Signature for Tempo

for soprano and piano

1976

9 minutes

Poetry: Archibald MacLeish

Premiere: Raquel Cortina, soprano
Mary Ann Bulla, piano
University of New Orleans
April 2, 1977

[Withdrawn. Not available for performance.]

Composer Notes: I composed the four songs in this work during a period in which I sometimes shifted between atonal and tonal materials in the course of a single work. In this case the first song was primarily atonal. Yet quasi-tonal gestures occurred sporadically throughout the work. The final song was centric and ended emphatically on a single pitch center.

These songs were well received in performance, but my regard for the poetry diminished as my aesthetic point of view shifted in my late thirties. I still found MacLeish’s use of language remarkable, but I was no longer receptive to the substance of these poems, so I withdrew the songs.