The Legend of Evil (2015)

for baritone w/ piano accompaniment

 

The Legend of Evil (2015) is a piece for baritone voice and piano. The lyrics come from the poem of the same name by Rudyard

Kipling (1865-1936). While being based in tonality, the piece explores harmonies and color tones outside of the standard tonal structure, enhancing the ominous mood of the poem. 
 

The Legend of Evil 
by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

This is the sorrowful story
 Told when the twilight fails
And the monkeys walk together
 Holding their neighbours' tails: --
 
"Our fathers lived in the forest,
 Foolish people were they,
They went down to the cornland
 To teach the farmers to play.
 
"Our fathers frisked in the millet,
 Our fathers skipped in the wheat,
Our fathers hung from the branches,
 Our fathers danced in the street.
 
"Then came the terrible farmers,
 Nothing of play they knew,
Only. . .they caught our fathers
 And set them to labour too!
 
"Set them to work in the cornland
 With ploughs and sickles and flails,
Put them in mud-walled prisons
 And -- cut off their beautiful tails!
 
"Now, we can watch our fathers,
 Sullen and bowed and old,
Stooping over the millet,
 Sharing the silly mould,
 
"Driving a foolish furrow,
 Mending a muddy yoke,
Sleeping in mud-walled prisons,
 Steeping their food in smoke.
 
"We may not speak to our fathers,
 For if the farmers knew
They would come up to the forest
 And set us to labour too."
 
This is the horrible story
 Told as the twilight fails
And the monkeys walk together
 Holding their kinsmen's tails.

Premiered on November 22nd, 2015 by Dante Doganiero, baritone, and Tyler Mariano, piano