The Music of Lori Laitman, now available as PDFs
Majority — for soprano or mezzo-soprano and piano (priced for 2 copies)
SM-000613878
- Composer
- Lori Laitman
-
Lyricist
-
Dana Gioia
- Publisher
- Enchanted Knickers Music
- Genre
-
Classical / Song
- Instrumentation
- Piano, Soprano, Mezzo-soprano
- Scored for
- Solo, Accompanying piano
- Type of score
- Piano-vocal score
- Duration
- 3'15"
- Language
- English
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Year of composition
- 2024
Description
Dana Gioia’s moving poem about grief and its continuing aftermath is a tribute to the son that he and Mary Gioia lost to SIDS at age 4 months. From the moment I read Majority, I wanted to set it to music, envisioning it as a sequel to my 2003 setting of Dana’s Pentecost. Over the years, I tried to compose a setting but could not find the right sounds. Then, in early December 2024 I succeeded. The result sounds very different from much of my music. The vocal line is lyrical, but melodically contained before expanding in scope mid-section. The piano’s sparse motif begins in the extreme registers of the piano but the hands come together as the song progresses, and then wander upwards to end the song, as if entering another dimension. When I was done composing, I realized it was 21 years since I wrote Pentecost — an interesting coincidence.