The Sake Of You

The Sake Of You, Jake Landau (2024)for mezzo, drone a2, and piano “The Sake Of You” was commissioned by mezzo Devony Smith and pianist Danny Zelibor for their debut album In This Short Life, along with “Sew My True Love (Jubilee)”. Devony and Danny are both treasured collaborators, most frequently performing an artsong of mine called “Mary’s Song” from the song cycle As He Is Mine. “Mary’s Song” features in its third refrain an optional “belting” moment in which the singer is requested to climactically sing in their chest voice, a technique more common in musical theater and pop writing than in classical. Devony produces a magnificent version of this, so, when she and Danny approached me about writing some songs for their album, we knew we wanted to continue this unique idea. Devony and Danny’s album In This Short Life featured texts exclusively by American writers. Taking the Scottish text of “Mary’s Song” as inspiration, I began to explore Appalachian folk song lyrics. A musical line