City Songs is a song cycle I wanted so desperately to compose. Written as a reflection of my time in Chicago, the cycle features three poems from poet W. S. Di Piero which became a map of my own emotional geography of transit, presence, and personal agency. Tracing a path through Di Piero’s urban landscapes, both literal and internal, I used the city not merely as a background or set piece, but as a direct mirror for internal states: from the cold, solitary pavement of winter to a wide sky disrupted by birds in flight.

Throughout this collection, I wanted the music to contrast mechanical, relentless motion with suspended pauses, capturing the tension between the states of emotional stagnancy and growth. Originally written for voice and pedal harp, I wanted this piano version to further expand the dynamic and resonant range of these songs, using deep acoustic sonorities and versatile textures to ground the vocal narrative.

The cycle follows a clear psychological path, moving from the weight of the past, through a moment of focused observation, to a direct confrontation with the future:

1. Nostalgia, dislocation, and the friction of homecoming II. Ephemeral connection, natural phenomenon, and radical presence III. Self-reckoning, courage, and emotional vulnerability

2. December 28: Returning to Chicago The opening movement explores the complex emotional geography of returning to a place that carries deep personal history. Set against the backdrop of Chicago in late December, the text captures the quiet tension between familiar streets and the internal changes that distance creates. Musically, an undulating keyboard figure mirrors the continuous, rhythmic motion of transit, like a train on tracks or tires on frozen pavement. Below this perpetual motion, deep bass notes eventually ground the piece in the stark atmosphere of winter. The vocal line navigates this landscape with a mix of nostalgia and displacement, capturing the bittersweet reality of stepping back into a former home while no longer being the person who left it.

II. Starlings The second movement shifts the focus from memory and geography to immediate observation. Starlings centers on what I wanted to convey as a murmuration, where thousands of birds move as a single, fluid body across an urban sky. The song treats this natural event as a metaphor for unexpected connection, instinctual synchronization, and the beauty found in fleeting moments. The score reflects this erratic movement through shifting meters and delicate vocal lines that sometimes float over spaces of sustained tones. Rapid, alternating keyboard figures break through the stillness to mimic the sharp turns of the flock, capturing a moment where the noise of the city gives way to quiet wonder.

III. What Have You Got to Lose? The cycle concludes by turning inward to confront the fear of vulnerability, risk, and emotional agency. Where the previous movements deal with looking back and looking up, What Have YouGot to Lose? is about moving forward. The text acts as an unvarnished internal monologue, questioning the self-imposed barriers that keep us safe but isolated. A harp-like, rolling ostinato in the piano drives the piece forward like an accelerating heartbeat. Building from a quiet excited optimism into an assertive vocal climax, the song strips away hesitation. It serves as a decisive statement that the risk of exposure and potential heartbreak is far better than the safety of stagnation.

Copyright ©️ 2026 Rosśa Crean/Knight & Thorne Music/ASCAP. All Rights Reserved.

All text used and reprinted with kind permission of W. S. Di Piero (2017).