Aria: "Ashes are the bread I eat"
Judith Lang Zaimont
About this work:
Aria: "Ashes are the bread I eat" (1983)
For mezzo-soprano and piano (4:30)
Text: Bible [from oratorio LAMENTATION]
Publisher: Sounds Alive!
Commissioned by the Gregg Smith Singers, Philadelphia Singers, Dale Warland
Singers and I Cantori (Los Angeles), through a grant from the National
Endowment for the Arts
First Performace: Gregg Smith Singers and Florilegium Chamber Choir, May
1985 Other Performances: Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Sigma Alpha Iota;
Georgia State University; University of Minnesota
"The most moving piece was an aria from 'Lamentation,' a large-scale
oratorio dating from 1982. The aria's biblical text ['Ashes are the bread I
eat'], which deals with the Jews' exile into Babylonia, was set in a straight
forward, atmospheric, syllabic manner. Its stark piano accompaniment and
long-breathed, darkly eloquent melodic line (adapted from fragments by the
Renaissance madrigalist Carlo Gesualdo) proved extremely apposite."
-- The Atlanta Constitution
Year composed: 1983
Duration: 00:04:30
Ensemble type: Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble:Solo Voice with Keyboard
Instrumentation: