The Jewish Cemetery at Newport
Bruce J. Taub
About this work:
The setting of The Jewish Cemetery at Newport by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was wrtten in 1994 for soprano, Cheryl Marshall for use in her masterclass group (Vox Nuvo, Contemporary American Voices). I began looking for a text to set in 1992 and finally came across this somewhat obscure poem by Longfellow. One of the reasons it took me so long to find an appropriate text was that I did not want to write a "song" for her, but rather something more dramatic in order to take advantage of all her talents. Although many modern literary critics seem to find Longfellow "sentimental," this poem is certainly not. I was deeply affected by this poem about the plight of the Jewish people throughout history because of my ancetry and the use of the two words "never" and "again" in the last line of the poem. This piece is dedicated to the family I never met who were shot and buried in a mass grave when the Nazis invaded Husiatyn, Poland on July 6, 1941. Cheryl Marshall premiered the piece with Marilyn Nonken in New York at a Washington Square Contemporary Music Society Concert in New York. It is published by C.F. Peters Corporation.
Year composed: 1994
Duration: 00:07:30
Ensemble type: Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble:Solo Voice with Keyboard
Instrumentation: 1 Piano, 1 Soprano