Fire and Sleet and Candlelight for Soprano voice and Chamber Ensemble (Trumpet, Oboe, Violin, Electric Guitar and Piano)
Fire and Sleet and Candlelight for Soprano voice and Chamber Ensemble (Trumpet, Oboe, Violin, Electric Guitar and Piano) is an art-song in the tradition of the great lieder of Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, but with a more modern style with Jazz and Rock influences. The chamber ensemble consists of Trumpet, Oboe, Violin, Electric Guitar and Piano. The text is by the early 20th century American poet Elinor Wylie, whose work has been unduly neglected.
Fire and Sleet and Candlelight is available in an arrangement for Soprano Voice and a different Chamber Ensemble of Alto Saxophone, Viola, Electric Guitar and Piano.
Fire and Sleet and Candlelight was premiered as part of Composers Concordance presents Art of the Art Song, featuring soprano Ljiljana Winkler (to whom the work was dedicated) with Formation Solenne / CompCord Ensemble on Friday, December 2, 2022 at Greenwich House in New York City. In addition to Ljiljana Winkler, the other performers were Lynn Bechtold, violin; Peter Oswald, trumpet; Gene Pritsker, electric guitar, Jai Jeffryes, piano and Charles Coleman, conductor. Below is the YouTube video of the world premiere performance.
Text for Fire and Sleet and Candlelight, based on the poem by Elinor Wylie.
Fire and sleet and candlelight.
For this you've striven
Daring, to fail:
Your sky is riven
Like a tearing veil.
For this, you've wasted
Wings of your youth;
Divined, and tasted
Bitter springs of truth.
From sand unslak-ed
Twisted strong cords,
And wandered naked
Among trysted swords.
There's a word unspoken,
A knot untied.
Whatever is broken
The earth may hide.
Your race is ended—
See, it is run:
Nothing is mended
Under the sun.
Fire, sleet, candlelight.