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Maria Milenic, soprano

Bryn Blackwood, piano

​​

Text by Maria Milenic

Recorded live in concert, June 11, 2023,

Church of St. Peter and St. Simon, Toronto

Aisling

Poem by Maria Milenic

What if I told you

We ended up together

A baby on the way

And one cradled in my arms

Blinking your liquid blue eyes

Growing your copper-coloured curls

What if I told you

We named her Aisling

Because she dreams

Of nymphs and fairies

Of leprechauns and white ladies

Striking their bodhráns and humming their tunes
 

What if I told you

You leaned in with your crimson lips

Asking to rest on mine

Before leaving our stone-brick home

To set off for battle

Startling daddy’s little girl

What if I told you

I sang her to sleep

Singing of nymphs and fairies

Of leprechauns and white ladies

Swimming through the coves

Searching for something that wasn’t there

What if I told you

Our Aisling baby woke up

And there was no battle

No stone-brick home

But an Aran sweater soaking heavy

In the Guinness bubbly

"Aisling" is the fruit of a loving collaboration between me and my friend Maria Milenic. A passionate musician and a powerhouse of mezzo-soprano, Maria also has the beautiful endeavour of writing poetry. As a poet, her voice is original, raw and personal, yet with a delicate touch of subtlety. When she showed me her poem entitled "Aisling", I was captivated by the story of a girl dreaming about love and lamenting her disillusion - a story that was at once too small and too universal. While the imageries are subtle and intimate, I nonetheless sensed great drama in the stark contrast between how beautiful the dream of love is, and the heartbreak from the dream being shattered. As the composer, I sought to capture the delicacy and purity of the vision, and explore the emotional depth of the text with its passions of joy and bleak dispair.

Central to my mission of setting the text to song was to faithfully translate the personal and raw tone of the poem, and there would be few better ways to achieve this than to be earnestly personal myself. The result is an attempt to engage in my favourite techniques and vocabularies - lyricism, romanticism, and the exploration of colour through richness of pitch and harmony. I particularly enjoyed the challenge of marrying the rich, at-times quasi-Mahlerian romanticism and contemporary sensibilities from my own personal handling of pitch materials.

"Aisling" was commissioned by Maria Milenic as the first of a song cycle.​​

Click for score:

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More about Maria:

Performance History

June 11, 2022, 
Church of St. Peter and St. Simon, Toronto

May 15, 2023, Mazzoleni Hall, Glenn Gould School
 

Copyright © Kevin Zi-Xiao He 2024

"Aisling", Art Song for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano (2022)
​Duration: 6'00"

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