Program Note:

Matching the allusive, maximal language of poet Paul Muldoon with a broad array of musical techniques and styles, The Waking Father moves seamlessly from hot-mic, 30s Mills Brothers radio-style delivery to operatic recitatives, from the soft, glowing 60s California Sound of The Beach Boys to the crystalline clarity of Lutheran hymnody; from the flowing, melismatic francophilia of Faure to the tight, session-singing 70s jazz sound of the Swingle Singers. The Waking Father is an emotionally generous, affectionate musical portrait of Paul Muldoon, with whom Hagen had already collaborated on several operas—and with whom he would proceed to create several more. Premiered at Ozawa Hall during the Tanglewood Music Festival by the King's Singers on July 27th, 1995, The Waking Father was originally published by Roger Dean Publishing Company. Composed in Sandpoint, Idaho and completed on August 15th, 1994, This second edition corrects a number of minor engraving mistakes in the first edition.

Selected Review:

"Daron Hagen's The Waking Father comes out of the richly detailed and expressive American choral tradition of Barber's Reincarnations and Rorem's Pilgrim Strangers, but it is a brilliantly original work in its own right — he has gotten under the skin of Paul Muldoon's complex but deeply heartfelt poems."

— Russell Platt, The New Yorker