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Composer: Lori Laitman
Text of Letter: Mike Gioia
Voice Type: Baritone and Piano
Duration
- 5'0"
- Language
- English
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Year of composition
- 2015
Description
Dear Future Roommate was commissioned by Lyric Fest of Philadelphia and was my first “letter” song. Tasked with finding a humorous letter to set, I searched in vain, until my frequent collaborator, Dana Gioia, suggested that I consider this letter, part of his son Mike’s application to Stanford.
Mike’s sense of humor, language and evocative descriptions made this letter perfect for song. The rhythms of “My father is a poet” become a leitmotif in the piano, where it is used extensively and in various iterations — thus underscoring the idea that the “trials” of Mike’s childhood were a direct result of his father’s occupation.
The text allowed me to incorporate some Broadway tunes (from The King and I and Oklahoma), as well as a famous Yale song, Goodnight, Poor Harvard. [Disclosure: I am a Yalie.] The song was originally scored for baritone and piano and composed in the summer of 2015.
A tenor version also exists and the premiere recording of that can be heard on my double CD set on Naxos entitled "Living in the Body".
(c) 2015, rev. 2017 Lori Laitman, Enchanted Knickers Music, BMI
Letter by Mike Gioia (1993-), used by permission |
