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The Ladyslipper 3’02”
A Question For Zilpha 1’00”
Longing 1’30”
At Dusk 1’34”
To See A Daffodil 4’20”
(Recording: Erie Mills, soprano; Henry Mollicone, piano)
For soprano solo with piano accompaniment
Level: advanced, 11’28”
Program Notes:
“Images and Reflections” was commissioned for soprano Erie Mills by the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, and is based on the poetry of William R. Booth, poet and some time faculty associate of the college. Mr. Booth’s poetry evokes the beauty of nature, and I have attempted to translate this beauty into music. Like the poetry, the music is somewhat rhapsodic and revels in the wonder and mysteries of the natural world.
—Henry Mollicone
The Ladyslipper
3’02”
Milady has a secret:
below ground,
thriving in who knows what unseen grace,
another plant, a fungus,
without whom milady would languish;
partners, depending on each other in secret,
their constant bond
the life of both.
A Question For Zilpha
1’00”
Somewhere in this house this day
there sleeps a supermouse.
Bold, resourceful, confident,
he springs traps,
avoids pitfalls
and nightly feasts
to his little heart’s content.
How can we not respect
one so resourceful?
And whom we so respect
how can we not welcome to our home?
Longing
1’30”
when hope is abandoned
longing remains
indestructible
defiant of reason
reinforced by defeat
the elemental assurance
that life is good
At Dusk
1’34”
walking home alone along an old woods road
on a snowless january day
at dusk
i was startled
by a jet-black form
an enormous cat
crouching just off the road
quickly i looked
the open end of a rusty old culvert
broken and black in the growing darkness
was facing me
an eerie
black
nothing
To See A Daffodil
4’20”
It takes eleven months to prepare a daffodil;
how many to prepare yourself to see one?
–William R. Booth
Texts from the collections
Sparkles and Other Poems and
The Mountains are Waiting are
© Copyright by William R. Booth and
are used by permission.