The Last Invocation, for mezzo-soprano and piano (2000)
Duration: 5’
MP3 Player
Score excerpt
Performers in audio recording:
Jillian Apfelbaum, mezzo-soprano / Russell Nadel, piano
Studio recording, Jenkintown, PA
Autumn 2000
Text:
by Walt Whitman (public domain)
At the last, tenderly,
From the walls of the powerful fortress'd house,
From the clasp of the knitted locks, from the keep of the well-closed doors,
Let me be wafted.
Let me glide noiselessly forth;
With the key of softness unlock the locks--with a whisper,
Set ope the doors O soul.
Tenderly--be not impatient,
(Strong is your hold O mortal flesh,
Strong is your hold O love.)
Program Notes:
My sister was taking voice lessons around the time I decided to write an art song, with the idea that she would perform it. This, in conjunction with an English class project that centered somehow around treating a poem in a creative fashion, resulted in this setting of Whitman’s ethereal, poignant lines. Although I was never able to convince my sister to sing it, I was honored that one of my classmates who had had some vocal training volunteered to learn and sing my setting for our class, and later to record it for posterity. I feel she did a fine job.
— August 2010