Cantata of The Eastern Seashore

The term cantata refers to a musical composition in several movements-typically starting fast, then slow, moderate, then fast again-featuring a solo vocal line accompanied by an ensemble of instruments. In this, it resembles the sonata, though the cantata gives voice to the human soul through song.

I have borrowed the title from one of the stories in this collection, in which the narrator addresses a flock of geese in a monologue that resembles a one-sided monologue.

Throughout the other stories, the narrators sing their own solos-each with its own tempo and rhythm-offering glimpses into the world I came to inhabit after moving from the North to the South, along the eastern coast of the United States.

In this collection, a kind of chamber cantata, we journey together through the voices of the men and women who populate these pages. They recount tales of first love, of all-consuming passion, of jealousy that devastates. From poetic reveries and painterly vignettes to the wildest flights of fantasy, even mythology-we meet, along the way, characters drawn from the very heart of Greek legend.

I hope you enjoy the journey.