Kihlstedt, Carla - 26 Little Deaths CD
SKU
28-CNLP21209.2
Just in case you don’t recognize her name, Carla is an integral part of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, as well as the vocalist on the latest Yang album, among other works. Here she is working with Present Music, one of the nation’s leading ensembles specializing in the commissioning and performance of new music.
“26 Little Deaths — the new album from composer, singer and violinist Carla Kihlstedt and the contemporary ensemble Present Music — celebrates the macabre wit of iconic writer and illustrator Edward Gorey (1925-2000), whose 100th birthday fell on February 22, 2025.
An hour-long set of 26 miniatures for singing violinist and chamber orchestra, 26 Little Deaths is inspired by Gorey’s macabre children’s book, The Gashlycrumb Tinies. Illustrated in his distinctive crosshatched pen-and-ink style, the book chronicles the grisly, alphabetical deaths of 26 children: “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs / B is for Basil, assaulted by bears,” with the morbid roll-call culminating in “Y is for Yorick whose head was knocked in” and “Z is for Zillah who drank too much gin.”
Following in the footsteps of Hanns Eisler and Kurt Weill, who moved seamlessly between art song, pop song and cabaret, Kihlstedt has created a work that captures the pathos, humor and wit of Gorey’s indelible images.
“I stepped into the pictures to look around beyond their frame and find the story beyond the absurdist barbarism,” she explains. “Like Gorey with his Gashlycrumb drawings, in most of the pieces I leave the moment of mortality up to you to imagine, or not. Despite outward signs to the contrary, this piece is not about death, nor is the iconic book on which it’s based. Neither is it a mourning, but rather, a meditation. They dance between the banality of life and the inexhaustible oddness of the human imagination.”
- LabelCantaloupe
- UPC713746320928