Dana Gioia

This gentle life lesson and setting begins with the chorus acting as accompaniment to the soloist. Then the sopranos pick up the mantle of the soloist and the chorus sings the words together. The fina...

This setting pokes fun at all of the ways in which phrases about money are 'coined. ' The music is appropriately uncomplicated, and nearly always homophonic.

As the composer suggests in his program notes, the poem to which this music is set may 'appear on surface as being rather flippant but, underneath, is deadly serious. ' The same may be said of the mos...

Dana Gioia's prayer in the manner of The Beatitudes touches upon some uncommon ideas for recepients of blessings. The point seems to be that many things are blessed that, at first consideration, might...

This poem by Dana Gioia is spoken by a santo, a devotional wooden statue carved by a Mexican folk artist. This anthropomorphized statue speaks of its history and its fate as a museum piece. The settin...

The poem to which this piece of music is set turns the concept of beauty on its head for about 4/5 of it. The remainder if the poem veers off in an entirely unexpected direction of gods and stars. The...

This fascinating setting of what is arguably one of Dana Gioia's deepest poems features music that ruminates on motivic ideas, among them, attention-grabbing flourishes in the marimba part and arpeggi...