Mad Moonight (mezzo-soprano and piano) – Carol Barnett

Composer: Carol Barnett

Text by: Louis Jenkins

Instrumentation: Mezzo-Soprano and Piano

Duration: Approx. 6'30"

Date Written:  2020

Commissioned: Commissioned by Schubert Club for mezzo-soprano Georgia Jacobson with funding provided by Barbara Brown and John Michel in memory of soprano Ruth Jacobson

Composer’s note: It all began when John Michel asked me to set three poems from Louis Jenkins’ The Mad Moonlight, published by Will o’ the Wisp Books in 2019. The project has since mushroomed into the commissioning of a dozen composers for settings of almost all of the poems in the volume. John and Louis, both from Duluth, MN, were dear friends until Louis’s death in December of 2019. The poets are light-hearted and wry; deeper meaning lurks beneath the surface.