On Wings of Song was composed in July 2009 at the suggestion of David Fetler, Music Director of the Rochester (NY) Chamber Orchestra. The composition is comprised of four traditional folksongs about birds – “The Birds’ Courting Song,” “The Birds in the Spring,” “The Cuckoo,” and “Rise, Rise, Thou Merry Lark.”

Each of the songs is preceded by a selection of prose by the great American poet, Walt Whitman. His words are excerpted from “Specimen Days,” which first appeared in 1882 within a volume entitled Specimen Days & Collect, published in Philadelphia, and written in 1881 largely out of notes, sketches, and essays from various stages of the poet’s life beginning at around the time of the Civil War. Several chapters in the volume are devoted to Whitman’s reflections about birds and nature.

The prose readings and folksongs are framed in original music composed to serve as a unifying structure. About the compilation of text and music the composer offers his own original verse:

With Wings of song the birds inspire;

Their melodies soar ever higher.

Now I too want to sing along

And soar with birds on wings of song.

63 page score, arranged for full orchestra and children’s chorus (13 parts)