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About the Composer
Isaac Lovdahl
Graphite Publishing
How Close I’d Love to Be
A beautiful song of poignant longing.
mezzo-soprano and piano
“How Close I’d Love to Be” takes a short poem and develops it with rich musical ideas. Colorful key changes and contrasting piano figures dramatize the conflict of waiting and hoping for a love that remains unfulfilled. Lines of repeated text heighten the intensity and colorful moments of text painting add further intensity. Performers will never tire of finding deeper methods of expression in this lovely song.
Composer’s Notes
“How Close I’d Love to Be” was the first place winner at Minneapolis SongSLAM 2020, a team competition featuring original art songs. The poetry is by Anna George Meek. It was also the winner of the competition’s Living Poet Prize. Meek’s evocative poem paints a picture of a bustling, hectic city before the narrator notices and fixates on the moon shining through the tree branches. This moment of stillness captivates them as it reminds them of a past love that is now lost, but not forgotten. The narrator yearns for that love again, but knows it is now only behind them. When you love in a big way, you fall much harder on the way down. This piece is for all who have loved and lost: “If I could truly be with you, then the songs that come out of my body would touch your skin and still be warm.”
– Isaac Lovdahl, 2022
Text
: closer than the reproductions, the reports,
the dirty windows, closer than my own eyes
allow. I can hear gunshots in the alley,
a woman’s voice yelling in the apartment building
next door; I can see the moon
in the tree branches
turn rooftops a sooty purple.
If I could truly be with you,
then the songs that come out of
my body would touch your skin and still
be warm.
-Anna George Meek
$4.25 per licensed PDF
Music from Graphite Publishing
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Lady Icicle
Difficulty: 3Duration: less than 3 min.
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