july midnight (2023)
soprano* & piano | ca. 5’
commissioned by Sakura & Rose Duo | text by Amy Lowell
*any gender or voice type is welcome to sing this work. if you have questions or would like to make adjustments, feel free to reach out to the composer.
Program Note
This work is based on a poem by Amy Lowell of the same title. Written for Sakura & Rose Duo and premiered in Vermont, it evokes the simple beauty of nighttime. This piece, along with my other works like Piece of Mind, fireflies, and snow day, represents me getting to know my new home of New England, having moved from California. The lilting lights of fireflies, the beauty of trees, and a kind of quiet sensuality are reflected in the text and embodied in the music.
Text: Amy Lowell
Fireflies flicker in the tops of trees,
Flicker in the lower branches,
Skim along the ground.
Over the moon-white lilies
Is a flashing and ceasing of small, lemon-green stars.
As you lean against me,
Moon-white,
The air all about you
Is slit, and pricked, and pointed with sparkles of lemon-green flame
Starting out of a background of vague, blue trees.