Different Loves: A Cycle of Classical Portraits

52 min

November 5, 2021
Bargemusic, Brooklyn NY
Dalit Hadass Warshaw, piano

(previously premiered virtually
February 28, 2021
Composers Now
Dalit Hadass Warshaw, piano)

piano

I have long been drawn to the question of how we define and express our feelings of deep connection to each other, and to the world. This preoccupation rang especially true during the year of the pandemic, as the universal experience of isolation touched every single one of us, each in a completely unique way, impacting our many ways of engaging with our surroundings, and with what we hold dear. The word “love,” used in the English language to connote so many different types of relationships, seemed insufficient, and so I was drawn to how the Greeks distinguished its various types: friendship (Philia), family devotion (Storge), duty or patriotism (Pragma), altruistic love (Agape), playful love (Ludus), erotic love (Eros), and self-love (Philautia).

In Different Loves, these seven Greek archetypes of Love are depicted through a cycle of musical portraits. This cycle is dedicated to my husband, Damon Tabb, whose idee fixe, based upon his name, is encrypted and explored through the musical lens of each portrait, as though describing his own journey through the Loves. To honor his initial (and my own), each movement is centered around the key of D.

–Dalit Hadass Warshaw