Program Note

I was immediately drawn to Jackson Bilss’ sensual and romantic language in his poetry and knew I wanted to set his text to music some day. When soprano Lindsay Kesselman approached me about composing a song cycle for her upcoming album, I immediately knew I wanted to use Jackson’s poetry for our collaboration. Depicting the dark but sexy and sultry tone of Bliss’ Arson, the piano part acts as part of the drama to the dramatic scope of the text and all movements are played attacca.- Sarah Gibson