Faye-Ellen Silverman
Echoes of Emily
Year: 1979
Duration (in minutes): 6 1/2'39;
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players, solo voice(s) with chamber ensemble, solo voice(s) with solo instruments
Instruments: alto, any brass, any female voice, any low voice, any voice, any woodwind, English horn, horn
Publisher: Subito Music Corporation
Description: Like many other composers, I feel strongly attracted to the poetry of Emily Dickinson – due to her thoughts, the beauty of her words, and the suitablility of her works for songs. “Echoes of Emily”, as the title indicates, sets two poems by her. An English horn solo (one of several works written with the oboe/English horn player James Ostryniec in mind), transitions between the two. The first song describes loneliness, while the second mocks the naivité of a too-lofty ambitions and desires, and describes an acceptance, through experience, that all is not possible.