Song: soprano and piano

[reith]

Hello there,

Song "Whenever in this City"
Time - 3'45"
Written for soprano and piano - the soprano is represented by the clarinet in this version.

Finished over the last couple of weeks. It's my second attempt at setting these words (the last was about 3 years ago). This is just a try-out.

It's fairly modern, not entirely atonal, uses a few jazz and pop chords (that also may not be too apparent). The mood had to be right. I've been a bit cagey about setting words like these to music as they stand perfectly well by themselves. So the music is my experience of them - sort of acerbic in a way - on the other hand, warm.
The last chord is deliberately a second inversion.

I hope to set others from the same series.

So, if you have time to listen and look at the score, I'd be most grateful for your reaction, whether it conveys a particular mood, if you think the words fit the mood of the music...well, anything. Thanks!

Hope the score is legible enough:

[crimson]

Yes, this sounded very modern. Usually modern music drives me up the wall, but this song was different. The music and the words are somehow abstract, and I think they fit together well. Actually, I cannot imagine a better match for the words and the music. Despite this 'absurd' mood in the piece, I found myself drawn into the music. It was not so nonsensical that it would scare me away.

I think the words are quite well written. Very much like a modern poem. The song makes me think of some accompanied poem recitals. Very artsy overall. The mood I get from the piece reminds me of rain in a city or suburb. Gray evening and wet newspapers lying on the sidewalk. It was like the 'singer' is pondering, maybe even complaining about city life. However, I'm not very good at interpreting poetry.

But a very nice piece all in all. It would be interesting to hear it performed by a real soprano.

[reith]

Thanks for your comment, crimson. The words aren't mine so I have to be a bit careful at this stage. I know little about poetry / categorising poets, don't come in contact with poetry often so tend just to respond.

Thanks,

reith

[PeterG]

Hi Reith,

It seems this will be a difficult one to sing for the soprano; hard jumps in there.
I liked the piece more than I would expect it would, being all classical minded and me writing very balanced, un-atonal, unmodern, things myself. Very interesting harmonics and dynamics. I missed a bit of continuous flow, but that may be my preference again. The piece does have a forward movement and has a sort-of (how to put it to words??) stop-rush flow in it (does that make sense?). Have you considered putting a second voice as well? I could imagine there is room for it, a tenor perhaps or alto? The complexity would go up, but so does the possibilities I recon..

Thanks for sharing this it was good to hear something completely different !

Peter

[andreasvanharen]

hi Reith, I would love to listen and read the song, but where are they?