Dorothy Rudd Moore: Songs (plus a few other composers)

This episode is an eclectic mixture of pieces and composers, starting with two song cycles by Dorothy Rudd Moore! Born and raised on the East Coast, she studied with Nadia Boulanger, and was one of the co-founders of the Society of Black Composers. Her music has enough dissonance to bring out the colors of the texts beautifully, while still being very accessible to an audience. Jonathan Bailey Holland is currently the Dean of Music at Northwestern University, and has some stunningly beautiful pieces - he was a student of Ned Rorem.

We also included both settings of I Want to Die While You Love Me that we have talked about this season so that you can hear them back-to-back and see how different the two settings are, while both are excellent settings! The songs are in An Anthology of African and African Diaspora Songs and appear in the book back-to-back as well!

Dorothy Rudd Moore
Flowers of Darkness
1. Flowers of Darkness (sung by Aliyah)

Sonnets on Love, Rosebuds, and Death (vocal chamber music, soprano, violin, piano)

6. Idolatry (sung by Gracyn)

Jonathan Bailey Holland
Little Elegy (in An Anthology of African and African Diaspora Songs) (sung by Solomon)

Undine Smith Moore
I Want to Die While You Love Me (in An Anthology of African and African Diaspora Songs) (sung by Gracyn)

Rosephanye Powell
I Want to Die While You Love Me (in An Anthology of African and African Diaspora Songs) (sung by Gracyn)

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So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about its network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

You can follow Ellen and The Diction Police on Facebook and at www.dictionpolice.com.

You can follow Toni Marie on Facebook at Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano and Instagram @ToniMariePalmertree

For more information on Gracyn Blu, visit their website, or you can follow them on Instagram @gracynblu

Aliyah Quill and Solomon Onyukwu are students/graduates of Carnegie Mellon University.

This episode is sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University. Learn more about CMU and apply today.

Creators & Guests

Host

Ellen Rissinger

So Lit Song Lit Creator & Co-Host

Host

Toni-Marie Palmertree

So Lit Song Lit Co-Host

What is So Lit Song Lit?

This is So Lit Song Lit, where we reimagine the repertoire by introducing less familiar songs through sound clips and lively discussion! Together we’ll be exploring songs by composers that you may or may not have heard of already, showing how they compare to standard works, and giving you a taste of what they sound like. Join us down the rabbit hole as we expand the song canon!