"My Heart is Like a Singing Bird" [Jack Gibbons]

"My Heart is Like a Singing Bird" [Jack Gibbons]

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

Gibbons, Jack; music (English, born 1962)

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

2011 [composition]

genre: song|choral music

solo: soprano

chorus: mixed chorus

instrumentation: piano

origin: United States

male composer

English

Rossetti poem(s): "A Birthday"|"'If I were a Queen'"

Work contains multiple Christina Rossetti texts

Notes about the text: Combines the text of two Rossetti poems, "A Birthday" and "If I were a Queen," into one song.

Composition history: "Three years ago I was asked by the President of Davis & Elkins College to write a work to celebrate the 75th West Virginia Mountain State Forest Festival, whose 78th festival is taking place in Elkins West Virginia this week. The Mountain State Forest Festival, one of the largest and oldest festivals in West Virginia, was established to promote the beauty and splendor of this scenic and wildlife-abundant State, with an emphasis on conservation." (Gibbons)

Performance instructions: For two sopranos and mixed chorus.

Performance history: "It received two performances during the 2011 Forest Festival, an evening concert performance by the choir of Davis & Elkins College (conducted by their choral director Liz Marshall-McVean) and then a special outside presentation as a prelude to the 'Queen Silvia Coronation ceremony' (a mock-royal event that has taken place at every Forest Festival since its founding in 1930, and which symbolizes a love of nature and the rural beauty of West Virginia). The two Christina Rossetti poems were chosen for their aptness for the occasion: "A birthday" is a wonderful celebratory poem, appropriate not only for the festival's 75th birthday but also because of Rossetti's beautiful references to mother nature. The second poem, "If I were a Queen", is one of Christina Rossetti's delightful children's poems from her 1872 collection 'Sing-Song'. I chose it for the slower central chorale to mark the Coronation of Queen Silvia." For the first performances, the soprano solos were sung by Hillary Barlow and Danielle Riggins" (Gibbons).

Recordings: Gibbons, Jack. "Gibbons: 'My heart is like a singing bird' Op.91." Live performance by Danielle Riggins and Hillary Barlow, soprano soloists, with the choir of Davis & Elkins College conducted by Liz Marshall-McVean on 6th October 2011. YouTube, uploaded 7 Oct. 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVMiwGtIf1Q. Accessed 1 Feb. 2019.
Gibbons, Jack. "Jack Gibbons: 'My heart is like a singing bird' Op.91." Rehearsal performance by Danielle Riggins and Hillary Barlow, soprano soloists, with the choir of Davis & Elkins College conducted by Liz Marshall-McVean on 6th October 2011. YouTube, uploaded 2 Oct. 2014, https://youtu.be/dne4vMtCzN4. Accessed 1 Feb. 2019.

Dedication: "'My heart is like a singing bird' is dedicated, with much gratitude and affection, to Buck and Joni Smith" (Gibbons)

Format 1: musical score

Other data reference(s): Gibbons, Jack. "My heart is like a singing bird." Facebook, 2 Oct. 2014, https://www.facebook.com/JackGibbonsPiano/posts/10152884827854384. Accessed 1 Feb. 2018.
Gibbons, Jack. "Gibbons: 'My heart is like a singing bird' Op.91." YouTube, uploaded 7 Oct. 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVMiwGtIf1Q. Accessed 1 Feb. 2019.

Cataloguer: Sarah Pennington, University of Ottawa

Opus: 91

Record: CRM-birthday-gibbon

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