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Four Poems for Robin

Title

Four Poems for Robin

Streaming Media

Additional Streaming Media

Files

Instrumentation

Soprano, Viola

Program Notes

Four Poems for Robin (1999, revised 2006) for Soprano and Viola was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, soprano Kathryn Hallor who premiered the work with violist Franklin Alvarez on 1 May, 1999 in Beall Concert Hall, University of Oregon School of Music and Dance (Eugene, Oregon).

Gary Snyder's beautiful poems, chosen by Ms. Hallor, weave together memory, lore and landscape; they are full of musings about young love lost, but they also explore how distance — physical, temporal and emotional — can distort our perception of an earlier time. As the poems progress, the language hardens, eventually leading to a realization that despite his efforts, he cannot regain the past. These pieces were written during a point of transition in my own life that was full of regret, natsugashi, and excitement about beginning anew.

Four Poems for Robin by Gary Snyder, from BACK COUNTRY, copyright © 1968 by Gary Snyder. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.

  1. Siwashing it out once in Siuslaw Forest
  2. A spring night in Shokoku-ji
  3. An autumn morning in Shokoku-ji
  4. December at Yase

Publication Date

1999

Document Type

Score and Audio File

Keywords

chamber music, soprano voice, ensemble, scores

Disciplines

Composition | Music

Rights

"Four Poems for Robin" by Gary Snyder, from BACK COUNTRY, copyright © 1968 by Gary Snyder.
Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Copyright © 1999 Andrea L. Reinkemeyer (BMI).
All rights reserved.

Four Poems for Robin

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