Collected
American Art Songs,
Featuring Music by
Jeremiah Evans
and Selected Songs
from the
Grammy Nominated Album,
RISING
"Best  Classical Solo Vocal Album"
66th Annual Grammy Awards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To promote a greater appreciation for our cultural roots and inspire national unity, I have endeavored to evoke American nostalgia through its poetry, poets, and the art of song. In a December 29, 2021 article, titled The Psychological Benefits of Music-evoked Nostalgia, published in Psychology of Music, researchers stated that "Music is a prevalent and influential source of nostalgia. Music-evoked nostalgia confers approach-oriented psychological benefits in the social domain (by fostering social connectedness)".

Over the past several years, I have been compiling song settings that feature the poetry of classic American poets. With our country seeming more divided than ever along cultural, political, and racial lines, these songs have recently gained a deeper meaning. The collection focuses on timeless, conventional themes from our collective past. While these songs offer audiences only a superficial and ephemeral distraction from societal friction, the songs will, hopefully, succeed in promoting a nationalistic wholeness during these troubled times.

The chronology of poets included in this project, which consists of 58 art songs and vocal chamber music settings, represents 225 years of lived American history (Colonial America through the 20th century, 1748-1973). The songs explore the intimate expressions, diverse experiences, and characteristic observances of bygone American poets whose words add context to our cultural journey. Additionally, my goal was to anthologize poetic Americana in a way that presents some of the best spirit and character from our nation's past.
 

Furthermore, while this collection features poetry by well-known classic American poets such as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickinson, it also features well-known and less-familiar poetry by African American, Latino American, Native American, Jewish American, and Arab American poets. Also, included is Asian- inspired American poetry, poetry by those who represent diverse sexual orientations, and Two Psalms (KJV) for unaccompanied voice. Within the historical context of this collection, the inclusion of the Psalms was intended as a thinly veiled reference to the first printing of a published book in Colonial America (The Bay Psalm Book, Cambridge, MA, 1610). Every effort has been made to reflect the richness of our American mosaic. 
 

Visibility, diversity, & inclusion matter!
 

Jeremiah Evans
 
 

 

50 Collected
American Art Songs
& Two Psalms
for Medium-High voice 

& piano

40 Collected
American Art Songs
& Two Psalms
for Medium-Low voice

& piano

Collected Vocal Chamber Music
(Medium-High) 

for voice & Bb clarinet

and voice, violin, cello & piano

 

To help support my work, 
please consider a contribution
to my GoFundMe:
https://tinyurl.com/8mpm5828

If you are a concert presenter, please consider these songs as part of your regular subscription season, workshop/clinic, or summer festival. Please, contact me by email for more information or to receive score samples for your perusal.

If you are a student or private studio instructor planning your next recital, audition or competition, please consider including selected songs as part of your English language set/group. Please, email me for more information and to receive score samples for your perusal.

jeremiah.piano@yahoo.com

Selected songs are also listed in the African Diaspora Music Project which recommends appropriate repertoire for competitors entering the George Shirley African American Art Song and Operatic Aria Competition at the University of Michigan.

Please, visit the Catalog/Purchase tab to see a full listing of my songs and
vocal chamber works (with titles and poets), then click on the Preview Songs tab to hear the matching MIDI file for each song.

From birth to death, the chronology of poets included in this project represent 225 years of lived American history:

Chronology of featured poets:
Henry Livingston Jr. 
(1748-1828)
Phillis Wheatley
(c. 1753 –1784) 
George Moses Horton
(1798–after 1867)
William Walker Jr.
(1800-1874)
Edgar Allan Poe
(1809 – 1849)
Walt Whitman
(1819 – 1892)
Emily Dickinson
(1830 – 1886)
Emma Lazarus
(1849 – 1887) 
Byron R. Newton
(1861 – 1938) 
Richard Hovey
(1864 – 1900) 
James Weldon Johnson
(1871 – 1938)
Paul Laurence Dunbar
(1872 – 1906)
Alexander Posey
(1873-1908)
Amy Lowell
(1874 – 1925)
Robert Frost
(1874 – 1963)
Vachel Lindsay
(1879-1931)
Georgia D. Johnson
(1880 – 1966)
Raymond G. Dandridge
(1882/1883–1930)
Jessie Redmon Fauset
(1882 – 1961)
William Carlos Williams
(1883-1963)
Khalil Gibran
(1883-1931)
Sara Teasdale
(1884 – 1933)
Elinor Wylie
(1885 – 1928) 
Edna St. Vincent Millay
(1892 – 1950)
Langston Hughes
(1901– 1967)
Arna Bontemps
(1902 – 1973)
Countee Cullen
(1903 – 1946)