Cherise D. Leiter, Composer

From the Ladies of Jane (2011)

Medium: soprano and piano

Length: ~18 min

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From the Ladies of Jane is a cycle for soprano and piano which draws from four of the famous novels by Jane Austen.  The first, Of Music, is the declaration by the Lady Catherine de Bourgh (of Pride and Prejudice fame) that absolutely no one in all of England enjoys music as much as herself, or has “better natural taste,” and that if she had ever learnt, she “should have been a great proficient.” The second, That of Loving Longest, is pulled from Persuasion, and the conversation toward the end of the novel when Anne Elliot comments that while both men and women are capable of loving deeply and with constancy, the privilege claimed by woman is “that of loving longest,…when hope is gone.” The third movement features the character of Mrs. Elton from Emma, and her incessant referrals to her previous home of Maple Grove.  From Sense and Sensibility comes the last movement, and is a setting of the three letters written by Marianne Dashwood to Willoughby, her faithless beau. The first letter is written upon arriving in London and expecting him to be thrilled with the news that she is near, the second is written a week later and expresses confusion at his absence, and the third is a dramatic letter composed after having seen him at a party in the company of another woman.

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Price: $18