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.

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