingaccompaniment that not only reflects the lyrical sentiment but complements it. He states that the Piano moves between skittish and ostinato relentless but often pausing for an effective break in the musical narrative. With drones and palindromes from the Piano the Voice leaps between intervals creating a dynamism that creates uncertainty rather than resolve much like the poetry.

At the Court Of The Poisoned Rose-Programme Note: The song At the Court of the Poisoned Rose was commissioned by the countertenor James Huw-Jeffries. It is based upon a long prose poem by the Scottish poetess Marion Angus (1866-1946). Published under the title of Alas! Poor Queen the poem narrates the tragic story of the life of Mary Queen of Scots who was manipulated by the political ambitions of those around her. Given the work?s length and sectional nature the song is more akin to a ?Dramatic Scena?. The music opens mysteriously setting a nostalgic atmosphere that seeks to mirror the queen?s confinement and sense of resignation. This is followed by acontrasting section that conveys her love of life?s trivialities and her capricious nature ? it is quicker in tempo. These two ideas are subsequently developed and reshaped. At the words ?she rode through Liddesdale with a song? I have adapted an aire by the Elizabethan composer Philip Rosseter and interpolated material from the previous sections. The emotional climax of the work comes on the poignant words ?Queens should be cold and wise?. In spite of this the lighthearted and earthly bound music returns reminding us that the Queen only ?loved little things and red-legged partridges and the golden fishes of the Duc de Guise?. - Ian Venables Duration: c. 6 minutes