Robert Paterson
Dear Irving,
You probably don't know this, but I wrote a lot of poems in high school and college, and one of my inspirations was you. Since my father had your books on our shelves, your poems are what I had around, and for that I am very grateful. It made perfect sense to set one of your poems when I was in college and figured out that I wanted to be a composer; in fact, it was the very first setting I ever attempted. Although I consider it a student piece, it was the beginning of my falling in love with setting text. I just hope I can find another opportunity to try and honor you by attempting to set more of your beautiful, carefully wrought and deeply felt poems to music.
Anyway, for your amusement, I am including that setting here, both as an MP3 and a PDF of the score.
Wishing you a very happy 80th,
Rob Paterson
Click the link below to play
Biographies of Solitude