We Two (1991)

For Two High (Countertenors) Voices and Piano (or) Low Voices and Piano

Duration: 15’

Movement Titles: Dear Camerado (from Drum Taps) | We Two (from Calamus)

First Performance: 19 November 2006 / Church of St. Matthew and St. Timothy; New York, NY / Daniel Gundlach, Mark Crayton, voices; Jocelyn Dueck, piano

Dedication: "For Daniel Gundlach and Mark Crayton.”

Text: Walt Whitman (E)

Publisher: Peermusic Classical

Words:

Dear Camerado
As I lay with my head in your lap camerado,
The confession I made I resume, what I said to you and the open air I resume,
I know I am restless and make others so,
I know my words are full of danger, full of death,
For I confront peace, security, and all the settle laws, to unsettle them,
...
I heed not and have never heeded either experience, cautions,
majorities, nor ridicule, And the threat of what people call hell is little or nothing to me,
And the lure of what people call heaven is little or nothing to me;
Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me, and still I urge you, without the least idea of destination.
We Two
We two boys together clinging,
One the other never leaving,
Up and down the roads going, North and South excursions making,
Power enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,
Arm'd and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving,
No law less than ourselves owning, sailing, soldiering, thieving, threatening,
Misers, menials, priests alarming, air breathing, water drinking,
On the turf or the sea-beach dancing,
Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statues mocking,
Fulfilling our foray.

Program Note:

The Phoenix Concerts in New York City commissioned this diptych of Whitman settings for countertenors Daniel Gundlach and Mark Crayton as part of their New York debut recital as a duo on March 19th, 2006 at the Church of St. Matthew and St. Timothy. They were accompanied by collaborative pianist Jocelyn Dueck.

Although originally conceived for treble (countertenor) voices, a version for low voice is also available, transposed to a slightly lower key and with the vocal parts notated in bass clef.