Something Sings

(2015) for voice and piano

Something Sings is an art song for female voice and piano, featuring text by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson's poem, entitled Music, reminds us that hope and goodness are always present, even in the most dismal of things. I represent this glimmer of hope with a short motive in the piano that is ever-present throughout the piece, even when the music turns dark.

Premiered by Katya Bakas, voice, and Cassandra Kaczor, piano

April 29, 2017

Ganz Hall, Chicago, IL

Music by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let me go where'er I will,

I hear a sky-born music still.

It sounds from all things old,

It sounds from all things young,

From all that's fair, from all that's foul

Peals out a cheerful song.

It is not only in the rose,

It is not only in the bird,

Not only when the rainbow glows,

Nor in the song of woman heard,

But in the darkest, meanest things

There alway, alway something sings.

'T is not in the high stars alone,

Nor in the cup of budding flowers,

Nor in the redbreast's mellow tones,

Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,

But in the mud and scum of things

There alway, alway something sings.