THE SONGS OF LORI LAITMAN

(Current as of February 2010)

 

The primary distributor of Lori Laitman's music is Classical Vocal Reprints (CVR), headed by Glendower Jones at 1-800-298-7474, 1-479-442-2595, or www.classicalvocalrep.com.

 

All songs are by published by ENCHANTED KNICKERS MUSIC, with the exception of I Never Saw Another Butterfly, which is published by ARSIS PRESS.

 

The Metropolitan Tower and Other Songs (1991-1992) (soprano/piano) 

6 settings of Sara Teasdale. 12 minutes.

 

The Metropolitan Tower; A Winter Night; Old Tunes: The Strong House; The Hour; To A Loose Woman

 

Dreaming (1991)

(soprano; soprano and baritone; soprano and mezzo; SATB) (Humorous encore song).  2 minutes. Words and music by Lori Laitman.

 

The Love Poems of Marichiko (1993, rev. 1994)  

(soprano/cello)   Poems by Kenneth Rexroth. 12 minutes.

 

I Sit at my desk; If I Thought; Oh the Anguish; You Ask Me; Autumn; Just Us

 

Days and Nights (1995)

(soprano/piano) Poems by Browning, Dickinson, Rossetti, Bourdillon. 12 1/2 minutes.

 

Along with Me; They Might Not Need Me; The Night Has A Thousand Eyes; Over the Fence; Song; Wild Nights

 

Echo (1995)

(available for baritone, soprano, mezzo)   Setting of Christina Rossetti. 3 1/2 minutes.

 

The Ballad Singer (1995)

(baritone/piano)  Setting of Thomas Hardy.  2 minutes.

Thumbelina Songs (1989, rev. 1995)

lyrics by Lori Laitman and Wendy-Marie Goodman.

 

A Tale to Tell, Alone, Fine Family, I’m Falling in Love, King Song, I am the Mole, Wish Song, My Son, Thumbelina, Wedding Day. (not yet published)

 

I Never Saw Another Butterfly (1996) -- 6 settings of poems by children who were killed in the Holocaust. Available in the original soprano/saxophone version; and also a soprano/clarinet version and a soprano/bassoon version.  Published by Arsis Press.  15 minutes.

 

The Butterfly; Yes, That’s The Way Things Are; Birdsong; The Garden; Man Proposes, God Disposes; The Old House

 

 

Plums (1996)  

(soprano/piano) Two settings of William Carlos Williams. About 2 minutes total.

 

To a Poor Old Woman, I Just Wanted to Say.

 

Four Dickinson Songs (1996)

(soprano/piano; also mezzo/piano version)  poems by Emily Dickinson. 9 minutes.

 

Will There Really Be A Morning?,  I’m Nobody,  She Died, If I...

 

Between the Bliss and Me (1997)   

(soprano/piano) Poems by Emily Dickinson. almost 5 minutes.

 

I gained it so, The Book, I could not prove.

 

Mystery (1998) 

(baritone/piano or mezzo-soprano/piano). Poems by Sara Teasdale.  10 minutes.

 

Nightfall, Spray, The Kiss, The Mystery, The Rose

 

Daughters (1998)

(mezzo-soprano and piano trio) Poems by Anne Ranasinghe and Karen Gershon. 18 minutes.

 

Mascot and Symbol; Stella Remembered; A Letter to My Daughter

 

Holocaust 1944 (1996, rev. 1998)

(baritone and doublebass) Poems by Ficowski, Vogel, Rosewicz, Gershon, Ranasinghe.  28 minutes.

 

I did not manage to save; How can I see you, love; Both your Mothers; What Luck; Massacre of the Boys; Race; Holocaust 1944

 

Homeless (1998)

(mezzo-soprano/piano) Poem by Michael Flack. 3 1/2 minutes.

 

 

Sunflowers (1999)

(soprano/piano) Poems by Mary Oliver.  14 minutes.

 

The Sunflowers, Dreams, Sunrise

 

I am in Need of Music (1999)

(duet for soprano/baritone with piano or soprano/mezzo with piano) Poem by Elizabeth Bishop. 4 minutes.

 

Men with Small Heads (2000)  

(available for countertenor, mezzo-soprano or baritone/piano)  Poems by Thomas Lux.  11 minutes.

 

Men with Small Heads; Refrigerator, 1957; A Small Tin Parrot Pin; Snake Lake

 

The song “Men with Small Heads” won “Best American Art Song” in the 2004 American Art Song Competition sponsored by the San Francisco Song Festival.

