Nightscape by cvfrizzo

NOTES ON NIGHTSCAPE
My dear and longtime friend Britton Shurley was the inspiration of this work. The setting of his poem “Nightscape” was a chance to collaborate with an artist who has on so many occasions awakened me to view the world in a different light. I have always welcomed his artistic insight as I welcomed the opportunity to connect with his poetry musically. Shurley’s poem was “after” the style of Georg Trakl, an Austrian expressionist considered to be an important lyric poet in German literature of the early twentieth century. Shurley made a direct correlation to Trakl’s poem “Landschaft” (Landscape) both in terms of a shared poetic structure and the use of a language that creates an extensive view of imagery. These poems are in essence pictorial representations of an unfolding scene. However, I found a strong connection to Trakl’s “Verfall” (Decay) and included words and phrases from that poem in my music. The idea was to show the language that inspired the poet as well as to bring forth the poetic commentary of two different artists in how they view the passing of an autumn evening.