Purchase Printed Music

The following scores are available for purchase. Many can be downloaded directly through this site as PDFs (one printout per purchase; photocopying is prohibited under copyright law). If you are interested in a work not listed here, please contact Ben.

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Song Collections & Duets

Ben Moore: 14 Songs

Published by G. Schirmer, Inc.
On sale now at Amazon.com

  • In the Dark Pinewood (text James Joyce)
  • The Lake Isle of Innisfree (text W.B. Yeats)
  • I Am in Need of Music (text Elizabeth Bishop)
  • When I Was One-and-Twenty (text A. E. Housman)
  • To the Virgins to Make Much of Time (text Robert Herrick)
  • Darkling I Listen (text John Keats)
  • Bright Cap and Streamers (text James Joyce)
  • I Would in that Sweet Bosom Be (text James Joyce)
  • The Ivy-wife (text Thomas Hardy)
  • The Lover Pleads with His Friend for Old Friends (text W.B. Yeats)
  • Annie Laurie (text William Morris)
  • This Heart That Flutters (text James Joyce)
  • The Cloak, the Boat and the Shoes (text W.B. Yeats)
  • On Music (text Ben Moore)
Eight Songs (collection)
 — 34 pages

Voice and Piano

  • Lullaby (based on Christina Rossetti, 1830-1894)
  • Requiem (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894)
  • Hope is the Thing with Feathers (Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886)
  • When You Are Old (W. B. Yeats, 1865-1939)
  • Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop (W. B. Yeats, 1865-1939)
  • Simples (James Joyce, 1882-1941)
  • Ah! Happy, Happy Boughs (John Keats, 1795-1821)
  • Where Are the Songs of Spring? (John Keats, 1795-1821)
Price:
$20.00
Cabaret and Theater Songs (collection)
 — 30 pages

Medium-High Voice and Piano
Music and lyrics by Ben Moore

  • See How a Flower Blossoms
  • Lonely Room
  • Were I to Touch You
  • I Believe
  • Let the Walls Fall Down
  • Let Me Explain
  • Where Has Summer Gone?
Price:
$15.00
John and Abigail (extended duet)
 — 25 pages

Duet for soprano (range D4 to A5 with optional high C) and baritone (range Bb2 to F4); approximately 12 minutes; commissioned by SongFest; featured on the recording New American Song @ SongFest (SongFest records) and available on Cdbaby.com.

Based on passages from the letters that John and Abigail Adams exchanged from 1774 to early 1776 centering around one letter of October 1775 in which Abigail tells John of the death of her mother. The piece weaves together several melodic and dramatic sections: tender, rousing, foreboding and passionate. While the text and chronology of the passages have been modified in certain instances in order to create a satisfying musical and dramatic structure, great effort has been made to retain the spirit of the original letters.

Price:
$20.00

Individual Songs

*No Choice But Love
 — 12 pages

For tenor (range B flat2 to C5) and piano; about 5 ½ minutes; words by Terrence Chin-Loy

Commissioned in 2021 by tenor Eric Ferring, No Choice But Love is set to text by Terrence Chin-Loy. It celebrates gay relationships and honors the brave efforts of those who’ve fought for the rights of LGBTQ+ people. It is the final selection on Eric Ferring and Madeline Slettedahl’s 2022 recording “No Choice But Love – Songs of the LGBTQ+ Community.”

Price:
$15.00
*Alas! This Is Not What I Thought Life Was
 — 6 pages

For medium-high voice (range Eb3 to B4); about 3.10 minutes; set to the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Though written in the early 1800s, the text captures the emotional impact of contemporary hatred and violence.

Price:
$10.00
*Between the Lights
 — 5 pages

For soprano voice (range Eb3 to B4); about 2.50 minutes. Set to a passage of prose from Virginias Woolf’s extended essay A Room of One’s Own. A version of this music also appears in “The Wave Rises” for SATB chorus. It explores the experience of overwhelming beauty which encompasses both “laughter” and “anguish.”

Price:
$10.00
*Love and I
 — 8 pages

For tenor voice (range D2 to A3); about 3 minutes. This song portrays the character of Ichabod Crane in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It reveals Ichabod’s intense, if deluded, love for his would-be girlfriend, Katrina while touching on his fears and rivalries

Price:
$10.00
The End
 — 5 pages

For mezzo-soprano (range Ab3 to F5); about 3 minutes; set to the poem by Wilfred Owen; premiered by Sasha Cooke in January, 2010 at the Brooklyn Historical Society.

