Abbie Betinis: Nattsanger
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Mvt III from Nattsanger "Nightsongs" by Abbie Betinis. Performed by Zeitgeist (Pat O'Keefe, clarinet; Nicola Melville, piano) with mezzo-soprano Alyssa Anderson at The Schubert Club in Saint Paul, MN. April 2015.
More about this song cycle |
Abbie Betinis writes music called “inventive, richly melodic” (New York Times). A recent McKnight Artist Fellow, and listed in NPR Music’s Top 100 Composers Under Forty, she has written nearly 50 commissioned pieces and has been composer-in-residence with The Schubert Club, The Rose Ensemble and The Singers–Minnesota Choral Artists.
Nattsanger (Nightsongs) is a cycle of seven songs exploring the mysterious nature of the period of time from sunset to dawn. Each movement focuses on a small feature specific to the night, from examining the close of day (I), through REM sleep and motion in stillness (III), the non sequitur aspect of the dream state (IV), the relationship of a fixed point to the ever-skewing night sky (VI), and finally to the fluctuation between dream state and reality (VII). Initially conceived as a partner piece to Dominick Argento's song cycle To Be Sung Upon the Water, it borrows not only its instrumentation (sans bass clarinet), but also aspects of that piece's arched symmetrical form.
Nattsanger (Nightsongs) is a cycle of seven songs exploring the mysterious nature of the period of time from sunset to dawn. Each movement focuses on a small feature specific to the night, from examining the close of day (I), through REM sleep and motion in stillness (III), the non sequitur aspect of the dream state (IV), the relationship of a fixed point to the ever-skewing night sky (VI), and finally to the fluctuation between dream state and reality (VII). Initially conceived as a partner piece to Dominick Argento's song cycle To Be Sung Upon the Water, it borrows not only its instrumentation (sans bass clarinet), but also aspects of that piece's arched symmetrical form.
