Ogden Nash is often cited as our country’s best-known author of humorous poetry. His style emphasizes unconventional rhyming schemes and invented words, both features of the three poems included in my set “Three Settings of Ogden Nash.” These three poems express a loose narrative of experiences and images from civilized urban and suburban life in mid-century America. “Tin Wedding Whistle,” is a marriage proposal. “Pretty Halcyon Days” is a humorous sketch of a day at the beach. “A Lady Who Thinks She is Thirty” explores the fears of growing old.: the narrator wisely reassures the lady that “beauty is timelessness for you.” To capture this tone musically, I strove to find a stylethat incorporated aspects of popular music, including gentle syncopations and jazz-influenced harmonies, integrated with the conventions of American classical Art Song. -David Conte
