The fabulous Manhattan Choral Ensemble will be premiering my choral work, “City of Ships,” with text by Walt Whitman. The premiere will be Saturday, March 10, 2018, 8pm at St. Joseph’s Church, 371 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY.
“City of Ships” was published in Walt Whitman’s magnum opus, Leaves of Grass. Although Leaves was initially published in 1855, he continued to revise and augment the collection until the last years of his life, and “City of Ships” was not published until 1867. The City of Ships was (and still is), of course, New York. Whitman, who grew up in Long Island, spent the majority of his working years in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and died in New Jersey, wrote this poem as an ode to New York, Lincoln, and the United States. Whitman, who famously spoke of the atrocities of the Civil War, is also well-known for his adoration of Lincoln and the cause of the war.
The challenge of this piece was juxtaposing Whitman’s pride and confidence in his city, country, and president, with the horrors he experienced working as a medic on the battlefield. The fanfare in the beginning of the piece, meant to demonstrate that pride and the majesty of the city’s massive ships, features the women and men in different keys, echoing Whitman’s ambivalence towards the war. Later, there is the brief, pompous march of war. The piece’s next reflective and morose moment slowly begins to introduce Whitman’s disgust with the war’s human toll. The piece culminates in an abrasive shriek of “war, red war,” and, ultimately, sickened resignation in the final utterance: “oh, city.”
I am so thrilled and honored to have this piece performed by as wonderful a group as the MCE. More information and tickets are available at https://www.mce.nyc.
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