Based on a translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's "The First Elegy" from the "Duino Elegies."

Range - C#4 to B5 (D6)

Duration: 25 - 30 minutes

Copyright © 2021 Rosśa Crean/Knight & Thorne Music/ASCAP. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the owner/publisher. Please notify the composer of any performances at rossa@rossacrean.com.

“The Spaces We Breathe” is in reference to the first of the ten Duino Elegies written by metaphysical poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). After their publication in 1923 and Rilke's death in 1926, the Duino Elegies were quickly recognized by critics and scholars as his most important work. From 1912 to 1923, the elegies languished incomplete for long stretches of time as Rilke suffered frequently from severe depression—some of which was caused by the events of World War I and being conscripted into military service. When the war ended Rilke experienced a sudden, renewed inspiration—writing in a frantic pace he described as a "boundless storm, a hurricane of the spirit.” Rilke explores the nature of mankind’s contact with beauty and its transience, noting that humanity is forever only getting a brief, momentary glimpse of an inconceivable beauty that is awe-inspiring, depicting this infinite, transcendental beauty with the symbol of angels. However, he did not use the traditional Christian interpretation of angels. He sought to utilize a symbol of the angel that was secular, divorced from religious doctrine and embodied a tremendous transcendental beauty. Rilke begins his first elegy in an invocation of philosophical despair, asking: "Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the hierarchies of angels?" and later declares that "every angel is terrifying.” Rilke describes this frightening experience, defining beauty as “nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.” While labelling these poems as "elegies" would typically imply melancholy and lamentation, many passages are marked by their positive energy and unrestrained enthusiasm. The Duino Elegies discuss themes of the limitations and insufficiency of the human condition and fractured human consciousness ... “man's loneliness, the perfection of the angels, life and death, love and lovers, and the task of the poet.” This collection has spoken much to me during this strenuous time of injustice and inequality. Coming to terms with human existence can be a painful experience, and by reading these elegies, I decided that I want to help bring hope through the turmoil that presents itself through the everyday. My own spirituality has grown tremendously during these times through my creative process, and I now hope to have many of you join me for this stretch of that journey. I also chose this text because I wanted something that was not aimed at a specific gender, and knowing several male and trans-male Soprani, I wanted to open the opportunity to all genders and gender-nonconforming folx. The ability to give equal opportunity throughout the gender spectrum is incredibly important to me as a nonbinary person. The philosophical questions presented here are universal, beyond identity, and through this I hoped to be able to place my finger onto the deepest core of the search for the purpose of our existence. No being, whoever they may be, has escaped the opportunity to reflect upon it. So let us ask these questions together in unison, and see if those whom exist in other realms can lend us some insight.

Copyright 2019 Rosśa Crean/Knight & Thorne Music/ASCAP Words and Music by Rosśa Crean

Inspired by the YA book "The Wicker King" by K. Ancrum

Range - Dflat4-Aflat5 (C6) Duration - 5 minutes

Composed by Rosśa Crean Text by W. S. Di Piero

Text Printed with Kind Permission from W. S. Di Piero, 2015 Copyright 2015 Rosśa Crean/Knight & Thorne Music/ASCAP. All Rights Reserved.

The Passive-Aggressive's Guide to Mother Goose

A comedic song cycle for Medium Voice (A3-G5) and Piano

1. The Poor Crooked Man II. No One Should Walk Alone with Jill III. Hickory,...Dickory,...Dock...? IV. Little Miss Muffett is a Hipster
2. The Pied Piper Now Works for DCFS

Range (C4# - B5) Poetry by W. S. Di Piero Rights and Printing Rights Granted with Kind Permission by W. S. Di Piero

Range (C3# - B5) Poetry by W. S. Di Piero Rights and Printing Rights Granted with Kind Permission by W. S. Di Piero

Text by Bea Goodwin. Music by Rosśa Crean. Range (D4 to G5 or 8vb). Duration 6 minutes. Copyright © 2020 Rosśa Crean / Knight & Thorne Music / ASCAP. All Rights Reserved.

Composer’s Notes:

Hello, adventurous singers!

“On the Road” is another collaboration between myself and wordsmith Bea Goodwin. The texts Bea wrote here, like in our previous miniature cycle “Nightingale Songs,” are all little excerpts from her journal. This time, Bea documented her move to beautiful California, where at that time she had never been any further west than Texas. I love her work tremendously; in so few words, she can convey a myriad of emotions, and that is the fun part about my job when I get to translate those emotions to music. The texts may say something initially on the surface, but once you venture further, you start to see some of the hidden meanings and undertones in what is being said here.

The most important thing I want to mention here is that I purposely do not assign strict tempos to these miniatures. When you see a fermata, a ritardando, an accelerando, etc., they are simply guidelines. Feel free to stretch and compress the tempos. Change them whenever you want if you feel it benefits your performance of this cycle. Pause at rests longer if you wish. There is no metronome clicking while you are singing these songs, and you do not need to fear one being turned on while you are practicing them either.

