Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking for voice and string quartet Op.41 (1993) c. 15'00"
poem by Walt Whitman

Commissioned by the University of Kansas

First performed on April 2nd, 1993 at the University of Kansas by Phyllis Pancella, mezzo-soprano with the New World String Quartet 

ABOUT

This piece is a setting of the first two pages (omitting two short stanzas) of Whitman's famous poem of the same title.  One of my earliest compositions, a piano piece in three movements (now destroyed,) was also based on this poem.  It was the occasion of the centenary of Whitman's death in the year previous that made me think of returning to the same poem for the present work's inspiration.  This setting, scored for voice and string quartet, makes no attempt at "tone-painting," but rather provides a psychological framework that is meant not to overwhelm the text.  The work follows the rhapsodic form of the poem and does not attempt to impose a more formal structure upon it. 

RECORDINGS

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REVIEWS

“…beautifully crafted.”
Palm Beach Post

“Liebermann…may be an old-fashioned craftsman, but his Whitman song is more likely to enter the standard repetoire than many a misguided vocal perversity now favored by academic tastemakers.”
Chicago Tribune