American composer Lori Laitman straightforwardly described her art songs in her own notes to this release: "My goal to create dramatic music to express and magnify the meaning of the poem." Further, she borrows a motto from a singer acquaintance: "A happy singer is a good singer." Laitman's setttings lie easily for the voice and are almost hyper-descriptive. This collection of songs, all composed since the year 2000, includes eight settings of poems by Emily Dickinson, whose atomistic style perfectly fits Laitman's. Other poems she sets are similarly short and proceed in compressed gestures that the music can unpack a bit. The challenge in this kind of music is not to be too obvious, and Laitman's notes (in English only) go a bit too far in laying out road maps through each song. But the songs as a group have considerable power. Although many of the songs were written in response to specific commissions, Laitman clearly the elusive ability to pick texts that emotionally resonate with her. The texts are by quite a variety of poets; in addition to Dickinson there are major contemporary writers like Dana Gioia and Richard Wilbur, university poets, a new setting of "The Silver Swan" text, a fine group of texts about mothers and daughters by a group of women poets from Nebraska (the album opens with the arresting line "I have taken to eating toast at odd times in the day," from "I Grow to Be My Grandmother" in the title song cycle, Within These Spaces), and even a lullaby by the composer herself. Among the most moving works is Swimmers on the Shore (track 6), to a poem by David Mason about his father's struggles with Alzheimer's disease. There is plenty of water imagery in the music, but it always serves the greater goals of expression and structure. That song, from a male perspective, is sung by baritone
Randall Scarlata; most of the vocalists are female, and there are four different ones, but the music leads all the singers along so clearly that a unified effect is produced. All song texts are included, a commendable detail in a situation where so many recent works were involved. Recommended especially to young singers, who will find music here that connects strongly with audiences.