“Gordon Getty is on his best and most infectious behavior with his Dickinson settings, perfectly nuanced to the unusual and often quirky pauses of Emily Dickinson in a way that perhaps only Aaron Copland could have managed.”
Steven Ritter
Audiophile Audition, 2013

• Set of four songs for high voice and piano
• Poems by Emily Dickinson
• Running time: 6:30

Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers
A Bird Came Down the Walk
There’s a Certain Slant of Light
Because I Could Not Stop for Death

Listen to Four Dickinson Songs on the album: The Hours Begin to Sing

Listen to Four Dickinson Songs on the album: A Certain Slant of Light

Orchestration: flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, percussion, harp, keyboard, strings

COMPOSER’S NOTES
These four poems were among those I considered when writing The White Election over twenty years ago. I had written what became the main music of “A Bird Came Down the Walk” in college days, in the spirit of Schubert or Schumann, but never whipped it into publishing shape. When Barbara Bonney kindly asked for a few songs to verse by an American poetess, I was grateful to be reminded of this unfinished business, along with the opportunity to suggest the oppressive cathedral tunes and the clip-clop of the hearse carriage in the second and last songs.

Gordon Getty

Painting: Emily Dickinson by Agnes Yau