A Visit from the Sea for voice & piano
PDF score of A Visit from the Sea for voice & piano, music by Lisa Neher, poetry by Robert Louis Stevenson
Range: C4-F5
Additional transpositions available by request
Listen to a MIDI realization of the music
Length: 3 minutes
I love open-ended stories. I love it when authors end a narrative with some lose threads and I get to let my imagination run wild imagine what might happen after that final sentence of the book. Stevenson’s poem A visit from the sea is filled with unanswered questions and a mood of restless unease. It leaves us with more questions than answers. I poured this agitation into the piano’s right hand ostinato, which swirls like surf or the wind off the sea while dark octaves in the low register hint of something ominous. The directness of the poetry led me to a lyrical, folk-inspired setting for the singer, heightened through many phrases which end with an ascending line, suggesting uncertainty.