The Lunatic

The Lunatic, by Che Buford

Text by Charles Simic

For Mezzo Soprano and Piano, Late Intermediate, 9 Pages

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Instrumentation

Mezzo Soprano, Piano

Duration
4 minutes

Program Note
When I read Charles Simic’s poem, The Lunatic for the first time, I was impressed by the minimalist but evocative feel of the work. The poem describes the nature of a snowflake. As I read it more, I felt an unusual fixation on the action of the snowflake. The piece starts off by depicting the erratic nature of the snowflake in the right hand of the piano. It then transitions into descending plaintive, melancholy music. The singer repeats ‘’The same snowflake kept falling out of the great sky’’ three times but each time more bothered and adding words from the poem. I tried to convey the obsessive nature that the POV expresses along with the piano material depicting the falling and ‘’picking itself off the ground’’ that the snowflake does.

Performance note
This piece in general, should be performed with little to no vibrato.