A darkly lyrical song set to Owen’s text which rails against the madness of war. Owen vividly evokes the suffering and death that he witnessed himself as a soldier in World War I. He was killed in action in 1918 one week before the signing of the Armistice which ended the war.

Price:
$7.00
Goodbye Old Centerville
 — 6 pages

For tenor (range C2 to G3); about 2 ½ minutes; originally from the musical theatre piece entitled “Henry and Company” written for tenor Jerry Hadley; lyric by Ben Moore.

A lively, comic and emotional song about the experience of a young man leaving home for the first time.

Price:
$7.00
A Holy Place
 — 6 pages

For soprano (range B3 to Ab5); about 2 ½ minutes; set to Sappho’s “fragment 94” as translated by Charles Beye.
This deeply emotional piece explores the experience of being abandoned by a cherished lover. It expresses intense grief and loss, as well as love and hatred. Sappho’s poetry was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity and continues to inspire today. Fragment 94 (among the longest fragments) is both searing and tender.

Price:
$7.00
I Travel as a Phantom Now
 — 4 pages

For medium voice (range D4 to F5 or D3 to F4); about 2 minutes; set to the poem by Thomas Hardy.

This song explores the effects of trauma, the kind that can leave you feeling disembodied. It also celebrates the love that can draw you back into the world.

Price:
$7.00
Judith River
 — 8 pages

For tenor (range C2 to sustained G3); about 3 minutes; words by Nahma Sandrow; based on the journals of Lewis and Clark.

An energetic, soaring and passionate song about burgeoning love. Judith River, located in central Montana, was first named the Bighorn by Meriwether Lewis. In May 1805 his companion William Clark renamed it in honor of a young woman from Virginia he hoped would marry him one day. The two, in fact, were married in 1808.

Price:
$10.00
A Moment Like This (or Song for Our Wedding)
 — 4 pages

For medium low voice (range D4 to G5 or D3 to G4); about 2 minutes; lyric by Ben Moore.

A tender, heartfelt ballad celebrating the power of love on one’s wedding day.

Price:
$7.00
One Christmas Morning
 — 10 pages

For high mezzo or high baritone (range A3 to A5 or A2 to A4); about 2 ½ minutes. Lyric by Ben Moore. Also available for SATB chorus upon request.

A holiday song that is about the longing to recapture the joy and innocence of a Christmas past. The piece begins quietly and builds to a passionate climax.

Price:
$7.00
The Wild Swans at Coole
 — 8 pages

For baritone (range Bb1 to F#3); about 4 ½ minutes; commissioned by Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute; set to the poem by William Butler Yeats; premiered in August 2015 by baritone Joe Eletto at the Ravinia Festival.
“The Wild Swans at Coole,” part of the 1919 collection of the same name, is one of Yeats’s earliest and most moving testaments to the heartache of living in a rapidly changing world.

Price:
$10.00

Song Cycles

Dear Theo
 — 29 pages

Seven songs based on the letters of Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo

Tenor Voice and Piano

  • The Red Vineyard
  • I Found a Woman
  • Little One
  • The Man I Have to Paint
  • When I'm at Work
  • Already Broken
  • Souvenir
Price:
$20.00
*Love Remained (newly revised)
 — 24 pages

Four songs concerning LGBT youth
Baritone Voice and Piano

Texts include transcripts from the “It Gets Better” video project and the “Hope Speech” of Harvey Milk. Commissioned by SongFusion in 2011.

  • Hold On (Based on a speech by Joel Burns)
  • Uncle Ronnie (Based on a letter of Randy Robert Potts)
  • Love Remained (Poem by Michael Kelly)
  • Hope (based on a speech by Harvey Milk)
Price:
$20.00
Ben Moore: Ode to a Nightingale

Published by G. Schirmer, inc.
On sale now at Amazon.com

  • My heart aches
  • O, for a draught
  • Fade far away
  • Away! Away
  • I cannot see what flowers 
  • Darkling I listen
  • Thou wast not born for death
  • Adieu!

Eight songs for baritone (range Gb2 to G4); About 22 minutes; commissioned in 2009 by Suzie Kovner for her husband Bruce Kovner; set to the poem by John Keats.

This song cycle on Keats’ great poem examines life, death, art, time, imagination, joy and pain. The poem has been interpreted in myriad ways, of course, and these songs express my particular response to a work that embodies so much of human experience. The sixth song, “Darkling I listen,” is also included in “Ben Moore – 14 Songs,” also published by G. Schirmer.

