Baritone Songs

The Nature of Things (11/21/25) for baritone and piano – 20’00” (11/21/25)

  1. Root and Stone – 6’45”
  2. A Sighting of Silence – 3’30”
  3. Rainfall’s Patter – 3’45”
  4. On Rialto Road – 3’30”
  5. Companions Three – 2’40”

 

 

Adapted from Affirmations, An English Requiem: Three Sacred Songs from Secular Sources (9/18/22)

  1. Oh, my blacke Soule! – 2’45” (John Donne)
  2. Religio Medici – 3’30” (Sir Thomas Brown)
  3. To die takes just a little while – 4’30” (Emily Dickinson)

 

 

 

The Authentic Cadences of Gerard Manley Hopkins for baritone and organ (1989)

  1. Let me be to thee as the circling bird – 4’05”
  2. Pied Beauty – 3’30”
  3. The May Magnificat – 4’00”

H. Douglas Slusher – Emeritus Minister of Music at Indianola Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Ohio – premiered The Authentic Cadences of Gerard Manley Hopkins with organist William Osborne at Denison University in 1992.

 

 

 

 

 

Men in Love (2007) for baritone and piano [also orchestrated for baritone – 2015] (various poets).

  1. O Mistress Mine – 2’30” (William Shakespeare)
  2. Go, Lovely Rose – 4’05” (Edmund Waller)
  3. The Passionate Shepherd – 2’40” (Christopher Marlowe)
  4. Venetian Air – 2’20” (Thomas Moore)
  5. My Love in her Attire – 1’40” (anonymous)
  6. Sleep On – 3’10” (Samuel Rogers)
  7. Send me some token – 3’35” (John Donne)
  8. Since there’s no hope – 2’40” (Michael Drayton)
  9. Jenny Kissed Me – 2’35” (Leigh Hunt)
  10. Gather Ye Rosebuds – 2’50” (Robert Herrick)

There is an online performance of the work by Andrew White using a MIDI accompaniment that I prepared for him.  The link is: Composer’s Voice feature Andrew White – YouTube.  It should take you to the performance.  If not, Men in Love begins at the 40 minute

 

Andrew White

My Last Duchess (12/16/16) for baritone and piano (Robert Browning) – 14’00”

This is an extended scena about entitlement and power.

 

 

Individual Songs
Cliff Davis, baritone, me, and William Osborne, choir director, at a recent Denison Singers reunion in Granville, Ohio.

 

 

  1. “City Poets” for baritone, bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone (Rob Smith) – 4’45”
  2. “Crab, my Dog” for baritone, Cl, Bcl, Bsn, Tpt, and tbn (Shakespeare) – 6’30”. Sung by Andrew White with MIDI accompaniment.
  3. “If I take the Wings” for baritone or alto and piano (Psalm 139 & me) – 3’30”.  Sung by Cliff Davis with Susan Billin, piano.
  4. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” for baritone & piano (Shakespeare) – 2’15”
  5. Beat! Beat! Drums for baritone and piano (Walt Whitman) – 7’00”.  Sung by David Thomas Mather with JJ Penna, piano