Funsavers: Month of Moderns 2: Voyages

Benjamin C.S. Boyle’s Voyages (world premiere)
Robert Convery’s Voyages

We explore two stylistically diverse settings of one of the great poem cycles of the 20th century – Hart Crane’s masterpiece, Voyages. Robert Convery’s elegiac 1996 work is a poignant, mesmerizing artistic achievement. And, writing his fourth work for The Crossing, Benjamin C.S. Boyle probes the textures of strings and voices while pondering these haunting words. Voyages is a whirlwind of language and metaphor – a journey through love, founded in pure desire, concluding in isolation.

O brilliant kids, frisk with your dog,
Fondle your shells and sticks, bleached
By time and the elements; but there is a line
You must not cross nor ever trust beyond it
Spry cordage of your bodies to caresses
Too lichen-faithful from too wide a breast.
The bottom of the sea is cruel.