Program Notes
All of the poems are concerned with the subject of time: time that is wasted, the unceasing nature of time, the perishability of beauty in time, our desire to change our experience of the flow of time, the finality of time, time and timelessness. I think that they fit together beautifully as a cycle, and I have been holding on to them for a number of years waiting for an opportunity to set them. This opportunity came in the form of a commission from Wanda Kaluzny and the Montreal Chamber Orchestra, which I was pleased to fulfill. The works were written for soprano Sarah Kirsch.