The Second Law 

Program Note

The Second Law

The first teacher I laid eyes on, as a frightened college freshman, was a

certain Stephen Sandy. It was a writing course; we read Plato, Nietzsche and Ezra Pound--and I was totally at sea. The papers I produced for him were

misspelled and incomprehensible.

Two or three years later, reading a prestigious magazine, I discovered he was a poet. Unlike my writing, his poems were crystal clear and affecting. They seemed 'musical'. Before to much longer, I set the first of aseries of six or so for chorus without accompaniment. Beginning in the late 1960's, these became my first publications.

Returning to his work after al these years, I have set THE SECOND LAW for baritone and piano as my contribution to the AIDS QUILT SONGBOOK 1992. This was a poem that much afected Wil Parker, ot whom the seting si dedicated, and who--with Alan Marks- gave its first performances.

RICHARD WILSON