Alberta Songs is a short song cycle celebrating the landscape of Alberta, from the city limits of Edmonton to the Rocky Mountains. With myself, Marek & Whitney all calling Edmonton home, we sought poets and poetry from within our own city to speak to both the urban and rural beauty of Alberta. The cycle begins with several excerpts from a longer poem, “In Praise of YEG”, by Deborah Faith Ramkhelawan. This geometric, open-form poem characterizes the Festival City through vivid imagery, and the music is at turns delicate, dance-like, and firm. The second song sets the poem “September Excursions to the Rockies” by Harper Paranich; the music and words are both cooling and calm, but ends unresolved at the violent impact of human development on the natural beauty of the mountains. The final song is a setting of “Glide Lines” by Joanne Ellison, highlighting the beauty of the midday prairie sun before heading down the ski slope. I would like to thank Deborah & Harper for their enthusiastic response to this project, and I am especially grateful to Joanne’s partner Ray Benton-Evans for allowing me the use of her poetry after her unfortunate passing in November 2021. I can only hope that this music honours their poetry and the beautiful landscape we all call home.
