The Cowboy Songs are three character songs. Two of the texts are drawn from cowboy/girl poetry, "Bucking Bronco" with a text by Belle Starr and "Billy the Kid" with an anonymous text. The third, "Lift me into Heaven Slowly" is the retitled "Sufi Sam Christian" of American poet Robert Creeley.

I wrote these songs for Jeannie Brindley Barnett to sing for a concert in 1979. The three poems made a nice set, suggesting a narrative without specifying one, giving me the opportunity to begin working with American English as a source of musical syntax and shape.- Libby Larsen

Contents: Bucking Bronco Lift Me Into Heaven Slowly Billy the Kid
Duration: c. 7:00

Click here to hear a recording as performed by Mary Kay Geston, soprano, and the Northwestern College Orchestra, David Kozamchak, conductor.

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Orchestra instrumentation: Flute, Oboe, 2 Clarinets in B‑flat, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, 4 Horns in F, Trumpet in B‑flat, Trombone, Timpani, Tambourine, Strings