Category: Vocal Music / Art Song
Instrumentation: voice and guitar, or voice and piano
Duration: 3 minutes
Text / Source: Words by Chaim Stern
Publisher: Les Productions D'OZ (voice and guitar); Doberman-Yppan (voice and piano)

What Death Can Touch is a lower-intermediate song for voice with guitar or piano, setting words by Chaim Stern. The text offers a highly touching reflection on losing a loved one, giving the song a direct emotional focus centered on grief, remembrance, and affection.

The setting is through-composed, though many similar phrases recur throughout the piece, creating coherence while allowing the text to unfold naturally. Baxter’s lyrical writing and tonal clarity support the song’s intimate character, while the accompaniment provides a sensitive framework for quiet expression.

What Death Can Touch is especially appropriate for memorial programs, sacred services, vocal recitals, and contemporary art song concerts dealing with loss and remembrance. It calls for sincerity, restraint, clear text delivery, and a close expressive partnership between singer and accompanist.