Mothers in Spring (2013)
Soprano and Harp
Text by Anne Carson, from "Red Doc>," text used with permission of Aragi, Ltd.
Total duration ca. 3'45"
Single-movement work
Premiered in December 2014
in Baltimore, MD
by Janna Critz and Jasmine Hogan
Audio clip performed by Janna Critz and Jasmine Hogan
Purchase this score and parts from
Peter Dayton Music (ASCAP) for: $10.00
Composed in 2013, this piece uses an excerpted text from Anne Carson’s verse novel “Red Doc”, the sequel to her work “Autobiography of Red”, which served me as the inspiration for a concertante work, Geryon: A Romance in Red in 2011. In “Red Doc", this and other smaller poems are inserted between blocks of prose-poetry, commenting Greek chorus-style on the narrative action. Here, near the end of the verse novel, the protagonist’s mother has succumbed to lung cancer. This deceptively simple poem serves as an expression of profound grief for a mother who, unlike the seasons, will not return again. Text used with permission by Aragi Ltd. Red Doc> by Anne Carson © 2013.