Mid-Winter Songs

Description

Mid-Winter Songs on poems by Robert Graves was commissioned by the University of Southern California to celebrate its Centennial in 1980 and premiered that year by the USC Chamber Singers, conducted by Rodney Eichenberger. The cycle has since been widely performed in both its original chorus/piano version (recorded by Choral Cross-Ties, conducted by Bruce Browne, on Lauridsen -- The Complete Choral Cycles) and the subsequent chorus/orchestral setting, commissioned and premiered by the Pasadena Chamber Orchestra in the Ambassador Auditorium in 1983 and recorded by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Paul Salamunovich, on Lauridsen -- Lux Aeterna (RCM). In reading Graves (1895-1985), I became very much taken with the richness, elegance and extraordinary beauty of his poetry and his insights regarding the human experience. Five diverse poems with a common "Winter" motif (a particular favorite of mine, rich in the paradoxical symbolism of dying/rejuvenation, light/darkness, sleeping/waking) suggested a cohesive musical cycle. The principal musical materials for the entire work, especially the intervals of an ascending major ninth and descending major second, are derived from the opening choral setting of "Dying Sun" and recur throughout the piece. The cycle is cast in an overall arch form, framed by the intensely dramatic and passionate setting of the "Lament for Pasiphaë" and the gentle, prayerful "Intercession in Late October." -- Morten Lauridsen Heralded by The Los Angeles Times as an "elegant, engaging, and effective setting, pungently scored, rhythmically varied, and highly flattering to a good chorus...accessible in the best sense." This set of five songs is based on poems by Robert Graves.