Forbidden Songs & Elegies - OB/VOICE/PN

1. Now open your mind
2. Falling
3. Elegy of solitude
4. Walking on ice
5. Heavy in heart
6. Elegiac frenzy
7. And here I am
8. Counting
9. Nocturnal elegy
10. Awakening
11. Oh, love

From the composer:

What began in 1981 as a simple compositional exercise over the years became so much more. These works were the beginning of a new phase of creativity, a new compositional sound and artistic expression that continues today. The original cycle of six songs were set to German poems from the Buckower Elegien by Berthold Brecht and were performed once in Seattle in 1982 at a farewell concert a few months before I moved to New Mexico. These songs became "forbidden" because I did not have permission from the copyright owner to use the German texts, so I kept the songs a secret and showed them to no one. In 2006, I rediscovered the song's original pencil sketches and surprisingly found two unfinished songs and a solo oboe elegy that I had forgotten. I began to revise the original songs with new words in English and completely rewrote the unfinished songs, I incorporated and expanded the solo oboe elegy to include the piano and composed two additional instrumental elegies. The once forbidden songs and elegies at long last are revealed for public presentation. 

A separate edition of the Elegies for oboe and piano may be found here. 

Duration: 20:00