Ekphrastic Songs
Songs about Works of Visual Art
Unless otherwise noted, voice category = unspecified or unknown; accompaniment = piano or unknown.
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Charles Samuel Buel: "Degas: The Absinthe Drinkers" (for voice, alto recorder, and bass recorder) (Painting: Edgar Degas' L'absinthe)
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Gerald Finzi: "Dies Natalis", Op.8 (for tenor and piano) (Painting: Sandro Botticelli's Mystic Nativity)
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Jack Heggie: The Starry Night (2001 - for mezzo-soprano and piano) (Painting: Vincent Van Gogh's "De sterrennacht")
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Jack Heggie: Statuesque (2005 - for mezzo soprano, piano or chamber ensemble of flute, alto sax, clarinet [doubles on bass clarinet], violin, cello, bass, and piano) which includes: 1. "Henry Moore: Reclining Figure of Elmwood"; 2. "Pablo Picasso: Head of a Woman, 1932"; 3. "Hapshetsut: The Divine Potter"; 4. "Alberto Giacommetti: Standing Woman #2"; 5. "Winged Victory: We're Through"
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Libby Larsen: Mary Cassatt (for mezzo-soprano, trombone, orchestra (3[3+picc].2.2.2-4.2.0.1-timp-2perc.hp-str); to be performed with 15 video projections of Cassatt's paintings indicated by the composer)
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Mana-Zucca: Three Portraits which include: 1. "Whistler's Portrait of His Mother", 2. "Mona Lisa", 3. "Gainsborough's Blue Boy"
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Frank Martin: Golgotha (1945-48 - oratorio for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone [Jesus], bass, organ, and piano) (Etching: Rembrandt van Rijn's The Three Crosses)
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Ned Rorem: "The Dance", No. 2 of Nantucket Songs (Painting: Pieter Bruegel the Elder's The Kermess)
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Camille Saint-Saëns: "Pourquoi rester seulette (A Watteau Pastoral)" (for coloratura soprano and piano) (Painting: unknown, by Antoine Watteau)
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Marc Satterwhite: Van Gogh's Flowers (2008 - for tenor, horn, and piano), which include: 1. "Sunflowers", 2. "Garden", 3. "Lavender", 4. "Iris", 5. "Poppies"
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Stephen Sondheim: "Sunday" from Sunday in the Park with George (Painting: George Seurat's Un dimanche à la Grande Jatte)
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Andrew Wise: "Musée des Beaux Arts" from Three Auden Songs (Painting: Pieter Brueghel the Elder's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus)
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Hugo Wolf: "Schlafendes Jesuskind", No. 25 of Mörike-Lieder (Painting: most likely Francesco Albani's Landscape with the Adoration of the Shepherds)
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Hugo Wolf: "Auf ein altes Bild", No. 23 of Mörike-Lieder (Painting: thought to be Albrecht Dürer's Madonna and Child)
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