Romance (2022)
For tenor and Piano
Duration: 8.5 minutes
Commissioned by tenor Lawrence Brownlee, this work, a love song, is my setting of Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay’s poem Romance, about an intimate night between two lovers. Amid this endearingly sweet moment in time—filled with deep passion and a naïve hope for the two’s eternal future as one—the lovers realize that their love for each other is transient. How long can they hold onto this moment?