Abide with Me:

5 songs of love 

for voice and piano

commissioned by and dedicated to Jos Milton

18′

1. That night

2. In the Garden

3. Be not afraid

4. Abide with me

5. If you will have me

When Jos Milton asked me to write a piece for his project about art song in the American South, it took me a while to find the right subject. I spent some time trying to write something contributing to the mythology of this place, but I finally realized the piece needed to be about my personal experience of growing up here.

What I settled on is a patchwork love story, mostly of texts that were influential to me growing up. (The final poem is by my friend and colleague, Philip Rice.) The five songs together form a kind of Southern Song of Solomon- a meditation on love in its various forms: divine, physical, sacred, and secular.

Abide with Me: 5 songs of love is available on “Southerly: Art Songs of the American South” from Albany Records. Available on Amazon and iTunes.