 

This Space (2000, rev. 2005)

(bass/piano, also mezzo/piano version).  Poem by Thomas Lux.   2 minutes.

 

Armgart (2000)

(soprano/piano)  Poem by George Eliot.  3 minutes.

 

Winner of The Boston Art Song Competition, 2000.

 

One or Two Things (2001)

(mezzo- soprano/piano)  Poem by  Mary Oliver.  5 minutes.

 

Don’t Bother Me; The God of Dirt; One or Two Things

 

Round and Round (2001)

(soprano/piano) Poems by Anne Spencer Lindbergh.  9 minutes.

 

Earlier this Afternoon; Little Plump Person;  I Contrived A Poem; Bar the Door; Little Anne; Round and Round

 

The Years (2001)

(soprano/piano) Poems by Sara Teasdale.   9 minutes.

 

Jewels; To-Night; Barter; Faults; The Years

 

 

 

Living in the Body (2001)

(soprano/saxophone) Poems by Joyce Sutphen. 15 minutes.

 

Burning the Woods of my Childhood; Living in the Body; Not for Burning; Lost at Table; Bring on the Rain; Crossroads

 

And I Will Bring Them (2001, rev. 2003, 2009)

(soprano/piano) Text from the Bible, Isiah 56:7

 

Within These Spaces (2002)

(soprano/piano)  Poems by Marjorie Saiser, Janet Coleman and Judith Sornberger.  16 minutes

 

I Grow to be My Grandmother; My Mother Has Recovered; Letter to my Daughter; The China Cup; Pioneer Child’s Doll

 

Little Elegy (2002)

(soprano/piano)  Poem by Elinor Wylie. 1 minute.

 

Long Pond Revisited (2002)  

(baritone/cello). Poems by C.G.R. Shepard.  15 1/2 minutes.

 

I Looked for Reasons; The Pond Seems Smaller; Late in the Day; Days Turn; Long Pond Revisited.

 

Two Dickinson Songs (2002)

(soprano/piano) Poems by Emily Dickinson.  4 minutes.

 

Good Morning Midnight; Wider than the Sky

 

Lines Written at the Falls (2002)

(soprano/piano) Poem by Thomas Moore. 3 1/2 minutes

 

 

Captivity (2002, revised in 2004, 2007 and 2008)

(soprano/trumpet)  Originally 5 settings:

 

The Minks; The Struggle; Books; The Polishers of Brass; The Weakness

 

Revised again in 2007 into 2 separate cycles. Published in June 2008, as Captivity, with 3 songs: The Polishers of Brass, Books and The Weakness. The other 2 songs will be reworked with piano and published at a later date.

 

Fathers (2002, rev.2003, rev. 2010)

(baritone/piano trio or mezzo-soprano with piano trio. There are also baritone and mezzo versions with flute instead of violin.)  Baritone version premiered by Music of Remembrance, Benaroya Hall, April 2003 and mezzo version to premiere by Music of Remembrance in March 2010. Poems by Ranasinghe and Vogel.

 

Fragment 1; You, Father; Fragment 2; Last Night I Dreamt; fragment 3; I Saw My Father Drowning; Don’t Cry.

 

Will be published in April 2010.

 

Early Snow (2003)

(soprano/piano)   Poems by Mary Oliver.  9 minutes.

 

Last Night the Rain Spoke to me, Blue Iris, Early Snow

 

The Throwback (2003)

(baritone/piano). 5 settings of Paul Muldoon.  8 1/2 minutes.

 

Cradle Song for Asher; The Ancestor; Redknots; The Breather; The Throwback

 

One Bee And Revery (2003)

(soprano/piano)  Three Dickinson settings.  4 minutes.

 

The Butterfly upon; Hope is a Strange Invention; To Make A Prairie

 

Sleep, Little Child (2003)

Any voice type and piano. Short lullaby, words by Lori Laitman. 1:40 minutes.

 

Fresh Patterns (2003)

(soprano, soprano and piano). Texts from Emily Dickinson and Annie Finch.  10 minutes.

 

Commissioned by Steven Jordheim for Alisa Jordheim.

 

It’s All I Have to Bring Today (Dickinson, soprano and piano); A Letter for Emily Dickinson (Finch, soprano and piano); Fresh Patterns (soprano, soprano and piano/Dickinson and Finch)

 

Becoming A Redwood (2003)

(high voice and piano/high voice and orchestra).  Poems by Dana Gioia.  14 minutes.

