Six Songs of Everett Maxwell for Baritone Voice and Piano by Brian Joyce Baritone Voice - Digital Sheet Music

Even very well-versed singers can be forgiven if they have never heard of Everett Maxwell (1858-1940). He was simply one of millions in the vast American workingclass, one who was known to jot down a poem or two now and then.Here we have six examples of his work, poems which he wrote for his childhood sweetheart whom he waited fifty years to marry. Maxwell’s great grandson asked me to set these poems to music saying, "the poems illuminate a picture of life in the American midwest during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His poetry serves as a lens through which we can view his . . . youthful romantic view of nineteenth-century prairie life."Since the poems are so imbued with nostalgia and 19th century romanticism, I endeavored to set them with an equally strong sense of the classic art song tradition.Curiously, these songs feel longer than they actually are. There are many pieces about which one could say the same thing with less charity, but in this case it’s a good thing: the poems are quite short (the longest is only twelve lines, the shortest only four!)The entire cycle lasts just under 12 minutes. The audio sample includes most of one song ("A June Night") and all of a second ("Have You Found a Place?"). These are enough to give you a sense of the whole cycle.