JULIANA HALL | AMERICAN ART SONG COMPOSER

SENTIMENT : MEZZO-SOPRANO VERSION

SENTIMENT : MEZZO-SOPRANO VERSION
Monodrama for Unaccompanied Mezzo-Soprano

on a Libretto by Caitlin Vincent

Publisher
E. C. Schirmer Music Company

Catalog Number
8991

Order : Print
E. C. Schirmer Music Company
Music Shop Europe
Presto Sheet Music
Sheet Music Plus
Stretta Music
Theodore Front

Order : Download
E. C. Schirmer Music Company

Order : Subscription
This work is not available as a subscription.

Description
Juliana Hall decided to set poet Caitlin Vincent’s text — SENTIMENT — for a solo unaccompanied soprano singer, creating a monodrama (her first), because she felt the raw emotions expressed in Vincent’s text required a more direct communication from singer to audience than a piece with piano or another instrument might allow. In describing her text, Vincent writes,

“The general premise is emotions but also about the version of ourselves we try to present to the world. Each song leads into the next: giddy happiness followed by the inevitable plunge into depression, then anger and embarrassment for revealing too much to the audience, remorse for lashing out, and finally a plea for the world to see only the singer’s ‘best’ side.”

After its initial release as a work for unaccompanied soprano, many mezzo-sopranos asked Hall whether she had a piece for solo mezzo, so Hall decided to create a new version of “Sentiment” for unaccompanied mezzo-soprano. While the two versions are largely the same, there are quite a few rewritten passages for the mezzo to account for range differences and adjustments necessitated by these; therefore, the version of “Sentiment” for solo mezzo-soprano is not simply a transposition of the original soprano version, but is truly a new work in its own right.

Text
1 – Prologue
2 – Joy
3 – Sorrow
4 – Anger
5 – Remorse
6 – Epilogue

Vocal Range
G-sharp 3  :  A 5

Duration
12′ 00″

Vocal Tessitura
D 4  :  D 5


Year of Composition
2020

First Performance
April 15, 2022
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN


First Performer
Rachael Bell, mezzo-soprano

Listen
no recording is available at this time