 

The Song (after Rilke); Pentecost; Curriculum Vitae; Becoming A Redwood

 

Money (2003)

(for voice and piano/also duet setting soprano/baritone/piano). Poem by Dana Gioia. 2 minutes.

 

The Apple Orchard (2004) composed Dec. 200- Jan 1, 2004 (about 2.5 minutes)

(Versions for tenor, baritone or soprano with piano).  Poem by Dana Gioia. 2 1/2 minutes.

 

Being Happy (2004)

(baritone/piano).  Poem by Dana Gioia.  2 minutes.

 

Swimmers on the Shore (2004)

(baritone/piano).  Poem by David Mason. 5 minutes.

Commissioned by The West Chester University Poetry Conference.

 

If I...  choral version.  Arrangement by Bruce Rosenblum.

 

 

Come to Me in Dreams  (2004)

One-Act Chamber Opera

 

50 minute opera created from my songs by Cleveland Opera’s David Bamberger. Premiered at The Ohio Theatre June 9-12. 2004, Cleveland, Ohio. Cast:  Sanford Sylvan, Fenlon Lamb, Megan Tillman and Sara Renea Rucker; instrumentalists Judith Ryder, Maximilian Dimoff and Paul Cohen.

 

I Did Not Manage to Save; Faults; Yes, That’s the Way Things Are; To-Night; Birdsong; Massacre of the Boys; Wild Nights; The Butterfly; The Years; Holocaust, 1944; Man Proposes, God Disposes; Jewels; The Garden; Both Your Mothers; Echo.

 

My Garden (2004)

soprano/piano. Poem by Adelaide Ayer Kelley.  (not yet published)

 

On A Photograph (2004)

(Solo version for all voice types; duet versions for mezzo/baritone and mezzo/bass)  Poem by John Wood. 5 minutes.

 

Premiered February 14, 2005, Banners Series, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA. with soprano Carol Lines and pianist Lori Laitman.

 

The Seed of Dream (2004)

(baritone or mezzo-soprano with cello and piano accompaniment).

Poems by Vilna Ghetto survivor Abraham Sutzkever, with translations by C.K. Williams and Leonard Wolf.

 

Commissioned by Music of Remembrance, Seattle, WA.  18 minutes.

 

I Lie in This Coffin; A Load of Shoes; To My Child; Beneath the Whiteness of Your Stars; No Sad Songs, Please.

 

Five Lovers (2004)

(soprano/piano).  Poems by Jama Jandrokovic.  8 minutes.

 

Commissioned by Jama Jandrokovic.

 

On Meeting Again; Lovely in His Bones; This Morning; Second Date; July, 95 degrees.

 

 

Equations of the Light (2005)

high voice and piano/also duets for soprano and baritone or soprano and tenor with piano).

Poem by Dana Gioia. 4 1/2 minutes.

 

Commissioned by The West Chester University Poetry Conference 2005.

 

The Perfected Life (2006)

soprano and tenor/mezzo and baritone versions. Poems by Emily Dickinson.

 

An Amethyst Remembrance (2005); Dear March; The Perfected Life (2006).

 

 

River of Horses (2006)

(soprano/piano). Poems by Baudelaire, James Wright, James Dickey, Traditional Navajo poem. 10 minutes.

 

My Hand Forever, A Blessing, A Birth, Sioux Warrior Song, Two Horses

 

Commissioned by Jean del Santo, University of Minnesota.

 

(not yet published or premiered)

 

Orange Afternoon Lover (2006)

(soprano/piano.; and mezzo-soprano/piano version) Poems by Margaret Atwood.

 

Against Still Life, I Was Reading A Scientific Article, I Am Sitting on the Edge

 

Jointly commissioned by The Howard Hanson Fund of The Eastman School and The College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University, and written expressly for soprano Eileen Strempel and pianist Sylvie Beaudette.

 

This recording released fall of 2009 on the Centaur Label: (In)Habitation: Settings of Margaret Atwood Poetry by American Women Composers.

 

Eloise at Yaddo (2006)

(soprano/piano). Poem by David Yezzi.

 

Full Moon and Light Hearted William: Two William Carlos Williams Songs (1997, rev.2007)

(tenor/piano). Poems by William Carlos Williams.

 

In honor of Richard Miller, tenor and master teacher.

 

The Blood Jet (2006)

(soprano/piano). Poems by Sylvia Plath. Commissioned by Dr. Adelaide Whitaker. Published in June 2008.

 

Morning Song; The Rival; Kindness; Balloons

 

The Silver Swan (2007)

Two versions; one for mezzo-soprano and piano; one for mezzo-soprano, piano and flute.  (Although this can definitely also work for soprano (or tenor, or baritone.)

