Boy for female voice and piano - Full Score PDF

From the composer:

Boy was written for mezzo Anna Laurenzo to sing in the 2019 Chicago songSlam competition. Here is how it came to be: I found this adorable poem by writer Jennifer de Guzman (called "Boy," of course) and I really wanted to set it to music.  ​Jennifer and I go way back--way, way back--she was my classmate in 1st grade!  The poem is about a young boy, a child, and all the work a parent has to do just to keep up with him. Any parent can easily relate to this verse: 

You are not my tangle

to unsnarl, to work,

starting at the center

and then outward,

until a clean, smooth

length of thread is

in my hands

and I can wind it

through my finger

After discovering the poem, I sent it to Anna as a prospective song for her own "Year of song" project in which she planned to learn a new song every week for 2019. A few weeks later she found out about the song slam and suddenly we had a project! Anna is good like that.

The song is a bit of a departure for me, being much more tonal and straightforward. I wanted to take the earnest tone of the poem and apply it to my music--less experimentation and technical fuss and more of a basic approach to hit the emotional points squarely and effectively.  

11 pages; duration 5'45"