Citizen of Paradise
(1984) 34’
Song cycle for mezzo-soprano and orchestra
Text Poems of Emily Dickinson
Scoring soprano;
2.2.3.2-4.3.3.1-timp.perc-pft-strings
Citizen of Paradise, is a soul map of poet and composer that touches on autobiographical aspects of both. The cycle’s emotional road travels from instinctual brilliance and childlike simplicity to the serenity of age contemplating its inevitable end. Frequent turnouts create opportunities for wry, wistful, heartbreaking observations on the human condition.
Between the one-line prologue and an epilogue repeating and completing this initial statement excerpted from poem 441— “This Is My Letter to the World That Never Wrote to Me”— Floyd constructed five themed sections: Self, Friendship and Society, Love, Nature, Death and Solitude.
Floyd entered and fully inhabited Dickinson’s world with Citizen of Paradise. The cycle’s concentration and sophistication are most reminiscent of his work in the Episodes of the sixties, and serve as reliable barometers of his internal world. The vocal score bears no dedication; but Floyd later offered this honor to his lifetime friend and publisher-agent, Robert Holton.
— Thomas Holliday
Taken from Falling Up: the days
and nights of Carlisle Floyd
Susanne Mentzer after the
world premiere performance of
Citizen of Paradise.
His melodies are the kind that give you goose bumps and make you cry. What else could you want from music? And you can’t even explain why that is. The first important thing about his vision was the idea of its being a monodrama, which I really liked, being such a stage creature. The whole thing of writing a letter to herself, to the world, is how it starts and ends; and those are the two hardest things, very exposed and fragile-sounding.
These songs are more emotionally draining than anything else; I think the last two are among the most brilliant songs ever written. His whole depiction of relationship, nature, loss, the death song: really intense to work on.
— Susanne Mentzer on
premiering Citizen of Paradise
