Five Letters from Aubrey Beardsley (2019)

I. To Leonard Smithers, Bournemouth, March 1897
II. To André Raffalovich, Bournemouth, March 1897
III. To H. C. J. Pollitt, Menton, November 1897
IV. To H. C. J. Pollitt, Menton, February 1898
V. To Leonard Smithers, Menton, March 1898

For countertenor and prepared piano • 12′

Supported by the Music Department at Princeton University and Princeton Sound Kitchen.

This work presents musical settings of five letters by the British art nouveau illustrator Aubrey Beardsley. The letters were sent to friends during the final year of Beardsley’s life before his death from tuberculosis at the age of 25.

Performed by Daniel Moody (countertenor), Miki Sawada (piano), Thomas Feng (piano secondo). Videography by Four/Ten Media.

This project was generously supported by Princeton Sound Kitchen and the Department of Music at Princeton University. The performance was filmed in Princeton in June 2019.