Program Notes:

The poems of Emily Dickinson are a very unique work of art. Most of her poems are filled with detailed descriptions, transforming the poems into a medium of pictures carefully painted and calculated. Yet, it is quite amazing that these poems came from the hand of a woman who lived a secluded life in her hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts. A clue may be found in one of Dickinson’s sayings: “To shut our eyes is to travel.”

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As I approached Dickinson’s poems (which number close to 2000), I found that most of them, even the short ones, are built around a vast space. Each poem requires its development time and cannot be rushed or squeezed into a regular song form. In The Sea of Sunset, I have let the words, the descriptions of nature, and the languid mood of the poem guide me into the realm of visual imagery. By adding the murmur of the sea and the whisper of the wind, I attempted to capture as faithfully as possible the picture I perceived through the poem.