Dust and Roses (original version for guitar, viola, and narrator) (2002) · 25 min (in fourteen movements)
for guitar, viola, and narrator
guitar, viola, narrator
Fourteen settings of poems by Paul A. De Ritis
Program Note
Dust and Roses was originally a setting of fourteen poems from Paul A. De Ritis’s collection of poetry, for guitar, viola and narrator; first performed by Apostolos Paraskevas (guitar), Anthony De Ritis (viola), and Del Lewis (narrator), at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, on June 11, 2002.
The poems and their titles are listed below:
I. There is a shimmering dawn
II. Come sweet yellow bird
III. A lone leaf falls on white snow
IV. There is a plateau of roses
V. Down sorrow cloaked streets
VI. A lament of glass violins
VII. Like a swan against moonbeams
VIII. Flex your wings
XI. Bluest love of all
X. Walk with me
XI. Listen to the apples
XII. Conflicts of paradox
XIII. Won’t you play?
XIV. Hail the flow of flowers
Paul A De Ritis (b. 1922, in Palena, Italy; d. 2000, Long Island, New York), the composer’s father, was a U.S. Army regular during World War II, serving for five years in Iceland, Scotland, England, France at Omaha Beach on D-Day Plus One, and in Germany. These poems were chosen from his collection of poems, Oust and Roses, written early in his life, shortly after WWII. They are reflections on romance, religion, and the meaning of life and death.