Altitude

In this setting of Lola Ridge’s poem, I sought to situate her emotion of longing within an art song. My musical language reaches for the desire to be with a partner in a place remote from the anger and pain that arises from existing on earth, with large intervallic leaps and dense, planing harmonies atop drones. The drone that opens and ends the piece to me emblemizes the unresolvable contradiction that we can never truly have a full, unblemished, and loving life while in this plane of existence. The musical lines that move against this drone represent the striving for moments of relief from pain and anger in our ephemeral life.

Recorded asynchronously for the 2021 NEO Voice Festival in Los Angeles, CA. Mixed and mastered by Conner Leigh Shaw.