counter)induction

Paisaje con dos tumbas y un perro asirio is one song from a large set of songs that I am writing for tenor Robert Baker. The songs are set for tenor and various combinations of tenor, cello, clarinet and piano. The poem comes from Federico Garcia Lorca’s Poeta en Nueva York, written while he was a student at Columbia University in 1929-30. The book is a ferocious critique of capitalist culture and corruption, and is filled with despair of finding solace, love or even meaning in a world ruled by lucre. Paisaje is from the middle of the collection, written during and trip to Vermont, and evokes a sense of mourning for loss of friends and comrades, and of rage against death, especially violent death. These themes seemed extremely timely when I began to conceive the work during the summer months of 2007. The work is dedicated to my mother, Jacqueline Boyce, and was premiered by counter)induction and Robert Baker on 7 December, 2007 in New York, NY.

The score is marked in tempore belli.