ON LOVING
Three Songs for Diane Kalish, in memoriam. Texts by Shakespeare, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Khalil Gibran. Premiered by Dawn Upshaw and Gilbert Kalish on the Resonant Bodies Festival, Merkin Hall, September, 2015, NYC.
“Richly melismatic and lyrical”, The Boston Globe
“To set Shakespeare’s verse without getting in the way of its natural musicality is a difficult proposition for any composer, yet the first piece “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright,” taken from a passage in Romeo and Juliet, somehow managed to expand on the verse without obscuring it. Using an immense vocabulary of dynamic shifts, Silver’s music, as sung by Upshaw, brought about an intense evocation of how it feels to be awestruck by the overwhelming, inherently beautiful sight of one’s beloved. The second song, a setting of a sonnet by St. Vincent Millay, struck an elegant balance between textual expression and illumination, while the third, on a text by Gibran, was pure spiritual rhapsody—Upshaw’s tone embodied pure light, enveloping and enthralling with its tender vibrancy.” www.theclassicalscene
On Loving was composed between 2011 and 2015 for Gilbert Kalish and Dawn Upshaw, in memory of Gil’s wife, Diane Kalish, who died suddenly in 2011. “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright came first.” A year later “Mindful of you, the sodden earth in Spring” was composed. This was the first of many Edna St. Vincent Millay texts I was to set. Finally “Love is a Magic Ray” was added to complete the set for its premiere at the Resonant Bodies festival at New York City’s Merkin Hall on September 10, 2015.
Dawn Upshaw and Gilbert Kalish perform On Loving from Sheila’s new CD album release, Beauty Intolerable: Songs of Sheila Silver Albany Records. TROY 1854-55
1. “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright” (Shakespeare)
2. “Mindful of you the sodden earth in Spring” (Edna St. Vincent Millay)
3. “Love is a Magic Ray”. (Khalil Gibran)