My Own Epitaph (from Epigrams, Epitaphs) – Carol Barnett

Composer: Carol Barnett

Text by: John Gay (1685-1732)

Instrumentation: SATB, 4-hand piano

Duration: c 2:45]

Date Written:  1987

Composer’s note: Epigrams, Epitaphs was commissioned in 1986 by the Grand Rapids [MN] Area Community Chorus, which wanted a new work for a program that also included the Liebeslieder Waltzes. This was the impetus for the four-hand piano accompaniment as well as the inspiration for the fourth song, stylistically an homage to Brahms. Looking for texts, I found Ben Jonson’s “On My First Son” and fell in love with it. This poem sets the tone for the entire work; all of the texts deal in some way with death (of beauty, of the poet, of two dickey-birds), thus the occasional use of the piano as a great tolling bell. The first three poems are also brief enough to be epigrams, hence the title.

By turns contrapuntal and homophonic, the tongue-in-cheek “My Own Epitaph” races through several key centers, alternating between duple and triple time in a breathless commentary on the comedy of life

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text

My Own Epitaph
Life is a jest, and all things show it;
I thought so once, but now I know it.
John Gay (1685-1732)