Songs of Passage, Book I (2013)

Songs of Passage, Book I, takes its name from the title of the first song in the book, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Birds of Passage.” The image of words, like great, migrating birds, flying high overhead put me in mind of how much of our lives are spent “in passage.” Longfellow’s poem is about the passage of words into language—“Murmurs of pleasures, and pains, and wrongs,” that throng about us continually. Robert Louis Sevenson’s “I Who Was Young” considers the passage beyond the self-assurance of youth,“And I own that I was wrong—” capturing the pang of regret in a single line. “White in the Moon” is A.E. Housman’s reflection on our despair when our passages lead us away from love. Houseman’s “We’ll to the woods no more” speaks of sad acceptance that the passages we once loved are forever closed. Love is also the theme of the last song, Sidney Lanier’s “Sail Fast,” but here the mood swings. The “Ark of my Hope” will “Sweep lordly o’er the drownéd Past,” toward brighter times. With the flight of Lanier’s “grey and sober dove,” images of birds in winged passage both open and close the set.

1. “Birds of Passage” (Longfellow)—A striking setting of one of Longfellow’s most beguiling poems.
2. “I Who Was Young” (Stevenson)—A gentle setting of Stevenson’s lament over lost youth.
3. “White in the Moon” (Housman)—A haunting setting of Housman’s melancholy lyric poem.
4. “We’ll to the Woods” (Hausman)—A gentle setting of Housman’s lyric poem of grief and loss.
5. “Sail Fast” (Lanier)—A thrilling setting of Lanier’s poem of hope in the face of adversity.