TALES NOT TOLD: A song cycle of unsung American women

Edward Knight's song cycle TALES NOT TOLD is based on historically inspired poems by lyricist M.J. Alexander exploring the lives of six American women in the composer's family tree: Civil War widow Helen Harvey Tiffany Paddock (1822-1914); reluctant Pilgrim Patience Brewster Prence (1603-1634); frontier girl Keziah Keyes Ransom (1774-1837); accused Salem witch Sarah Town Bridges Cloyce (c. 1639-1703); turn-of-the-century schoolteacher Bessie Barton Paddock (1885-1958), and martyred Quaker Mary Dyer (1611-1660). The poems and music were written as a gift to the Alexander and Knight's children, as a tribute to their ancestors.
The resulting 16-minute song cycle was premiered by mezzo-soprano Catherine McDaniel in 2007. This performance was taped Nov. 6, 2008 at a National Association of Teachers (NATS) conference hosted by Oklahoma City University's Bass School of Music, where Edward Knight, Catherine McDaniel and her husband -- Prof. Jan McDaniel, here on piano -- are on the faculty.
Scholar Judith Carmen called TALES NOT TOLD an "intriguing, heartfelt and beautifully crafted cycle" suited to "Knight's compositional style with its rhythmic vitality, melodiousness, jazz elements, and slightly askew tonalities."
Carmen commented on the origins of the piece: "The story of the song cycle itself is fascinating. The six women are all direct ancestors of the composer on his paternal grandmother's side, and the poet, Knight's wife, researched the histories of the women and wrote the poems that Knight set to music for their children...The direct lineage makes the composer truly an "Ur-American" composer. Knight is quite sensitive both to meaning and imagery in the text of these songs. He captures exactly the right atmosphere and overall motion of each poem as well as many details of imagery in his music."

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