So Free Am I
 — 28 pages

Soprano Voice and Piano
Commissioned by the Marilyn Horne Foundation and the ASCAP Foundation/Charles Kingsford Fund.

  • Mutta (anonymous, 6th century B. C.)
  • Interlude (Amy Lowell, 1874-1825)
  • Orinda Upon Little Hector Philips (Katherine Philips, 1631-1664)
  • Nervous Prostration (Anna Wickham, 1884-1947)
  • Social Note (Dorothy Parker, 1893-1967)
  • The Poem as Mask — Orpheus (Muriel Rukeyser, 1913-1980)
  • Mettika (anonymous, 6th century B. C.)
Price:
$20.00
And Another Song Comes On
 — 35 pages

A song cycle inspired by selections on the jukebox at the Stonewall Inn, June 1969

Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone and Piano
Lyrics by Mark Campbell

  • Shirley (Play My Song)
  • Elvis
  • Henry (This is My Song, Darling)
  • Dusty
  • Diana, Marvin, Gladys, Barbra, Etc. (And Another Song Comes On)
Price:
$20.00

Choral Pieces

*Dear Theo

A choral work employing many of the themes found in the song cycle of the same name.  Approximately 15 minutes.  Two versions are available on request: one for SATB a cappella chorus and one for SATB chorus and piano.

 

*One Christmas Morning

An arrangement of the song “One Christmas Morning” for a cappella SATB chorus.  Upon request.

 

When I Was One-and-Twenty

An arrangement of the song “When I Was One-and-Twenty” for SATB chorus and piano. Available through G. Schirmer, Inc.

 

When You Are Old

An arrangement of the song “When You Are Old” for SATB chorus and piano. Available through G. Schirmer, Inc.

 

The Lake isle of Innisfree

An arrangement of the song “The Lake isle of Innisfree” for SATB chorus and piano. Available through G. Schirmer, Inc.

 

The Wave Rises

A work in six movements for a cappella SATB chorus set to excerpts from the diaries, books and essays of Virginia Woolf.  Commissioned by the New Amsterdam Singers.  The piece is organized around three themes: Life, beauty and death.  Approximately 14 minutes.  Upon request.

Orchestral Arrangements

I Am in Need of Music

For soprano and Orchestra. Available through G. Schirmer, Inc.

 

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

For Tenor and Orchestra. Available through G. Schirmer, Inc.

 

This Heart That Flutters

For Soprano and Orchestra. Available through G. Schirmer, Inc.

Comedy Songs

The Audience Song
 — 9 pages

For mezzo or soprano (written for Susan Graham)

Sends up the stereotypes of the opera-going audience

Price:
$10.00
Content to Be Behind Me
 — 11 pages

For soprano (written for Deborah Voigt and Brian Zeger)

Features the pianist in a mock competition between singer and accompanist with excerpts including Rachmaninoff and Schubert

Price:
$10.00
I’m Glad I’m Not a Tenor
 — 10 pages

For Baritone

Features many of the great melodies written for baritones even as Puccini’s Nessun Dorma keeps creeping in

Price:
$10.00
I Love Teaching Voice
 — 16 pages

For soprano (written for Deborah Massell)

Includes every imaginable challenge and joy of teaching classical voice with quotes from lots of standard repertory

Price:
$10.00
Sexy Lady (updated 2019)
 — 9 pages

For mezzo-Soprano (written for Susan Graham)

A comic catalog of complaints of a mezzo stuck doing pants roles. Includes quotes from Mozart, Straus and Handel.

Price:
$10.00
Wagner Roles
 — 10 pages

For Soprano (written for Deborah Voigt)

The complaints of a Wagnerian soprano who’d rather be singing lighter roles

Price:
$10.00
We Love the Opera
 — 11 pages

Duet for soprano or mezzo and baritone

Features a couple who are having a hard time agreeing on which operas to attend, to say the least.

Price:
$15.00

Other Collections

The Opera America Songbook – Voice and Piano

Collection includes “The Time to Begin” (p.147)

Published by Schott Music
On sale now at Amazon.com

The G. Schirmer Collection of American Art Song

Collection includes “The Cloak, the Boat and the Shoes” (p. 181)

Published by G. Schirmer, Inc.
High Voice: On sale now at Amazon.com
Low Voice: On sale now at Amazon.com