Most Sunday mornings as a child, I read the Arts and Leisure section of the New York Times to my mother. After we had finished sharing the artistic news that was fit to print we read poetry. My pre-teen loves were lofty: Shakespeare, Blake, Whitman and Byron. During grade school, mother introduced me to Keats, Dickinson and Dante. My father’s great loves were Yeats and Milton. As readers, my parents enjoyed spirited dialogues with their favorite poets: the margins of most of the books in our house were filled with their handwritten reactions. I reached the coast in my late teens, and befriended at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony the English-language poets whose work would serve to inspire me for years to come.

When I think about the music that has most influenced me as a songwriter, a series of memories come to mind: I was first introduced to Art song in 1974 by a remarkable musician named Wallace Tomchek who taught me how to sing Norman Dello Joio’s 1948 gem There is a Lady Sweet and Kind. I was thirteen years old. Four years later, I accompanied Ned Rorem’s 1957 setting of Whitman’s As Adam Early in the Morning. Although I sang or accompanied countless Italian, German, French, and English art songs during those years, these two most influenced my own early efforts. Stephen Sondheim’s music was an influence, since I was active as a pit orchestra player and conductor – but so was Gershwin’s. When I was seventeen, my family gave me a Christmas present that I treasure to this day: the vocal score of my still-favorite opera, Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd. When I think about the teachers that have most influenced my songwriting, I naturally think of Ned, for whom I wrote two songs a week for three years as a student at the Curtis Institute, and of Leonard Bernstein, with whom I worked while I was composing my opera Shining Brow.

At forty-two I now read the Sunday Times online in my New York apartment. I turn to poetry almost exclusively with an eye toward setting it to music. I wish that I had more time to spend with the many books by the good and noble poets I’ve come to rely on as an adult. My written annotations join my parents’ fading ones. But I have also carried forward my parents’ spirited dialogue by responding with music to the poetry that engages me.

The present volume consists of sixty songs – about half of the total number currently in print. Since I am always working on new ones, I am content to think of it as a work in progress. The earliest was written over twenty-five years ago; the most recent one is but a few months old. In the course of their study, singers may find useful a (very) few words about each song. I’ve offered some below.

Larkin Songs
were commissioned by the University of Nevada Las Vegas for Paul Kreider. They were composed in New York City during the winter of 2000 and premiered at the University of Nevada on February 18th, 2001. They are dedicated to Paul Kreider, with whom I subsequently recorded them in New York for the Arsis label. The poems are arranged into a monologue and appear in the order in which they were written during Larkin’s life. The conceit is that the cycle’s protagonist is an old man, near death, surveying his life as it manifested itself in his poems.

Letting Go
was compiled over the course of many years and completed as a cycle during the winter of 2002 in New York City. It consists of seven songs, all of which deal with love and/or death. They are dedicated as a cycle to Gilda Marie Lyons.

1. A Suite of Appearances (Mark Strand) was written at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Italy and completed November 1st, 1993. It is dedicated to Mark Strand, who gave me the manuscript to read, and for whom I first played and sang the setting the evening it was finished.

2. Ferry Me Across the Water (Christina Rosetti) was written in Philadelphia and completed on October 25th, 1983. Karen Hale and I performed it on many occasions on concerts in Philadelphia and in New York during the eighties. It also appeared in a version for soprano and piano quartet in my song cycle Three Silent Things.

3. Ghost Letter (Richard McCann) was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for Robert White to premiere in recital at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium there on November 17th, 2001. It was written in New York City and completed on October 22nd, 2001. I first met the poet during the early eighties at Yaddo and have set a number of poems from his book of the same title.

4. ‘I’ll sing a song to my love’ (Gwen Hagen) was composed in Philadelphia and completed on Christmas Day in 1983. The poem is about my father and was taken from an entry in my mother’s diary from the early 1950’s.

5. Prayer to Sparrow in Two Seasons (Jeffrey Skinner) was composed at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Sweet Briar, Virginia and completed on January 9th, 1987. I had met the poet years earlier at Yaddo and had set the poetry of his spouse, Sarah Gorham (Washing Her Hair, from the cycle Love Songs). I found this poem in a back issue of the New Yorker magazine that had been left in the studio by the previous composer occupant.

6. The Second Law (Stephen Sandy) was commissioned by Joy in Singing as part of its “Songs for a New Millennium” project. The song was written at Yaddo and completed on July 15th, 1999. I first sang it (accompanied by David Del Tredici) for a gathering that included the poet, on the evening it was finished. The world premiere took place on April 25th, 2001 at the Merkin Recital Hall in New York City.

7. Psalm 150 was composed in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin and completed on December 28th, 1985.

1. Love in a Life (Robert Browning) was written in Philadelphia, went through many drafts, was the first song that I worked on as a student at the Curtis Institute, and was completed on November 2nd, 1981. It was first performed by Douglas Hines, accompanied by the composer, in Curtis Hall on April 6th, 1982.

2. Congedo (Nuar Alsadir) was written at Yaddo and completed on August 24th, 1998. It is dedicated to the poet, who gave me a manuscript of it early in the day and for whom I first played and sang my setting the same evening.

3. Ample Make This Bed (Emily Dickinson) is dedicated to Robert Larue. It was written on March 13th, 1989 in the course of an hour on a baby grand that had just been manhandled up five stories into the East Village garret on Saint Mark’s Place in which I lived.

4. The Waking (Theodore Roethke) alludes to the melody to which Norman Stumpf set the same words when we were students together at the Curtis Institute. Dedicated to Norman’s memory, it was composed between composition lessons at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (where for a decade I taught) and completed on September 24th, 1993.

