Carla Kihlstedt’s 26 Little Deaths is an hour long song cycle for singing violinist and contemporary chamber ensemble inspired by Edward Gorey’s iconic alphabet book, The Gashlycrumb Tinies. Contrary to the title, it is not a piece about death. While it’s true that on every page of Gorey’s book, a young person meets his or her untimely demise in some ridiculous way (a drain, a peach, a leech…) it is more a meditation than a mourning. Both Gorey’s book and Kihlstedt’s music dance between the banality of life and the bottomless oddness of the human imagination. Kihlstedt’s virtuosity and imaginative musings coupled with Gorey’s gothic mischief make for a dramatic yet tender romp about the absurdity and ephemerality of life.

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In 26 Little Deaths, Kihlstedt invites us to step into the frame of Gorey’s line drawings and look around, often seeing these worlds through the eyes of the characters themselves. Through the craft of her music and her lyrics, we contemplate the questions that Gorey doesn’t answer: Who are these children? What are they thinking about? And where are their parents? She paints for us, twenty-six portraits of pathos and possibility. 

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26 Little Deaths is written and arranged for a singing violinist (Kihlstedt) and contemporary chamber ensemble, including piano, percussion, strings and brass.