Details
- 45'
- Soprano, Piano
Score Excerpts
Program Notes
Bloody Jack is a song cycle for soprano and piano by Canaadian composer Michael Matthews; it is based on selected poems from Dennis Cooley’s 1984 collection of the same name. This contemporary Canadian work explores the mythic life of John Krafchenko, a Hungarian immigrant turned early 20th-century outlaw.
The music captures Cooley’s shifting poetic tones—from black humour to pathos and violence—through bold harmonic language, recurring motifs, and expressive vocal writing. Each song is tightly connected to the text’s narrative arc while maintaining its own distinctive character. As a whole, the Bloody Jack song cycle by Michael Matthews weaves poetry and music into a vivid retelling of prairie legend.
Composed by Michael Matthews between 2015 and 2017 and revised in 2020, Bloody Jack was written for and is dedicated to soprano Dawn Bruch and pianist Laura Loewen.
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