The Lunatic (2019)

for mezzo soprano and piano

Performance by Alex Robinson and Jim Blackett on April 6th, 2025 in Newport Beach, CA. Programmed by Choral Arts Initiative.

Premiere:

Premiere virtually on June 8th, 2021 at Unity of the Valley Church, Eugene, Oregon. Performed by :

Mezzo-soprano: Hannah Penn

Piano: Nathalie Fortin.

Duration:

4 minutes

Program Note:

When I read Charles Simic’s poem, The Lunatic for the first time, I was impressed by the minimalist but evocative feel of the work. The poem describes the nature of a snowflake. As I read it more, I felt an unusual fixation on the action of the snowflake. The piece starts off by depicting the erratic nature of the snowflake in the right hand of the piano. It then transitions into descending plaintive, melancholy music. The singer repeats ‘’The same snowflake kept falling out of the great sky’’ three times but each time more bothered and adding words from the poem. I tried to convey the obsessive nature that the POV expresses along with the piano material depicting the falling and ‘’picking itself off the ground’’ that the snowflake does.