 

Poem by Orlando Gibbons.  For Dr. Carol Kimball. Published in June 2008.

 

On The Green Trail (2007)

Two versions: one for soprano and piano; one for tenor and piano. Poems by Jeff Gundy.  Published in June 2008. Commissioned by Dr. Michelle Latour.

 

On The Green Trail; Looking at My Hands; Small Night Song from Oneonta

 

Journey (2008)

For alto-saxophone and piano.  This is truly a “song without words” as the permission for the poem was removed after the setting was done. (Long story that really can’t be told!)

 

A Wild Sostenuto (2008)

To the poem “For C.” by Richard Wilbur. Available in 2 keys — one for high voice, one for low. The baritone version (with piano) was published in June 2008. Commissioned by the 2008 West Chester University Poetry Conference.

 

The Scarlet Letter (2008)

Full length opera in 2 Acts, to libretto by poet David Mason

 

This opera uses a brilliant new libretto by poet David Mason, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s literary masterpiece. It was commissioned by The University of Central Arkansas through Robert Holden and the UCA Opera Program. The premiere was November 6, 2008 at the Donald W. Reynolds Theater at the University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR.

 

 

The opera is about 2 hours long, and is scored for 3 main leads, 3 minor roles, a chorus, and assorted secondary roles. There is one non-speaking part for Pearl, Hester’s daughter. It is scored for chamber orchestra.

 

There are several stand-alone arias:

 

“Beyond All Price” — Hester’s Lullaby (soprano)

“This Canopy of Trees” — another aria for Hester (soprano)

“Now Truly Know Me” — Chillingworth’s lament (baritone)

“Our Nights” — (tenor)

“Ye People of New England” — (tenor)

“Come To The Devil’s Fire” – the Witch’s aria (mezzo-soprano)

“Our Eden Here is Love” — (soprano and tenor duet)

 

Act I, Scene 2 from the opera will also be published separately, as a duet for baritone and soprano.

 

The choral sections of the opera will also be published independently.

 

Dear Edna (2009)

Commissioned by soprano Hope Hudson. For soprano with piano. This song cycle sets the famous poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed” – as well as 3 poems about Millay by the contemporary American women poets Jennifer Reeser, Diane Thiel and A.E. Stallings.

 

On An Album of Millay’s Recordings; What Lips My Lips Have Kissed; Editorial Suggestive (from a Twenty-First Century Editor); After Reading the Biography, Savage Beauty.

 

Vedem: A Holocaust Oratorio and

Vedem: The Song Cycle (2010)

 

This oratorio was commissioned by Music of Remembrance and they will premeire it at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, WA on May 10, 2010. It is scored for boychoir, mezzo-soprano and tenor soloists, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. There is a separate song-cycle component, scored for the soloists with clarinet and piano accompaniment. 

The libretto intertwines the original poetry secretly published by the boys of Terezin with David Mason’s brilliant depiction of their lives. The poems are by Petr Ginz, Hanus Hachenburg, Zdenek Ornest, and Josef Taussig.

 

The oratorio contains the following songs:

 

The Transports; Memories of Prague; Home Number One; Five; Just A Little Warmth; In Terezin The Mind Was Free; Thoughts: Like Leaves About To Fall; Love In The Floodgates; We Were Alive, Approximately; A Model Ghetto; Farewell To Summer; We Were No Different Than You.

 

The song cycle contains the following songs:

 

Memories of Prague; Five; Thoughts; Love In The Floodgates; Farewell To Summer.

 

 

IN PROGRESS:

 

New Dickinson cycle to commemorate my parents’ 70^th wedding anniversary. One setting done:  Some Keep The Sabbath. (2009)

 

The Act

 

This song is commissioned by The Sorel Foundation and will premiere at Songfest, 2010 on June 19, 2010 at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. The poem is by H.L. Hix, and the piece is scored for soprano, tenor and piano.

 

Soon to be:

 

Todesfuge/Deathfugue

 

I will begin working on a setting of Paul Celan’s Todesfuge (Deathfugue) in the original German as well as a translation by John Felstiner. This piece is being composed for baritone Wolfgang Holzmair.

 

Ludlow

 

David Mason and I are planning our second opera together, based on his verse-novel Ludlow. In 2009, David received the $40,000 Thatcher Hoffman Smith Award for Creativity in Motion, awarded by The University of Oklahoma. The prize was given to David specifically to create the libretto for our 2^nd opera together. I am looking for funding for the music portion.