Fisherman Songs is a song cycle of seven eclectic songs for baritone and piano. The work was completed in 2012. Nighttime is the central song and the longest. Originally I was only going to compose Nighttime as a single song. The text is by Ken Abrames from his book “The Perfect Fish.” This song is about fly fishing for striped bass at night, Mr. Abrames favorite time for fishing as well as mine. However, one evening while driving to Smith Point beach to go fly fishing in the surf, I was listening to a couple of unfamiliar songs on the radio. I parked the car in the sandy lot by the ocean and continued to listen. The music ended and the announcer said, “You have been listening to “Hermit Songs” by Samuel Barber. “—Huh.—”, I thought to myself. In a flash, Barber’s title turned into Fisherman Songs. Soon after I began to collect texts centering on different ways to fish. I settled on six more songs using texts by John Dunne (The Baite), W.B. Yeats (The Fisherman), Henry David Thoreau (text from Walden), Shen Yuëh (The Fishing Rod), Opian of Corycus (Halieutica), and an anonymous author (Fisherman’s Prayer).
When the song cycle was completed I felt I had changed. During this time I let go of certain long held views about music and composing in exchange for new ones. During this time, too, my Dad had passed while I was a fairly new father. I definitely matured and I hope my music did as well.
I mention “During this time I let go of certain long held views about music and composing in exchange for new ones.” One new approach that I did in these songs and have continued since is not changing whatever the original idea for each song. In other words, I had total confidence in the original idea. When I had finished a song I would be ready to start the next one. As so often was the case, I would wake up in the morning with an idea. I would go in to my studio and jot it down. I would not change it or debate it. That’s why I call them eclectic songs. I wan’t interested in some over arching idea that forced all the songs to submit. I saw each song as a mini-world with its own rules. The fact that all the songs are about fishing is plenty for organization. So each song has its own unique generative idea.
