THEME IN YELLOW

THEME IN YELLOW
7 Songs for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano
on Poems by Robert Frost, Amy Lowell, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Carl Sandburg

Publisher
E. C. Schirmer Music Company

Catalog Number
8594

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Description
THEME IN YELLOW is a song cycle about the season of Autumn, beginning with leaving Summer behind, and then experiencing the rustling of the crops before harvest as the winds blow through them. The seasonal sense of loss and sadness, depicted by decaying vine leaves and the final song of the last cricket before first frost, is palpable. But there is also the Jack-o’-lantern, with pumpkins spotting the hills, that at first glance appears frightening (but the children know better). Finally there is uplift, as the falling of the leaves through bright Autumn sunlight creates beautiful checkerworks of lights and golden yellows playing upon the ground, a bright show of brilliant color before the coming darkness of Winter.

Text
1 – Song  (Edna St. Vincent Millay)
2 – Ripe Corn  (Carl Sandburg)
3 – November  (Amy Lowell)
4 – Theme In Yellow  (Carl Sandburg)
5 – Gathering Leaves  (Robert Frost)
6 – Splinter  (Carl Sandburg)
7 – Haze Gold  (Carl Sandburg)

Vocal Range
G-sharp 3  :  G 5

Duration
10′ 00″

Vocal Tessitura
F-sharp 4  :  D-sharp 5

Year of Composition
1990

First Performance
September 11, 1992
Cleveland Institute of Music
Cleveland, Ohio

First Performers
Katherine Eberle, mezzo-soprano
Robin Guy, piano