All songs available in The Marc Blitzstein Songbook Volume 3
As If a Phantom Caressed Me
After the Dazzle of Day
Joy, Shipmate, Joy!
What Weeping Face
Gods
O Hymen! O Hymenee!
As Adam
I Am He
Ages and Ages
Shine, shine, shine!
Till, of a sudden
Blow, blow, blow!
Marc Blitzstein’s Whitman songs include several of Whitman’s more sexually charged poems, shining new light on the modern understanding of Whitman’s sexuality. Blitzstein, a contemporary of Weill, Copland, and Bernstein, and gay himself, handles Whitman’s texts with boldness and sensitivity. Today, these songs find new resonance beside a heightened awareness of LGBT rights. The poems also treat several other prescient topics, including race relations and social justice. Composed between 1925 and 1928, the songs may be performed as a complete cycle or individually, and are suitable for performance in recital and chamber music settings.