Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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Nobody- (2022)
Emily Dickinson
for medium voice and piano
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!1 page, circa 1' 20"
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
A lesson is offered to us all, as the world and its peoples are too vast for "celebrity" to extend around it all. In contrast, one poet wrote and was published posthumously, and remembered by some among the many.
The dominant gesture at the opening is betrayed as the song setting races through triadic gestures far afield from the supposed tonic. Yet there is a logic in this and repetition as well. The second strophe follows the hint of the quick changing harmonies, for, after all, "time is fleeting."
The score is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this art song score.
