Songs of Solemn Confession - TENOR/CBSN/PN

Songs of Solemn Confession
for tenor voice, contrabassoon, and piano
by Daniel Baldwin (b. 1978) - American composer

Songs of Solemn Confession is a song cycle commissioned by Fraser Jackson that is inspired by and uses text from Melville's timeless classic "Moby Dick". It follows the adventures of the classic story from sailing beautiful waters, to the hunt, to spotting the whale, and, inevitably, to the final showdown ending with the Contrabassoon "singing" whale songs as the piece closes. I also took the opportunity to speak to something important to me, animal cruelty and unnecessary sport hunting a species to the brink of extinction. I include a quote on the opening page of the score. I hope this quote, combined with the very purposeful title of this work, will serve as a powerful message that we all share this earth and no people have the right to hunt and animal for sport and deprive a species of the right to exist.
Songs of Solemn Confession was commissioned by Fraser Jackson and was premiered in October of 2015 in Toronto.