Avis

I’ve been trying to write a tune using a text by Phillis Wheatley Peter for years now. I had what I thought was a good one, but it never really clicked. This past winter I threw it all away and started from scratch with a new tune to the same text and this song flowed out in a couple of minutes.

Phillis Wheatley Peters was a totally astonishing woman poet who was enslaved as a young girl. Her story and genius are truly remarkable.

The text is from the much longer poem:

“To a GENTLEMAN and LADY on the Death of the Lady’s Brother and Sister, and a Child of the Name Avis, aged one Year”

The song is called AVIS because the particular lines of the text are about the child.