Song cycle: It’s All I Have to Bring Today; Letter for Emily Dickinson; Fresh Patterns.
2003, revised 2011 and March 2017 | 2 sopranos and piano.
Texts from Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) and Annie Finch (b.1956).
Commissioned by Steven Jordheim for Alisa Jordheim and Patrice Michaels.
New edition in January 2026 incorporates some small changes. If you have an older version, please email me for a free update.
ERRATA:
Song 1: m. 10 PIANO LH: changed the half rest to 2 quarters, better reflecting the meter split
Last measure, PIANO LH: the descrescendo should happen after the downbeat.
Song 2: m. 13-14 VOICE: the correct hyphenation of “generosity” is “gen-er-os-i-ty” — and this has been corrected in later editions.
m. 25 VOICE: erased the hairpin
m. 26 PIANO: added descrescendo and m. 27 added an mp
m. 43-44 PIANO: I changed the dynamics. Now there is a cresc. from m. 43 into m. 44, a forte on the downbeat in m. 44, and this remains until the descrescendo in m. 47.
m. 34 VOICE: moved the forte to downbeat of m. 35
m. 43 VOICE: moved the forte to downbeat of m. 44
m. 50 PIANO: I added a crescendo, leading to the mp in m. 51
m. 80 VOICE: moved the forte to downbeat of m. 81 and aligned hairpins in voice and piano)
m. 82 PIANO: changed mp to mf
Song 3:
m. 10 PIANO LH: changed the half rest to 2 quarters, better reflecting the meter split
m. 25 PIANO: extended the descrescendo through m. 26
m. 32 VOICE: moved the forte to downbeat of next measure
m. 36 PIANO: extended hairpin through end of measure
m. 50: SOPRANO 2: extended hairpin through end of measure
m. 58 VOICES: moved the forte to downbeat of next measure
m. 67: SOPRANO 1: moved the forte to downbeat of next measure
m. 71 PIANO: moved the mp to downbeat of next measure
m. 88 SOPRANO 2: added a comma after “have” and m. 89 decapitalized “All” so it’s “all”
m. 91 SOPRANO 2: changed period to comma after “heart”
m. 113 SOPRANO 1: erased the mf and put a forte on m. 114 downbeat