Yes, there are just a couple extended techniques offered here, but you do absolutely do not need to perform them if you are not comfortable or experienced in doing so. I composed this with that in mind. I appreciate different interpretations of song, so please feel free to go with whatever your intuition tells you. The subharmonics cannot be done physically by everyone, so if you cannot figure out how to execute them, do not worry a thing about it. Just have fun!

Hope you enjoy our little mini musical adventure journal!

With Gratitude, Rosśa Crean & Bea Goodwin

Text by Bea Goodwin. Music by Rosśa Crean. Range (B3 to E5 or 8vb). Duration 6 minutes. Copyright © 2020 Rosśa Crean / Knight & Thorne Music / ASCAP. All Rights Reserved.

Composer’s Notes:

Hello, adventurous singers!

“On the Road” is another collaboration between myself and wordsmith Bea Goodwin. The texts Bea wrote here, like in our previous miniature cycle “Nightingale Songs,” are all little excerpts from her journal. This time, Bea documented her move to beautiful California, where at that time she had never been any further west than Texas. I love her work tremendously; in so few words, she can convey a myriad of emotions, and that is the fun part about my job when I get to translate those emotions to music. The texts may say something initially on the surface, but once you venture further, you start to see some of the hidden meanings and undertones in what is being said here.

The most important thing I want to mention here is that I purposely do not assign strict tempos to these miniatures. When you see a fermata, a ritardando, an accelerando, etc., they are simply guidelines. Feel free to stretch and compress the tempos. Change them whenever you want if you feel it benefits your performance of this cycle. Pause at rests longer if you wish. There is no metronome clicking while you are singing these songs, and you do not need to fear one being turned on while you are practicing them either.

Yes, there are just a couple extended techniques offered here, but you do absolutely do not need to perform them if you are not comfortable or experienced in doing so. I composed this with that in mind. I appreciate different interpretations of song, so please feel free to go with whatever your intuition tells you. The subharmonics cannot be done physically by everyone, so if you cannot figure out how to execute them, do not worry a thing about it. Just have fun!

Hope you enjoy our little mini musical adventure journal!

With Gratitude, Rosśa Crean & Bea Goodwin

CAST: The Queen of the Night - Coloratura Soprano Mrs. Darling - Mezzo Soprano Clytemnestra - Contralto

SYNOPSIS:

In “Lost Daughters,” the Queen of the Night, Mrs. Darling, and Clytemnestra reconvening repeatedly to a desolate wasteland, where they return each time someone is done reading their stories. They then discuss the losses of each of their daughters, one by death, one by estrangement, and one by intervalic disappearance. It's also about how these three very different women come together to express their grief and eventually, with the discovery that they relive this story and these feelings on repeat, decide to try and end the cycle.

Nightingale Songs

Music: Rosśa Crean Text: Bea Goodwin

Nightingale songs began as bits of poem pieces extracted from Bea's diaries during the fall of the Kavanaugh hearings. The image of Philomela & birds flew from the page in an attempt to take back control of women's sexuality. The following songs, raw and genuine, are tiny shards of glass from a very broken time. Rosśa used the sentiment of each poem, as well as their own synesthesia, to compose melodic phrases based on the colors they were seeing: hues of rich browns, saffron, periwinkle, violet, and ruby red.

1. Mother Earth Some women, when they have life inside of them, eat dirt like they are potted plants.

II. lamplight My skirt is a lampshade with a warm glow underneath

III. nightingale We are all Philomela; birds lined to slaughter, with songs we are too scared to sing.

IV. Venus de Milo Venus de Milo, I hold your arms and scotch tape You whisper: "dont fix me."

1. nectar Under the flesh you taste is ruby red blown glass, and you, my hummingbird, are wet with nectar.

"Twilight Lifts the Veil" is a song cycle I have been asked repeatedly to compose for singers who have been looking for new music to perform during the Hallowe’en season. I have chosen three early 20th Century female poets whose words have often left me with an evanescent feeling, as if their words went through me and left a mark while floating ephemerally away. As a singer raised in the sean-nós vocal tradition, I have always felt that the naked voice is the most visceral way to reach the divine in any capacity, and I hope that this collection can draw that forward not only in the notes written and sung, but also in the spaces and silence between.

Singers’ Notes:

Perform at the tempi you see fit. I normally suggest anything around 90 bpm for a start, but do not see this as a piece the requires a metronome. Hold rests, stretch notes, accelerate, ritardando, and fermata as much as you would like for your own individual performance. There are no expectations but your own.

In the third song, All Hallows Night, I suggest the singer repeats the final phrase as much as they desire, with thoughts that the performance would end with the singer slowly leaving the performance space as the cycle nears completion, representing the coming and going of the departed as All Hallows Eve arrives and transitions to All Souls Day.

