Part of Inspiring Creativity in Kansas Prisons project supported by New Music USA with Sarah Frisof, flute.
Technical Information
ca. 7’
flute, cello, marimba
Premiered November 11, 2019
Purchase or Stream
Performance History
May 24, 2018
Lansing Correctional Facility
Lansing, KS
With Sarah Frisof
*world premiere*
November 11, 2019
Wunsch New Music Festival, Cider Gallery, Lawrence, KS
With Daniel Velasco
About the Work
Words are the inspirational seeds for much of the music I compose. The Voice of the Rain takes its title and inspiration from Walt Whitman’s poem “The Voice of the Rain” from Leaves of Grass. Whitman beautifully describes the world as an everlasting cyclical process of giving birth to itself and giving back life to its own origin. I was especially drawn to the last line of this poem where Whitman reveals a deeper truth about the creative process. He equates the everlasting cyclical nature of life, with the creative process, where—like the rain—the creation changes form but is always the same at its core and eventually returns to the poet as love from those who read the words. It is my hope that the music captures the essence of Whitman’s powerful meditation on nature and humanity.
– Ingrid Stölzel
The Voice of the Rain, by Walt Whitman
And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:
I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely formed, altogether changed,
and yet the same,
I descend to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;
And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own origin,
and make pure and beautify it;
(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfilment, wandering,
Recked or unrecked, duly with love returns.)
About the Composer
Composer Ingrid Stölzel has been described as having “a gift for melody” (San Francisco Classical Voice) and “evoking a sense of longing” that creates “a reflective and serene soundscape that makes you want to curl up on your windowsill to re-listen on a rainy day.” (I Care If You Listen)
Stölzel’s compositions have been commissioned by leading soloists and ensembles, and performed in concert halls and festivals worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Kennedy Center, Seoul Arts Center, Thailand International Composition Festival, Festival Osmose (Belgium), Vox Feminae Festival (Israel), Dot the Line Festival (South Korea), Ritornello Chamber Music Festival (Canada), Festival of New Music at Florida State (USA), Beijing Modern Music Festival (China), Festival of New American Music (USA), and SoundOn Festival of Modern Music (USA). Her music has been recognized in numerous competitions, among them recently the Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composer’s Award, Red Note Composition Competition, the Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers, and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Competition. Recordings can be found on various commercial releases including her portrait album “The Gorgeous Nothings” which features her chamber and vocal chamber music. Stölzel teaches composition at the University of Kansas School of Music.
Performance History
November 11, 2019
Wunsch New Music Festival, Cider Gallery, Lawrence, KS
With Daniel Velasco