Various Artists - Transparent Boundaries: Songs Set to the Words of Dickinson, Whitman & Emerson (2020)

For centuries, writers have documented the awe brought about by the pristine wilderness and untamed expanses of the American Midwest and West. Three authors in particular—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson—beautifully documented the boundless optimism and sense of opportunity that the country’s vast natural resources inspired and heralded a new era of American thought.

On TRANSPARENT BOUNDARIES, the three visionaries’ words are set to music to give their poetic works musical life. Soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine and bass-baritone Seth Keeton deftly lead the charge on a series of artsongs, accompanied by pianists Lara Bolton and Scott Gendel and cellist Karl Knapp.

Guarrine’s vocal elegance and innate lyricism naturally lend themselves to the vivid simplicity and inward reflection of Dickson, and Keeton’s lower register captures the direct ruggedness of Whitman. To express the duality of Emerson, the pair come together for a duo to capture the author’s ability to view all things at once in a single picture of beauty.

By adding to the repertoire of contemporary artsong, TRANSPARENT BOUNDARIES honors the legacy of historic writings and brings their sentiment back to the foreground of American thought, ushering in a newfound sense of hope and optimism for the 21st century