The three sonnets, nos. 6, 16, and 24, come from E.E. Cummings' first published book of poetry, "Tulips and Chimneys" (1923). The poems are sparse, eccentric, and at times, unruly, inspiring a peculiar sense of texture. Their odd grammar, spelling, and punctuation are deliberate, idiosyncratic, and unpredictable, revealing the poet as an unabashed romantic, something of a nonconformist, but also a committed modernist always ready to experiment. Above all, the sonnets are sensuous, provocative, and often irreverent, inviting daring playfulness and unrestrained imagination. These are the qualities that I seek to capture in my setting. The three songs belong to the same sound world. While highly chromatic, the harmonic language remains static throughout. The lush texture of the outer songs let's live suddenly without thinking and This day it was Spring is contrasted with the lyrical and light, i have found what you are like.

Three Sonnets from E. E. Cummings were composed in the spring of 2020 during the shelter-in-place order due to COVID-19. I find it quite revealing that the influenza epidemic of 1918, the great epidemic of the previous century caught Cummings at Camp Devens, MA where he was in basic military training, subject to call for service in the Great War: http://www.eecsocietyblog.org/?p=1435 His reaction, a characteristic mixture of bravado and deep fear—quite a number of people from Cummings’ circle had been stricken and some died, all while he remained unscathed by the disease—give an added layer meaning, especially for our own times.

Songs 1 & 3 in Three Sonnets of E.E. Cummings: “let’s live suddenly without thinking ” and “and This day it was Spring” were performed at Source Song Festival as part of the 2021 MNSong Composer Showcase. They were performed by KrisAnne Weiss, mezzo-soprano, and James Barnett, pianist, via an online broadcast on August 6, 2021.

Helena Michelson is a composer based in the San Francisco-Bay Area. She completed her undergraduate studies in Music at the University of California, Berkeley and holds a doctorate in composition and theory from the University of California, Davis. Helena Michelson studied piano with Mack McCray at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and, in masterlasses, with Richard Goode and Awadagin Pratt. She has studied composition, among others, with Olly Wilson, Cindy Cox, Jeffrey Miller, Pablo Ortiz, and, in masterclasses, with Louis Andriessen, Martin Bresnick, Mario Davidovsky, Eric Chasalow, Philippe Leroux, Bernard Rands, Judith Shatin, and Joel Hoffman.

She has been a fellow at numerous festivals including Composers Conference at Wellesley College, MusicX, June in Buffalo, and Domaine Forget in Québec. In addition, she has been a participating composer in Antico Moderno Ensemble's and the 2017 International Trombone Festival's (University of Redlands) Composers Workshops, the 2018 Opera From Scratch program (Halifax, Canada), a participating composer at the Bayou 2019 in Monroe, LA, the 2020 and 2021 Music by Women Festival in Columbus, Mississippi, the 2020 and 2021 N.E.O. Voice Festival in Los Angeles, and the Really Spicy Opera Arial Institute, Mezzo Soprano edition (2020) and Libretto Workshop (2021). Named one of the finalists in the 2017 HGOco Song of Houston Composer Call, her recent awards include grants from the American Composers Forum and Composer Assistance Program from New Music USA.

Further information is available at: michelson.helena@gmail.com

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/e-e-cummings