26 Little Deaths
(after The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey)
composed and performed by Carla Kihlstedt with Present Music(2021-2022)
"If you're doing nonsense it has to be rather awful, because there'd be no point. I'm trying to think if there's sunny nonsense. Sunny, funny nonsense for children—oh, how boring, boring, boring. As Schubert said, there is no happy music. And that's true, there really isn't. And there's probably no happy nonsense, either."
— Edward Gorey
View the world premiere in Milwaukee, WI, June 24, 2022
(26 Little Deaths begins around 59:00)
The images from Gorey's book are such an integral part of the piece. I recommend following along with them HERE.
June 23-24, 2022
Carla Kihlstedt’s 26 Little Deaths is a 60-minute set of 26 miniatures for singing violinist and chamber orchestra, inspired by Edward Gorey’s macabre abecedary, The Gashlycrumb Tinies – an illustrated children’s book in which, on every page, a child meets an untimely demise. Following in the footsteps of Hanns Eilser and Kurt Weill who moved seamlessly between art song, pop song and cabaret, Kihlstedt has created a song cycle for the extraordinary players of Present Music that captures the pathos, humor and wit of Gorey’s iconic images.