As a part of my residency in Hong Kong with The Upstrike:Project, my Sonnets for Soprano, Percussion and Piano was premiered as a part of my portrait concert. I performed piano with Matthew Lau on percussion and soprano Joanne Shao. Since NoExit premiered the first chamber ensemble version in 2023, I’ve added three new songs. The performance scores are available as a PDF Version and On-Demand Print.

Photos Credit: Jeff Cheng (IG handle: ffejc)

Program Notes

Ever since a quixotic beauty caught the eye of an itinerant, 14th century ex-priest, the sonnet has been to poetic expressions of love as bread is to butter. It is an almost protean form, something so innate that whether or not Petrarch fell for his Laura a similar structure would surely have emerged in some other guise at nearly the same time. While the language and style of sonneteers continuously evolves, this timeless form has retained its grip on poetic minds for centuries. From Shakespeare and Donne to Rilke and Neruda, the sonnet persists as a deft expression of human experience in all its vicissitudes. Into the pressure cooker of its compact formal apparatus, the complexity, ambiguity and chaos of humanity emerges reshaped and reborn into powerfully concise, crystalline poetic expression.

Writing in the first half of the 20th century, Edna St. Vincent Millay vigorously takes up this tradition.At a time of high poetic modernism, Millay injects the ancient form with vitality and stylistic ingenuity. In her hands the sonnet feels fresh and urgent. The words are organic and vital, yet also surgically precise in their layered meaning, wit and sheer beauty. Millay’s sonnets are shifting and bold, fearlessly expressing a radically feminine perspective, while at the same time gesturing towards universal themes of love and desire. In writing my piece, Sonnets, I primarily wanted to foreground Millay’s brilliant words. The poetry is so good, so captivating, direct and powerful that it seemed my job, as composer, was simply to provide a musical scaffolding for Millay’s candescent verse. To that end I’ve put together five songs that hopefully allow you to appreciate and be moved by these beautiful words.

Sonnets was commissioned by the No Exit New Music Ensemble. The first five songs were premiered April 7, 2023 at SPACES in Ohio City, OH by Lauren Pearl, Soprano, and the No Exit New Music Ensemble.