Remembrance

Remembrance and Interlude, the first two songs in the cycle, are a hybrid of singer-songwriter and art song. In an art song, I like to show off a classically trained voice and a classically trained pianist, and I look for poems by professional poets who inspire me musically to augment their already excellent work. When I am writing as a singer-songwriter, I generally write both lyrics and music at the same time. The words for Remembrance and Interlude came out of me along with the music, but unlike my singer-songwriter work, I wanted them to be performed by a classically trained singer and pianist.

Remembrance and Interlude are about my own personal loss. The Architect and Last Night, the last two songs in the cycle, are poems by Philadelphia poets I admire. These are traditional art songs. The Architect is about the loss of youth and love and reviewing our choices in life. Last Night is a memorial for the poet’s husband, and is about acceptance. It is the final song in the cycle, showing the journey from grief to acceptance, and hope for the future.