Song of the Open Road (2)

1 high male voice and orchestra (1 flute, 1 piccolo flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, harp and strings)

Programme notes

This song for high male voice and orchestra was first composed in 2008 with a piano accompaniment, then orchestrated in 2010. Song of the Open Road is part of a larger collection of poems entitled Leaves of Grass, the magnum opus of American poet Walter Whitman (1819 – 1892). Song of the Open Road is an invitation to embark on a journey of shared joy. In it Whitman describes the virtues of the open road and the joy that awaits those who travel it. He ends with an invitation to “stick together as long as we live.” Musically, the poem’s protagonists (“you”, “I” and “we”), distinctive words (“road” and “Soul”) as well as positive and negative expressions are each associated with a distinctive feature such as a single pitch, an interval, a chord or a rhythm.

Completion of the composition

11-IV-2010