"The Open Road" by Nell Shaw Cohen - Joe Dan Harper, tenor and Matthew Marco, piano

Описание: "The Open Road"
Music by Nell Shaw Cohen | Text by Walt Whitman
Joe Dan Harper, tenor | Matthew Marco, piano

Recorded live at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY on August 4, 2024, as part of program "Burchfield & Whitman in Opera and Song: Buffalo Opera Unlimited Performs the Music of Nell Shaw Cohen.

Composer's Program Note:
"The Open Road is an excerpt from Sauntering Songs: a concert-length cantata on the theme of walking, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble. This selection, which forms the opening number of the work, sets excerpts from Walt Whitman's invigorating "Poem of The Road." Originally scored for choir with a quartet of flute, piano, electric guitar, and cello, the song will be performed today for the first time in a reduced arrangement for solo tenor and piano."

Text:
"Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open
road!
Healthy, free, the world before me!
The long brown path before me, leading wherever
I choose!

The earth expanding right hand and left hand,
The picture alive, every part in its best light,
The music falling in where it is wanted, and
stopping where it is not wanted,
The cheerful voice of the public road—the gay
fresh sentiment of the road.

From this hour, I ordain myself loosed of limits
and imaginary lines!
Going where I list—my own master, total and
absolute,

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open
road!
Healthy, free, the world before me!
The long brown path before me, leading wherever
I choose!

The cheerful voice of the public road—the gay
fresh sentiment of the road.

The open road!"

Excerpt from "Poem of The Road" by Walt Whitman, from “Leaves of Grass” (1856 edition).

Video courtesy of the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Audio recorded by Nell Shaw Cohen. Music Copyright © 2024 Nell Shaw Cohen. All rights reserved.

More information at www.nellshawcohen.com.