Listen to Music
_________________

	Classical Works
	Jazz Works

Sonnets from the Portuguese

for SATB choir

Duration: appr. 10 min.

Program Notes:

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 44 love poems to her husband comprise the collection Sonnets from the Portuguese.  Of course these poems were completely original, but the fancy title was suggested by Elizabeth’s husband, Robert, as a way to mask the intense personal feelings in her poems.  The most famous of the Sonnets is poem 43, “How do I love thee?  Let me count the way.”

I came across the collection while searching for love poetry to set for choir.  Of all the works I had been reading through, the Sonnets immediately caught my attention and drew my ear to the possibility of sounds that the words evoked.  While my work carries the same title As Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 44-poem collection, this version only contains three settings of poems.  I chose 10-12 because to me they spoke to me not as individual thoughts but as a three-part singularity.

There were many other poems that would have worked just as well, but that will have to be a project for another day.  For now, enjoy my modest setting of Sonnets from the Portuguese.

 –Ryan Jesperson
9/26/2009, Kansas City, MO.

Performance Notes:

Accidentals apply throughout the measure, in the octave of occurrence, in the usual tradition. 

Glissandi should begin shortly after the note is begun and move linearly toward the goal note.

Small opened circles above notes indicate that the note should be sung with falsetto.

Although rhythmic consistency is important, all movements should have a sort of elastic relationship with time, and the conductor should feel free to develop an individual interpretation of the work, utilizing small amounts of ritardando and accelerando when appropriate.

Although complete performances of  Sonnets from the Portuguese is preferable, single movements may be excerpted for individual performance.