Classical
Songs of the Poet
Seven songs set to Walt Whitman poetry for high voice and piano.
Songs of the Poet was premiered by Munich Opera tenor Gregory Wiest. He also recorded the work on a CD called Time Marches On for Capstone Records.
See also instrumental works for a version for voice and chamber orchestra.
To order sheet music for this work click on the Graphite Publishing website.
On the Audio page you can hear the entire cycle performed by Tracy Bidleman and Steven Cantor, recorded at a live concert, Music in Chelsea in New York City.
La Lupa
A two-hour, two-act opera inspired by the Giovanni Verga novella of the same name, which means she-wolf. Initially Puccini was to compose the score for La Lupa, but a dispute with Verga over characterization scuttled the project.
Set in Sicily near Mt. Etna, La Lupa is the story of a sensuous and beautiful 35-year-old widow, Pina, who seduces and falls in love with Nanni, a handsome young soldier who is about to marry Pina’s young daughter, Mara. The affair between Pina and Nanni never completely ends, resulting in a disastrous and tragic finale.
The opera was showcased at Fort Worth Opera’s Frontier program. Also available are recordings of excerpts, which were recorded at Opera America.
Flights of the Heart
A one-act chamber opera for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, and piano about the French salon composer Cecile Chaminade. The work, which has a text by Patty Seyburn, was commissioned by Shorter University and received its world premiere there on September 19, 2011.
Instrumental Music
String Quartet
This three-movement quartet was performed by members of Access Contemporary Music of Chicago.
The Triumph of Night
A nine-minute work for full orchestra.
Choral Music
Love’s Not Time’s Fool
Three-part choral cycle set to Shakespeare Sonnets:
1. Sonnet No. 61
A setting of Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 61 for four-part mixed chorus, piano, and oboe obbligato.
Winner of the American Composers Forum 2011 Vocal Essence Award. The work was performed
in Minneapolis by the VocalEssence Chorus.
A version for chorus and piano accompaniment is also available.
2. Sonnet No. 75
A setting for four-part mixed chorus, piano, and flute obbligato.
3. Sonnet No. 116
A setting for four-part mixed chorus, piano, flute, and oboe.
Musical Theatre
You Might as Well Live
A one-person musical drama inspired by the life and writings of Dorothy Parker. Mrs. Parker’s poems become the lyrics for this jazz-inflected musical play with a book by Mathews.
In productions in New York and Chicago, Dorothy Parker was played by 2003 Tony-Award-winner Michele Pawk and by Drama-Desk Winner Karen Mason.
You Might as Well Live has been performed at the York Theatre in New York, the New York Musical Theatre Festival, Stages 2003 in Chicago, and The Harris Theatre of Music and Dance as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. It was also performed at The Orlando Shakespeare Theatre by Becky Fisher.
The play has been a finalist for the Stanley Drama Award and the
Mill Mountain Playhouse (Roanoke, VA) Best Play Competition.
To view a five-minute DVD of excerpts from a rehearsal of You Might as Well Live starring Karen Mason, click HERE.
Cabaret
Somebody Write Me a Song
A musical revue with lyrics by poet Patty Seyburn. The work was presented at the Arts and Artists Series in New York City.
It featured Tony-Award-winner Debbie Gravitte (Jerome Robbins’ Broadway) and Tony-nominee and Emmy -winner Liz Callaway, and Peter Samuel, with Dick Gallagher as pianist. A live recording from that performance is on the Audio page.
Jazz
16 Jazz Ballads
Both vocal and piano-solo works. Published by Eburn Press, it is available on SheetMusic Plus.
Plays/Libretti
Drone
Drone is a play that examines the human cost of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) through two parallel families—the victim’s and the pilot’s. The victim’s family resides in North Waziristan, while the pilot works at Creech Air Force base near Las Vegas, where he lives with his family. During the course of spying on the victim over several weeks, the pilot becomes intimately acquainted in a voyeuristic way with the victim’s life. The situation forces the pilot into an untenable moral dilemma, which drastically impacts him, his and the victim’s family.
