Gabriel Jenks

Songs of Imagined Love

Subtitle	for tenor and piano
Year(s) composed	2018
Publisher	Schott Music
Duration	16'
Movements	Poems Messenger Song After Waking Goodbye
Premiere	October 26, 2018 · New York, NY (USA) Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall Paul Appleby, tenor; Natalia Katyukova, piano
Commission	Commissioned by Carnegie Hall
Composer note	Songs of Imagined Love sets texts I wrote inspired by some of the poems of Ludwig Rellstab, which Franz Schubert sets in his Schwanengesang. While my piece does not represent a direct relationship to Schubert, I found inspiration in Schubert’s eloquent reading and interpretation of text through his music. In setting my own texts, I was interested in approaching the intersection of music and language as an equal-partnering dance between the two. The texts are often abstract, suggesting rather than narrating. I play with musical clarity by constantly shifting the harmonic meanings within my music, creating a network of relationships from which I can draw and through which I can draw multiple possible pathways. – Gabriel Jenks