Two Sacred Songs

First performance: Youtube release, Oct. 15, 2020, as part of the American Composers Alliance Shelter Recordings Project, Marisa Karchin, soprano, Haodong Wu, piano

After editing the final work of my distinguished composer colleague Brian Fennelly, his Sacred Songs Book II, I became intrigued by the texts he had used: poems of the 17th century English poet and clergyman, George Herbert. I began looking through Herbert’s poetry for texts I might also set to music, and chose two: Denial, and The Storm. Both poems concern the acceptance of prayer, and the beseeching of forgiveness, but the second song, against a metaphor of a storm, allows for great contrast between the two settings. The mini-cycle lasts approximately 8 minutes.