The play was part of Dayton Playhouse’s FutureFest and is the first-place winner of The New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest
Scores/Scripts
Songs of the Poet (Vocal/Piano and Vocal/Orchestral)
Velvet Shoes
Fancy
All the above are available from Graphite Publishing.
16 Jazz Ballads
Available at SheetMusicPlus.
All Other Scores and Playscripts
Available from the composer/playwright.
Rossetti Songs
Five songs set to Christina Rossetti poetry for medium-high voice, piano, cello, and flute.
There is also a version for just voice and piano. And the final song, Sleeping at Last, is available for voice, piano, and bass.
The cycle is featured on a recording of vocal/chamber works entitled Rapport on Navona Records (NV 5827) Purchase at Amazon.
The recording features soprano Melissa Manseau, pianist Paul Dykstra, cellist Beth Pearson, and flutist Jennifer Yeaton-Paris.
CD cover artwork by Todd Lehman.
French cultural journal Monsieur Delire calls the music “gorgeous, especially Mathews’ Rossetti Songs.”
Ye Are Many—They Are Few
Cantata for a Just World
A cantata for soprano, alto, tenor, bass-baritone/orator, and piano. Selected stanzas from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem The Mask of Anarchy, are the centerpiece of the text. Shelley’s poem was written in response to the 1819 Peterloo Massacre of peaceful pro-democracy, antipoverty protestors,who were killed by Manchester cavalrymen,. The title of the composition is taken from the last line of Shelley’s poem.
There are additional texts by many other writers all integrated by text from the composer.
The work was given its premiere performance on May 12, 2014, in Chicago, performed by members of Vox3 and sponsored by Access Contemporary Music.
Individual Songs
Velvet Shoes. Poem by Elinor Wylie. For medium-high voice and piano. (See also choral music.)
Reflections. Text from Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. For medium-high voice and piano.
Fancy. From Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. For medium-high-voice and piano.
Fishes Swim. Anonymous children’s verse. For medium-high voice and piano.
Songs of the Poet
Seven songs set to Walt Whitman poetry for high voice and chamber orchestra.
The orchestral score and parts are available through Graphite Publishing.
Ye Are Many—They Are Few
Version for SATB Choir and Piano
This is an 8-minute excerpt from the full-length cantata above, using only stanzas from Shelley’s poem The Mask of Anarchy.
Velvet Shoes
A four-part mixed voice choral setting with piano accompaniment of Elinor Wylie’s poem.
Lost Empires
A musicalization of the J. B. Priestley novel of the same name about a 20-year old English lad who joins his famous uncle’s magic act in the British music hall of 1913.
The book was written by Mathews and Todd Lehman, with lyrics by poet Patty Seyburn.
A starry demo CD of the show available on the Listen/Download page features Michele Pawk as Julie, Tony-Award nominee John Dossett (Gypsy) as Uncle Nick, Danny Gurwin (New York City Opera’s and Kennedy Center’s Henrik in A Little Night Music) as Richard, Brynn O’Malley (Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast and Honeymoon in Vegas) as Nancy, Sergia Louise Anderson as Cissie, and Tracy Bidleman as Florrie Field.
A concert version of the musical was performed by faculty and students at Shorter University.
‘Tis the Season
An “I Hate Christmas” song with lyrics by Patty Seyburn, performed at the Arts and Artists Series in New York City.
Dozens of Individual Songs
Anders’ Theme
For B-flat saxophone and piano. Written for soprano-saxophonist Anders Paullson, the piece may be heard on the Audio Page.
Night Sounds
Piano solo.
La Lupa Libretto
An elaboration of the 4-page novella by Giovanni Verga
Book, You Might as Well Live
Based on the life, writings, criticism, and politics of Dorothy Parker
Book, Lost Empires
Written with Todd Lehman, the book is based on J. B. Priestley’s novel.
Rossetti Songs (Chamber Music Version)
The score can be accessed on the Interactive CD entitled Rapport by placing it in a computer. Available at:
iTunes (Listed under Rossetti Songs, Norman Mathews)
Rossetti Songs (Vocal/Piano Version)
Available from the composer:
info@normanmathewsauthor.com