Song of America

About

Born and raised in Los Angeles, he moved to the East Coast in 1971 to attend Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where his composition teacher was Richard Winslow. He later worked privately with Virgil Thomson, Charles Turner and David Del Tredici. While his early musical interests involved folk/popular song, choral singing and choral conducting, his talent as a classical guitarist took prominence, and an international career ensued. Although composing was a part of his life since the age of 15, it did not take firmer hold until the period of 1984-96, when Leisner had focal dystonia, a debilitating hand condition that stopped his performance career in those years. During that time, his composition activities increased in amount, breadth and quality. After a remarkable self-induced recovery in 1996, his guitar-playing career successfully resumed, while maintaining consistent activity in composition. From his earliest song efforts in popular music until today, vocal music has played a central role in Leisner’s composition catalog.

While a number of his vocal works are with guitar (which he asserts is a natural and under-recognized combination), many are also with piano, as well as other instrumental combinations. For texts, he turns most often to American poets. Examples are: Confiding (Emily Dickinson, Elissa Ely, Gene Scaramellino and the British Emily Brontë), To Sleep (Elizabeth Bishop), Three James Tate Songs, Fidelity (May Sarton, Walt Whitman, Kenneth Patchen, William Meredith, Wendell Berry, Leslie Marmon Silko), Of Darkness and Light (Wendell Berry) for tenor, violin, oboe and piano, A Timeless Procession (Rosemary Thomas) for baritone and string quartet, Outdoor Shadows (Robert Francis), Simple Songs (Emily Dickinson) and West Wind (Mary Oliver). His songs have found favor with singers worldwide.

He has received composition grants from the American Music Center, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, the New England Foundation for the Arts and Meet the Composer. His works are published by Theodore Presser Co., G. Schirmer, Doberman-Yppan and Columbia Music.

--www.davidleisner.com

• Ample make this Bed — (in Confiding)

  Text:

  Emily Dickinson

• Anniversary Song (in Fidelity)

  Text:

  Wendell Berry

• Are you the new person drawn toward me? (in Fidelity)

  Text:

  Walt Whitman

• The Boat (in Heaven's River)

  Text:

  Rabindranath Tagore

• Brown Penny (in O Love is the Crooked Thing)

  Text:

  William Butler Yeats

• CHANCE AWAKENINGS - Song Collection

  Text:

  William Meredith

• Come with me (in West Wind)

  Text:

  Mary Oliver

• CONFIDING - Song Collection

  Text:

  Emily Dickinson

• Dark is as dark does (in West Wind)

  Text:

  Mary Oliver

• Down by the Salley Gardens (in O Love is the Crooked Thing)

  Text:

  William Butler Yeats

• A Drinking Song (in O Love is the Crooked Thing)

  Text:

  William Butler Yeats

• Faith (in Confiding)

  Text:

  Emily Brontë

• FIDELITY - Song Collection

  Text:

  Walt Whitman

• From an Island (in Three James Tate Songs)

  Text:

  James Tate

• HEAVEN'S RIVER - Song Collection

  Text:

  Rabindranath Tagore

• Homeward (in Outdoor Shadows)

  Text:

  Robert Francis

• I Can't Speak for the Wind (in Three James Tate Songs)

  Text:

  James Tate

• The Lady to Her Guitar (in Confiding)

  Text:

  Emily Brontë

• Light (in Heaven's River)

  Text:

  Rabindranath Tagore

• Love and Friendship (in Confiding)

  Text:

  Emily Brontë

• Lullaby (in Fidelity)

  Text:

  Leslie Marmon Silko

• Moon, Sun, Sleep, Birds, Live (in Fidelity)

  Text:

  Kenneth Patchen

• Never Again the Same (in Three James Tate Songs)

  Text:

  James Tate

• Night birds (in West Wind)

  Text:

  Mary Oliver

• O LOVE IS THE CROOKED THING - Song Collection

  Text:

  William Butler Yeats

• O My Love the Pretty Towns (in Fidelity)

  Text:

  Kenneth Patchen

• OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT - Song Collection

  Text:

  Wendell Berry

• Our Forward Shadows (in Fidelity)

  Text:

  May Swenson

• OUTDOOR SHADOWS - Song Collection

  Text:

  Robert Francis

• Row for your life (in West Wind)

  Text:

  Mary Oliver

• Savior! I've no one else to tell — (in Confiding)

  Text:

  Emily Dickinson

• Seagulls (in Outdoor Shadows)

  Text:

  Robert Francis

• Signal (in Confiding)

  Text:

  Gene Scaramellino

• SIMPLE SONGS - Song Collection

  Text:

  Emily Dickinson

• Sing a Song of Juniper (in Outdoor Shadows)

  Text:

  Robert Francis

• Sleeping on the Ceiling (in To Sleep)

  Text:

  Elizabeth Bishop

• Slow (in Outdoor Shadows)

  Text:

  Robert Francis

• sometimes he contemplates adultery (in Fidelity)

  Text:

  William Meredith

• Sonnet (in To Sleep)

  Text:

  Elizabeth Bishop

• Star-Crossed (in Confiding)

  Text:

  Elissa Ely

• This is my letter to the World (in Confiding)

  Text:

  Emily Dickinson

• THREE JAMES TATE SONGS - Song Collection

  Text:

  James Tate

• A Timeless Procession

  Text:

  Rosemary Thomas

• To Imagination (in Confiding)

  Text:

  Emily Brontë

• TO SLEEP - Song Collection

  Text:

  Elizabeth Bishop

• To the Stream (in Heaven's River)

  Text:

  Rabindranath Tagore

• Tree Marriage (in Fidelity)

  Text:

  William Meredith

• The Two Trees (in O Love is the Crooked Thing)

  Text:

  William Butler Yeats

• The Unbeliever (in To Sleep)

  Text:

  Elizabeth Bishop

• WEST WIND - Song Collection

  Text:

  Mary Oliver

• West Wind (in West Wind)

  Text:

  Mary Oliver

• The Wild Swans at Coole (in O Love is the Crooked Thing)

  Text:

  William Butler Yeats

• Wild Needle (in West Wind)

  Text:

  Mary Oliver

• Wild Nights (in Confiding)

  Text:

  Emily Dickinson

• Yes, What? (in Outdoor Shadows)

  Text:

  Robert Francis

• Berry -- Wendell Berry
• Bishop -- Elizabeth Bishop
• Brontë -- Emily Brontë
• Dickinson -- Emily Dickinson
• Ely -- Elissa Ely
• Francis -- Robert Francis
• Meredith -- William Meredith
• Oliver -- Mary Oliver
• Patchen -- Kenneth Patchen
• Scaramellino -- Gene Scaramellino
• Silko -- Leslie Marmon Silko
• Swenson -- May Swenson
• Tagore -- Rabindranath Tagore
• Tate -- James Tate
• Thomas -- Rosemary Thomas
• Whitman -- Walt Whitman
• Yeats -- William Butler Yeats