The Billy Collins Suite: Songs Inspired by his Poetry

Buffy Baggott, Lincoln Trio, Bruce Yeh

Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate, has been hailed as the first American poet since Robert Frost to garner great critical acclaim and broad popular appeal in equal measure. “His poems generate surprise, inviting the reader to anticipate each new one as if it might be the best one yet” (World Literature Today). In Collins’s poetry, “even the most commonplace things never turn out quite the way you think they will” (Newsweek).

The Billy Collins Suite comprises intimate chamber settings for eleven Collins poems, some sung, others narrated. The CD includes Pierre Jalbert’s jazzy, other-worldly take on “The Invention of the Saxophone”; Stacy Garrop’s Ars Poetica, a four-song cycle ranging from a jaunty “Sonnet” to the heartbreaking “Endangered”; Vivian Fung’s Collins trilogy of vivid miniature comedy-dramas marked by especially effective use of the clarinet; Lita Grier’s poignant “Forgetfulness” and nostalgic “Dancing Towards Bethlehem”; and Zhou Tian’s “Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems . . .” in which flute, viola, and harp evoke Far Eastern imagery.

Artists include Chicago Lyric and San Francisco Opera mezzo-soprano Buffy Baggott, rising young baritone Jonathan Beyer, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Acting Principal Clarinet John Bruce Yeh, flutist Tim Munro of eighth blackbird, saxophonist Susan Cook, the Lincoln Trio, harpist Nuiko Wadden, pianists Yoko Yamada-Selvaggio and John Goodwin, and narrator Steve Robinson of WFMT Radio.

The project was conceived and commissioned by Chicago’s innovative Music in the Loft chamber series, “one of the most unique springboards for young instrumentalists, singers and composers in the nation” (Chicago Tribune).

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Album works

The Invention of the Saxophone, Pierre Jalbert
Ars Poetica, Stacy Garrop
I. Introduction to Poetry
II. Sonnet
III. Vade Mecum
IV. Endangered
Insomnia, Vivian Fung
The Man in the Moon, Vivian Fung
The Willies, Vivian Fung
Forgetfulness, Lita Grier
Dancing Towards Bethlehem, Lita Grier
Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems of the Sung Dynasty, I Pause to Admire the Length and Clarity of Their Times, Zhou Tian

Label: Cedille Records
Release date: January 2009

Album Reviews

“I’ve already praised narrator Steve Robinson, whose voice is requisitely clear and authoritative but who wisely doesn’t try to make points—instead, lets Collins speak for himself. Jonathan Beyer’s baritone has a light-operatic ring to it, perfect for the Grier settings…. [Buffy Baggott]’s an expressive soloist whose voice is firm across its whole range…. The instrumentalists are uniformly excellent, and the whole enterprise is captured in clean, attractively intimate sound.”
Audiophile Audition

“The idea to commission composers associated with Chicago’s Music in the Loft chamber series to create musical settings of verses by former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins originated with the series’ director, Fredda Hyman. And a brilliant idea it was. The result is a winning collection of vocal chamber works by Pierre Jalbert, Stacy Garrop, Vivian Fung, Lita Grier and Zhou Tian, all first recordings. The Chicago artists (including singers Buffy Baggott and Jonathan Beyer, clarinetist John Bruce Yeh and the Lincoln Trio) breathe new life into Collins’ wry poetry through their skills and caring.”
Chicago Tribune

“Rarely do I listen to a CD of new works and instantly feel that every work/set is not only masterfully crafted but a true masterpiece; these all unquestionably are.”
Classical voice of new england

“Cedille’s policy of adventurous programming triumphs here in an intelligent celebration of the poetry of poet laureate Billy Collins (b. 1941). The idea of the Baroque suite is modified to refer to a suite of five pieces, each by a different composer. The first, third and fifth pieces utilize a narrator, while the second and fourth use singers. The project is the idea of Chicago’s Music in the Loft series and its founder, Fredda Hyman. The poetry itself is magnificently haunting.”
Fanfare Mag

“Chicago’s classical staple Cedille Records celebrated its 20th anniversary and released The Billy Collins Suite: Songs Inspired by His Poetry, a lovely album that captures the details and playful spirit of the former U.S. poet laureate with a sundry of original compositions, including doozies by Music in the Loft vets Lita Grier and Vivian Fung.”
time out chicago