There are numerous American song cycles, a number of them by Samuel Barber (1910-1981) himself, but maybe including Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (which is really an extended scena) in a course dedicated to lieder, is stretching my remit slightly.
It was written in 1947 on a commission from the soprano Eleanor Steber and sets a prose poem by James Agee describing an idyllic moment in Agee’s childhood in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Barber described his piece as a ‘lyric rhapsody’:
Les Illuminations is also a setting of prose poems, but this time by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976). It’s not, however, in the composer’s native language but in the French of poet Arthur Rimbaud. It was completed in 1939 in America and dedicated to the Swiss soprano Sophie Wyss who gave the first performance:
1. Fanfare 0:07
2. Villes 2:20
3a. Phrase 4:56
3b. Antique 6:10
4. Royauté 8:46
5. Marine 10:24
6. Interlude 11:22
7. Being Beauteous 13:50
8. Parade 18:20
9. Départ 21:11
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Pontarddulais!
The Art of Listening 