Longfellow Chorus presents Piers Maxim’s “Song of the Silent Land” cantata/requiem on YouTube

Dear ChoralNet Subscribers:

The Longfellow Chorus has just posted a video presenting British composer Piers Maxim’s winning cantata submission from our 2011 Composers Competition, “Song of the Silent Land.” More like a Longfellow requiem than a canata, this work is remarkable in several ways. Maxim has beautifully interwoven three Longfellow poems about mourning and death, “Song of the Silent Land,” “The Dead” and “L’Envoi.” Mezzo Tania Mandzy and young baritone Tyler Putnam provide moving solos. Maxim is interviewed during the concert via Skype. The video’s gravestone photo images are from the early-American ‘Eastern Cemetery’ in Portland, Maine. Among the many folk art gravestone carvings are those from Longfellow’s grandparents’ graves. The woodland photo images are from “Bowdoin Pines,” or “Bowdoin Woods,” in Brunswick, Maine — the actual setting of Longfellow’s 1825 poem, “L’Envoi.” Subtitles augment the power of the text. Here’s the link:

http://youtu.be/-Kp2BFdpaw0

Charles Kaufmann, artistic director

The Longfellow Chorus

http://www.longfellowchorus.com