From the Diary of Virginia Woolf is an eight-partsong cycle written byDominick Argento in 1974 for the Englishmezzo-sopranoJanet Baker.[1] The work won thePulitzer Prize for Music in 1975.
The text of the songs comes fromA Writer's Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf, which was published in 1954.[2] (The five-volume diaries edited byAnne Olivier Bell were not published until 1979.[3])
The choice of a prose, rather than poetic, source for a text is a common theme for Argento, who did the same thing in his cyclesLetters from Composers,The Andrée Expedition, andCasa Guidi. In each case, he captures the cadence and flow of these more free-form writings without sacrificing musical structure or melodic interest. The composer's original intention was to use excerpts from Woolf's novelThe Waves as the basis for his cycle. But in reading her newly published diaries he discovered a source much richer in musical and expressive possibilities. The highly confessional diary texts illuminate Woolf's inner world in a more immediate way than do her literary works.[1]
Assertion[4]
Assertion[5]
Score available fromDominick Argento - From The Diary of Virginia Woolf (Medium Voice & Piano)
