"Birthday" [Richard Pearson Thomas]

"Birthday" [Richard Pearson Thomas]

First line of lyrics: My heart is like a singing bird

Part of: "Twilight"

Thomas, Richard Pearson; music (American, born 1957)

Rossetti, Christina Georgina; text (English, 1830-1894)

2007 [publication] [copyright]

Portage Press Publishing

genre: art song (lied)|song cycle|song

solo: high voice

instrumentation: piano

initial sharps/flats: one flat

initial time signature: 2/2

origin: United States

male composer

English

Rossetti poem(s): "A Birthday"

Place in the larger work: The first song of three in the song cycle called "Twilight," settings of Christina Rossetti poems. The songs include 1. "A Birthday"; 2. "Mirage"; 3. "Song".

Notes about the text: Thomas substitutes "like a water'd shoot" for "in a water'd shoot" and "on a halcyon sea" for "in a halcyon sea." The first line of the poem "my heart is like a singing bird" is repeated at the end of the song.

Composition history: The song cycle was "Commissioned by Karen Eckenroth and Otterbein College."

Tempo markings: "Allegro"; half note = 92

Performance instructions: "joyous"

Recordings: "Twilight." Experience, performance by Natalie Mann, soprano, Jeff Panko, piano, Albany, 2013. Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/album/7567isSvYmpPQXrDqVinhK. Accessed 9 Jul. 2021.

Format 1: musical score

6 pages (pp. 2-7); performance time approx. 2 minutes; complete song cycle performance time approx. 11 minutes

Other data reference(s): Carman, Judith. "TWILIGHT. Three Songs on Poems of Christina Rossetti for High Voice." Journal of Singing, vol. 67, no. 3, 2011, pp. 370-371, ProQuest, https://search.proquest.com/docview/874155748?accountid=14701.

Cataloguer: Sarah Pennington, University of Ottawa

musical score: New England Conservatory of Music, Boston

Record: CRM-birthday-thomas

"©2007 R. Pearson Thomas | Portage Press Publishing"

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