The Music of Elizabeth Alexander

Works about Dance

Title

Poet/Lyricist

Voicing/Instrumentation

Level

A Garret of Old Playthings
Five Carl Sandburg songs full of wistfulness, gumption and glee
Poet/Lyricist: Carl Sandburg
  • High voice, piano
Level: MA
Dragon Dance
A lighthearted partner song about a Chinese dragon’s diverse, collaborative feet
Poet/Lyricist: Elizabeth Alexander
  • SA, piano
Level: ME
How To Sing Like a Planet
A genre-defying “instruction manual” as whimsical and varied as the singing planet which inspired it
Poet/Lyricist: Elizabeth Alexander
  • TBB, piano
  • SATB, piano
Level: MA
If You Can Walk You Can Dance
A contagiously joyful Latin dance song
Poet/Lyricist: Zimbabwean proverb
  • SAB, piano, claves
  • SSA, piano, claves
  • TBB, piano, claves
  • SATB, piano, claves
Level: ME
Night at the Red Cat
A high-octane Latin jazz duet with an opportunity for improvisation
  • Piano, 4 hands
Level: M
No One Gets A Program
A bluesy, sassy take on a wise old saying
Poet/Lyricist: Dutch proverb / Elizabeth Alexander
  • Vocal duet, piano
Level: M
Spring Grass
The first dance of spring: tweedle-dum and fiddle-dee-dee!
Poet/Lyricist: Carl Sandburg
  • SATB a cappella
Level: MA
Spring Revels
Three spring songs full of vitality, generosity, and love
Poet/Lyricist: Langston Hughes, e. e. cummings, Carl Sandburg
  • SATB a cappella
Level: MA
They Have Freckles Everywhere
Seven affectionate portraits of our bodies’ amazing parts
Poet/Lyricist: Elizabeth Alexander
  • SSAA, piano
Level: M
Trouble in a Minnesota Town
A town’s wild descent into madness — and mangoes!
Poet/Lyricist: Neal Bowers
  • Medium voice, piano
  • High voice, piano
Level: MA
What’s Keeping You From Singing?
A soulful reminder of music’s power to lift the heart
Poet/Lyricist: Elizabeth Alexander
  • SSA a cappella
Level: M
Y Comienzo a Bailar (“And I Begin To Dance”)
An intimate portrait of the bittersweet experience of memory, loss, and love
Poet/Lyricist: Elizabeth Alexander / Augustin Cadena
  • SATB, piano
Level: MA