I Shall Be Coming Back to You

Program Notes

I first encountered Witter Bynner’s poetry some years ago, and I was immediately smitten: his imagery, his vernacular, and the seeming simplicity of his (often brief) poems seemed absolutely ideal for short and meaningful songs. Binner, an openly-queer poet operating mostly in the first half of the twentieth century, ran in top notch artistic circles, especially residing (with his longtime partner, Robert Hunt,) in the American Southwest alongside artists like Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams. When my good friends Dr. Lara Brooks and Dr. Robert Brooks approached me for a cycle for soprano and tenor saxophone, those poems seemed ideal, especially dealing with the leaner, more open and conversational combination of these voices. What emerged was a line-up of five intimate songs that explore the love between two folks—the personal, the sexual, the lifelong commitment that shapes and defines so much about the two lives that undertake it.