IDAGIO | Garfein: Mortality Mansions – Songs of Love and Loss After 60 013491354828

Featuring

Donald Hall
Michael Slattery
Dimitri Dover
Marnie Breckenridge
Herschel Garfein

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Performer Biography

Tenor Michael Slattery, who performs on this album, has sung with major orchestras worldwide, including the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Compositional Technique

Composer Herschel Garfein found Donald Hall's poetry suitable for musical setting due to its simplicity, directness, and naturalness of spoken language.

Recording & Production

The album concludes with "Otherwise," a setting of a poem by Jane Kenyon, Donald Hall's deceased wife, sung by soprano Marnie Breckenridge.

Recording & Production

The recording of "Mortality Mansions" took place in November 2017 at Oktaven Audio in Mount Vernon, NY, using a 1987 Steinway Hamburg D piano.

Composer Biography

Donald Hall, the poet whose texts are used in this cycle, was 89 years old at the time of the album's release and has been writing poetry since the 1940s.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The song cycle "Mortality Mansions" aims to provide an alternative narrative of eros and aging, defying common cultural tropes about late life.

Composition History

Grammy-winning composer Herschel Garfein and former US Poet Laureate Donald Hall created this eleven-song cycle, "Mortality Mansions," which explores themes of love and loss in late life.