Prologue

Forces: duet for high voice, bass clarinet
Text: Yevgeny Yevtushenko (in English)
Duration: 4 min.
Completed: 1998 (revised 2008)
Premiere: Jan 25, 2009, Bethlehem Music Series, Minneapolis, MN.
            Linh Kauffman, soprano; Paul Schulz, bass clarinet

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LISTEN:

Prologue: mp3, 4:18, 4 MB

Linh Kauffman, soprano; Paul Schulz, bass clarinet
Bethlehem Music Series, Minneapolis, MN

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PROGRAM NOTE:

The poem “Prologue” was written in 1955 by the great Russian political poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who was then, at the age of 22, at the forefront of the post-Stalin Soviet youth movement. When I first read this poem I was 18, and – though I didn’t know it yet – was about to be diagnosed with lymphoma. I wrote this (quite melodramatic!) song that year for voice and bassoon, and it ended up being a kind of mantra for me while I was sick. I’m now celebrating ten years cancer-free. Yevtushenko now teaches poetry and film at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.

- Abbie Betinis, 2008

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