Walden, opus 123 (2008) for tenor and octet by Thomas Oboe Lee Small Ensemble - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.869276

Program note: I met Ray Bauwens in the summer of 2007 when he was cast as Arthur Inman in a production of my chamber opera "The Inman Diaries." He was truly the star of the show and made an incredible and unforgettable impression! Afterwards I told Ray I’d like to write a song cycle for him. He was very enthusiastic about the idea. In 1991 I was commissioned by the Thoreau Society to write a work celebrating Henry David Thoreau’s writings and poetry. For Ray I wanted to revisit Thoreau’s work, but this time concentrating only on texts from his immortal book, WALDEN. WALDEN is a huge opus. I downloaded an audio version of the book; the actor took 15 hours to read the whole thing. Liz Whitfield, violinist with the Lexington Symphony Chamber Players, said I should keep the length of the work between 25 and 30 minutes. Therefore, my Walden, opus 123 touches upon only a few aspects of the infamous book … a paragraph here, and a paragraph there. The work, in seven movements – four songs plus three instrumental interludes in between, is scored for lyric tenor and octet: flute, clarinet, string quartet, double bass and piano.