5. The Green for Pamela (Roland Flint) is dedicated to the poet, for whom I played and sang it the evening I set it (May 30th, 1985) at the MacDowell Colony, in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

6. Just Once (Anne Sexton) was written on the train, enroute from Philadelphia to New York, on October 18th, 1981. I often paired this song with Ferry Me Across the Water, Specimen Case, and Love on recitals with Karen Hale during the 1980’s. It is dedicated to Michaela Paetsch.

7. Love (Thomas Lodge) is dedicated to Margaret Bergamini and was completed in Philadelphia on October 30th, 1981.

1. Doll’s Song introduces us to the former blackjack dealer and rogue INS agent. She tells the audience exactly what she loves about Las Vegas and why. She also fills us in on how she got her name and why, just now, she finds herself in Vegas.
2. Vera’s Song relates the back-story of the title character of the opera.

Mona’s Prayer
is the final aria for the character of Mona in the opera Bandanna, which was commissioned in 1997 by the College Band Director’s National Association. The aria was first sung by Kelly French in the University of Texas Austin Opera Theater world premiere production and recorded by Darynn Zimmer in the premiere full recording of the opera by the University of Nevada Opera Theater, conducted by the composer. In the opera, she sings haloed by three violins sustaining simple triads. This arrangement for voice and piano was made in March of 2002 at the request of singers who wanted to be able to program it on their recitals. Mona sings this “Willow Song” hidden away in a cheap motel; she has been hiding from her husband, who has been driven mad by groundless jealousy. At this point in Paul Muldoon’s libretto, she has accepted the fact that her husband is on his way to strangle her with her own bandanna; she kneels to pray, already suspended halfway between the worlds of the living and the dead.

Muldoon Songs
was performed as a cycle on February 12th, 1992 on a Friends and Enemies of Contemporary Music Concert at the Greenwich Music House, in New York City. The composer accompanied Paul Sperry, commissioner of the cycle. The poetry is by Paul Muldoon. Like many of my song cycles, it was compiled and revised many times over the course of a number of years. Paul Kreider and I recorded it for the Arsis label.

1. The Waking Father was finished on November 28th, 1989 in Cassis, France.
2. Thrush was completed on August 1st, 1989 at the MacDowell Colony. I first played and sang it there in a joint presentation of work with the poet.
3. Blemish was finished on November 24th, 1989 in Cassis. The song is bi-tonal, with one hand in a “blue” key and the other in a “brown” key.
4. Mink was completed four days later.
5. Bran was finished on July 26th, 1989 at MacDowell. “Bran” is the name of the oatmeal Labrador described in the poem.
6. Vico is drawn from the book “Madoc” and concerns itself with the philosophy espoused by the philosopher of the same name. It was composed at Mr. Sperry’s request in 1992 to flesh out the cycle before it’s official premiere.
7. Holy Thursday was finished on November 26th, 1989 in Cassis. The recurring two-bar pattern is based on the two measure-long bridge from the Gershwin song “The Man I Love.” Years later, I used the music of this song to underpin part of the “Workmen’s Chorus” in the second scene of the Hagen / Muldoon opera Shining Brow.

1. Sun of the Sleepless (Gordon, Lord Byron) is dedicated to Ken Cazan.
2. Night’s Paddock (Martin Harrison) is dedicated to Barry Busse. I met the Australian poet at Yaddo while I was working on the cantata, asked him if he had “a twilight poem,” was given this one, and enthusiastically musicalized it.

1. Symmetry (Andrei Codrescu) was written in New York City on April 16th, 1999.
2. Evening Twilight (Charles Baudelaire, translated by the composer) was written on February 23rd, 1989 on Saint Mark’s Place. It is dedicated to the painter Rosamund Casey.
3. It Weeps in My Heart (Paul Verlaine, translated by the composer) was written the day before Evening Twilight.
4. To Nobodaddy (William Blake) was written on June 16th, 1999 in New York City as a musical greeting to Emerson Rhoads, my godson, on the day of his birth.
5. Dawlish Fair (John Keats) came easily, in one swoop, on August 8th, 1990 before dinner in New York City with the dedicatee, Paul Moravec.
6. Under the Night Sky (Kim Roberts) was composed at the VCCA the same evening (July 26th, 1991) that the poet read the poem. It is dedicated to David Del Tredici.
7. O, When I was in Love With You (A.E. Houseman) was composed for my brother to sing and completed on January 18th, 1980 in Madison, Wisconsin.
8. An Irony (Gwen Hagen) was taken from an entry in my mother’s diary from 1951. I set it on May 16th, 1999 in New York City and dedicated it to Russell Platt.
9. Specimen Case (Walt Whitman) was written in the Barber-Menotti studio at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia on September 27th, 1983. A decade later, I recycled the piano part as the accompaniment to Frank Lloyd Wright’s final aria in Shining Brow.
10. Song (Theodore Roethke) was composed on May 18th, 1999 in New York City.

Not represented in this otherwise comprehensive overview of my art songs are three major cycles that E.C. Schirmer publishes, Love Songs, Echo’s Songs, and Merrill Songs, as well as two withdrawn cycles, Days Without You (a cycle of Anne Sexton poems for soprano and orchestra premiered in 1983) and A Handful of Days (another cycle for soprano and orchestra, on words of San Francisco poet Kim Addonizio, from 1989), works for multiple voices, and works for voice and chamber ensemble. (For a complete list of these works, one may consult the Bibliography that follows this Afterward.) I have included piano reductions of a number of songs that are culled from larger works and originally scored for orchestral accompaniment – two numbers from the cantata Light Fantastic, two songs from Vera of Las Vegas, and the newly rendered Mona’s Prayer from Bandanna.

Daron Hagen
July 2002
New York City