David Liptak

Sop, pf

Dove Songs, for soprano voice and piano, is a set of six songs on poems by Rita Dove. These are: 1. Refrain, 2. The Snow King, 3. Catherine of Alexandria, 4. Beauty and the Beast, 5. Catherine of Siena, and 6. Flirtation, and these are selected from her collections of poetry The Yellow House on the Corner and Thomas and Beulah. The duration of the set is about 15 minutes, and the songs are written for soprano Tony Arnold.
Rita Dove is a poet, playwright and author, and has had a profound impact on American letters, not only through the scope of her poetry, but also through her work as an advocate. Dove was named Poet Laureate of the United States in 1993, becoming the youngest poet ever (40) and the first African-American elected to the position. She is an acclaimed lyricist, and has written lyrics for composers ranging from Tania Leon to John Williams. Her own work, the popular verse novel Thomas and Beulah, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986, was staged as an opera by Museum for Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2001. She received the Cleveland Arts Prize, Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.