THE SONGS OF LORI LAITMAN
(current as of May 2007)

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

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 following are published by ENCHANTED KNICKERS MUSIC.

The Metropolitan Tower and Other Songs (1992) (soprano/piano)   6 settings of Sara Teasdale. 12 minutes.

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)

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)
(soprano/baritone/piano or soprano/mezzo/piano) Poem by Elizabeth Bishop. 3 1/2 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

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, rev. 2004)
(soprano/trumpet)  5 settings of Toi Derricotte.

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)
(baritone/piano trio; also baritone, flute, cello and piano version. Premiered by Music of Remembrance, Benaroya Hall, April 2003. (Composed in 2002, revision in 2003) 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.

(not yet published. I am still waiting to hear the revised version)

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

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)
(tenor or baritone/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)

50 minute opera created from my songs by The 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.

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, cello and piano). 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.

My Garden (2004)
soprano/piano. Poem by Adelaide Ayer Kelley.  (not yet published)

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).

(This should be published shortly. I just have to find the files, which have mysteriously disappeared from my computer!)

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 — still awaiting the premiere)

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 should be released fall of 2008, on the Centaur Label

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.

The Blood Jet (2006)

Morning Song; The Rival; Kindness; Balloons

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

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. To be published in June 2008.

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.

The Scarlet Letter (2008)

This opera, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, and set to a new, and brilliant, libretto by poet David Mason, was commissioned by The University of Central Arkansas through Robert Holden and the UCA Opera Program. It will premiere 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. For more details, please refer to the Press Release under the “News” section.

After the premiere, I will be publishing several arias from the opera, among them:

Hester’s Lullaby (soprano)

Dimmesdale’s “Our Nights” (as he sings of his love for Hester) and “Ye People of New England” (as he confesses his sin to the community). (these are for tenor)

The Witch’s Dance Aria (mezzo-soprano) — sung by the town “witch” Mistress Hibbons

and, if I can figure out exactly how to excerpt it, Chillingworth’s beautiful aria, “Now truly know me, Hester Prynne.”

For anyone interested seeing the score or hearing a demo recording, please email me.