Category: Vocal Music / Art Song
Instrumentation: voice, piano
Text / Source: Words by Linda Pastan and Christina Rossetti
Performers: Written for soprano and piano

Two Last Songs is a pair of art songs for voice and piano, written for soprano Annie Gill. The set brings together two poetic meditations on mortality: Linda Pastan’s 1932 and Christina Rossetti’s When I Am Dead, My Dearest, one of Rossetti’s best-known poems.

What makes the poems in this mini-cycle particularly interesting is that both poets reflect on their own deaths, yet both wrote their poems well before their deaths occurred. Christina Rossetti wrote When I Am Dead, My Dearest when she was just 18 years old and lived to be 64. Linda Pastan wrote 1932 while in her 50s and lived to be 90. Neither poem is inherently sad; rather, both are pensive, offering thoughtful and deeply personal reflections on mortality from different stages of life.

In 1932, Baxter responds to an intensely personal and complex text that confronts the realism of reaching the age of 80, when death no longer feels distant or abstract. Pastan’s poem carries a particular intimacy, reflecting on her past life while implying the importance of her children and the relationships that have shaped her existence. The song gives musical shape to that awareness with directness and emotional restraint, reflecting Baxter’s gift for lyrical vocal writing, tonal clarity, and contemporary harmonic color in the service of poetic meaning.

When I Am Dead, My Dearest offers a complementary perspective. Rossetti’s poem presents an acceptance of death and the peaceful rest that follows. Although the speaker expresses indifference toward remembrance or mourning after death, the imagery suggests a deeper emotional complexity beneath the surface. Ultimately, she recognizes that it makes no difference whether she is mourned or remembered, as she will no longer experience pain or sorrow and will instead be resting peacefully. Baxter’s setting can be understood as part of his broader art song catalog, where clear text delivery, expressive melodic line, and sensitivity to poetic nuance are central.

Two Last Songs is well suited for vocal recitals and contemporary art song programs, especially those exploring memory, age, grief, mortality, and the interior life of poetry. The songs call for a singer able to communicate intimacy, restraint, and emotional complexity with clarity and directness.