While some of it strikes me as the concatenations of Cedric Q. Milquetoaste, the archetypal sexless Brit in a wool suit who parts his hair down the middle, I like other of W.H. Auden's poetry very much, and have gratefully set some of his poems, notably in this short song cycle for tenor and guitar; there is also a setting I have done of his poem AT THE PARTY. As is well known he writes more thoughtfully about music and specifically about composers than perhaps any other poet. I have found quite a few of his poems that I would like to set to music, but I reached a point where I had to cease, at least for a time, any involvement with his poetry, when I found that in his lyric The Composer, a poem I will not set, he claims "imaginary song" is "unable to claim an existence is wrong" and says to it that its nature is to "pour out your forgiveness like wine." I was uncomfortable about this line and had to give it some thought. I realized that I quite strongly disagree with this idea; in fact, and as the average no-nothing in the audience quite clearly understands, to decide in favor of one kind of music is to indict pretty much any other form. Only intellectuals are capable of working themselves into the type of belief that Auden proposes. "The people" are usually offended by music that genuinely surprises them, in other words, they are not as forgiving as the composer Auden imagines. The imbalance here thus implies that a composer is some kind of martyr, a repellant notion. No work of mine is an act of forgiveness of the public, and I repudiate martyrdom. In fact I feel that the prerequisite to enjoying my music is an awareness that listening to music requires a dual involvement between the composer and the listener without which the challenge of the music automatically indicts the listener. For me, you either actively or passively participate in the music... or you face the music.
This is my second song cycle, consisting of two songs with an instrumental interlude. It is about eight minutes long, and was completed in 2003. The texts are used by permission of Auden's publisher.The first poem is dated Autumn 1940; the second, September 1939.
I. The Hidden Law
II. Interlude
III. Law Like Love
The fair copy of the score is fourteen pages in length and is copied in the composer's fair hand
using a straightedge. Hard Copy can be purchased in the form of a Study Score, for $7.
Download the Score
The photograph is of CF's composition desk, taken in San Francisco in his Capp Street studio, where this work was completed.