Three Poems from "The Prophet" (2016)

The composer writes: These songs are excerpted from Kahlil Gibran’s most famous poetic work, The Prophet, published in 1923. In this work, Gibran draws upon Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Bahá'í belief-systems to construct a philosophical discussion of the human condition, as presented by a prophet named Almustafa. Here, I have chosen three of the 26 “fables” contained within the poem that I found personally inspiring and musically evocative. In setting them to music, I have attempted to convey the mysticism and imagery found in The Prophet. These songs were written at the request of mezzo-soprano Maria Soulis, who gave the premiere performance on November 17, 2017, in Toronto.