All in all, have fun! I certainly have.

Oíche Shamhna! Rosśa Crean 2018

"Twilight Lifts the Veil" is a song cycle I have been asked repeatedly to compose for singers who have been looking for new music to perform during the Hallowe’en season. I have chosen three early 20th Century female poets whose words have often left me with an evanescent feeling, as if their words went through me and left a mark while floating ephemerally away. As a singer raised in the sean-nós vocal tradition, I have always felt that the naked voice is the most visceral way to reach the divine in any capacity, and I hope that this collection can draw that forward not only in the notes written and sung, but also in the spaces and silence between.

Singers’ Notes:

Perform at the tempi you see fit. I normally suggest anything around 90 bpm for a start, but do not see this as a piece the requires a metronome. Hold rests, stretch notes, accelerate, ritardando, and fermata as much as you would like for your own individual performance. There are no expectations but your own.

In the third song, All Hallows Night, I suggest the singer repeats the final phrase as much as they desire, with thoughts that the performance would end with the singer slowly leaving the performance space as the cycle nears completion, representing the coming and going of the departed as All Hallows Eve arrives and transitions to All Souls Day.

All in all, have fun! I certainly have.

Oíche Shamhna!

Rosśa Crean 2018

"Twilight Lifts the Veil" is a song cycle I have been asked repeatedly to compose for singers who have been looking for new music to perform during the Hallowe’en season. I have chosen three early 20th Century female poets whose words have often left me with an evanescent feeling, as if their words went through me and left a mark while floating ephemerally away. As a singer raised in the sean-nós vocal tradition, I have always felt that the naked voice is the most visceral way to reach the divine in any capacity, and I hope that this collection can draw that forward not only in the notes written and sung, but also in the spaces and silence between.

Singers’ Notes:

Perform at the tempi you see fit. I normally suggest anything around 90 bpm for a start, but do not see this as a piece the requires a metronome. Hold rests, stretch notes, accelerate, ritardando, and fermata as much as you would like for your own individual performance. There are no expectations but your own.

In the third song, All Hallows Night, I suggest the singer repeats the final phrase as much as they desire, with thoughts that the performance would end with the singer slowly leaving the performance space as the cycle nears completion, representing the coming and going of the departed as All Hallows Eve arrives and transitions to All Souls Day.

All in all, have fun! I certainly have.

Oíche Shamhna!

Rosśa Crean 2018

The Harbingers: An Unaccompanied Opera in One Act

Libretto by Kendra Leonard Music by Rosśa Crean Duration: 51 minutes

Written for ten singers, "The Harbingers" takes place on All Hallows Eve, where several different spectres of death convene to decide the fate of a recently-departed soul. The Soul may not be all she portrays herself to be, however, and the result is a struggle between the Harbingers over morality, mercy, and the perceptions of good & evil.

ROLES:

ATROPOS - CONTRALTO AZRAEL - LYRIC SOPRANO CLOTHO - MEZZO COUNTERTENOR/MEZZO SOPRANO DONN - BASS ERLIK - BARITONE HEL - COLORATURA SOPRANO LACHESIS - TENOR THE MORRIGAN - LYRIC SOPRANO SEKHMET - HIGH LYRIC TENOR/ALTO COUNTERTENOR THE SOUL - SOPRANO

Composed for SAA(CT)TB ensemble, "The Watchtower Psalms" is a five-part vocal ritual based on alchemical ideologies and the Enochian communications of John Dee and Edward Kelley in 16th Century England. Each movement is based on the four elements and the Quintessence, the union of them all.

The Times Are Nightfall: An Opera in One Act

Full orchestration: Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Cello, Vibraphone, and Piano

Librettist - Aiden K. Feltkamp, with Chloë Schaaf Composer - Rosśa Crean

"The Times Are Nightfall" is the queer sequel to Mozart's "Don Giovanni." In this noir-style one-act, Anna and Elvira are coping with the aftermath of the events that have transpired as a result of Don Giovanni's treachery. The opera explores themes of rape culture and grief through the lens of two women who find solace in the most unexpected place: one another.

ROLES: Anna - Mezzo Soprano Elvira - Soprano

TW: blood, death, rape, suicide

The Times Are Nightfall: An Opera in One Act

Piano/Vocal Score

Librettist - Aiden K. Feltkamp, with Chloë Schaaf Composer - Rosśa Crean

"The Times Are Nightfall" is the queer sequel to Mozart's "Don Giovanni." In this noir-style one-act, Anna and Elvira are coping with the aftermath of the events that have transpired as a result of Don Giovanni's treachery. The opera explores themes of rape culture and grief through the lens of two women who find solace in the most unexpected place: one another.

ROLES: Anna - Mezzo Soprano Elvira - Soprano

TW: blood, death, rape, suicide