Vision And Prayer

a song cycle for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, cello, soprano, and bass baritone
Text by Dylan Thomas (1914 – 1953), used with permission by New Directions Publishing Corp.

Reading by Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble conducted by Kevin Noe.

Lindsay Kesselman, soprano
Lindsey Goodman, flute
Kevin Schempf, clarinet
Ian Rosenbaum, percussion
Erika Dohi, piano
Nathalie Shaw, violin
Norbert Lewandowski, cello

Part I: The Vision

Prelude

Song I. Who Are you

Song II. I Must lie

Song III. When The wren Bone writhes down

Song IV: There Crouched bare

Part II: The Prayer

Interlude

Song V: In the name of the lost

Song VI: Forever falling night

Song VII: I turn a corner of prayer

Program Note:

Vision And Prayer is a setting of Dylan Thomas’s concrete poem of the same name from his 1946 collection of poems entitled Deaths and Entrances. The piece is divided into two sections, “The Vision,” consisting of an instrumental prelude and four songs, and “The Prayer” consisting of an instrumental interlude and three songs. Songs I., III., and VI. are for soprano voice, while song V. is for bass baritone voice. Both soprano and bass baritone voices sing together on songs II., IV., and VII.

According to many accounts, Dylan Thomas was not a religious man, but my interpretation of his poem is centered on an awakening of faith in God and the emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows, varying degrees of questioning, searching, doubt, and acceptance that begins, and in most cases, never ends when this profound moment of rebirth ensues in the life of a human being.