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Stephen Paulus Song Cycle Featured on New Albany Records Recording

Aug. 06, 2007

Stephen Paulus’ song cycle Songs of Love and Longing is featured on the new Albany Record’s recording entitled The Unquiet Heart: American Song Cycles. Composed in late 1991 and early 1992, Songs of Love and Longing takes its text from seven Japanese poems that adhere to the ancient tanka verse form: five short lines of an evocative nature. Stephen Paulus comments on the work:

The idea behind the songs was to write a relatively short cycle that would have some substance, as well. I wanted the work to be brief enough to find a spot on recital programs of sopranos willing to tackle new material, and yet long enough to say something poignant to the listener. My intent was to create musical settings that would be both introspective and dramatic, and I strived to create a musical snapshot – a “freeze frame” – of emotion of the moment.

Songs of Love and Longing was commissioned by the Georgia Council for the Arts and was premiered in 1992 by pianist Laura Gordy and Soprano Cheryl Boyd-Waddell at Clayton State College, Morrow, Georgia. Soprano Karen Smith Emerson and pianist Arlene Shrut perform the music on the Albany Records disc.

Stephen Paulus
Song of Love and Longing (1992)
for soprano and piano

  1. Endless Autumn Nights
  2. The One Who Greets me
  3. Dark Seed
  4. Echoes
  5. Moonless Nights
  6. The Bashful Moon
  7. From this World

10’

For more information on the music of Stephen Paulus, please visit www.schott-music.com

To purchase the Albany Records recording of Songs of Love and Longing, go to www.albanyrecords.com or consult your favorite music retailer.

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