Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get them in front of Issuu's millions of monthly readers.

London

2015 | 4’30”

baritone, piano

Text by William Blake


The London Blake would have known was a rapidly expanding, evolving cultural and commercial hub, and the capital of the world-leading British Empire. Perhaps it is because of this that the imagery Blake conjures up in this poem is so disturbing, as he paints London not as a progressive modern metropolis, but rather a place of misery and pain, where the proletariat must pay for the lifestyles of the bourgeoisie.

The harmonic language in this setting is discordant, making extensive use of whole-tone and octatonic scales, as well as bitonal elements. Constantly changing time signatures never let the music settle, until the final, drawn-out semi-resolution.


Contact me for performance materials