Midnight Garden is a collaborative album between

Brad Roberts Bradley Kenneth Roberts (born January 10, 1964) is the lead singer and guitarist for the Canadian folk-rock band Crash Test Dummies. He sings in the bass-baritone range. The band is best known internationally for their 1993 album God Shuff ...

of the Crash Test Dummies and singer-songwriter

Rob Morsberger Robert E. "Rob" Morsberger (August 9, 1959 – June 2, 2013) was an American singer-songwriter and classically trained composer. As a sideman/arranger, his credits include Patti Smith, the Grammy-winning Boardwalk Empire soundtrack album, ...

Background

Morsberger developed serious headaches in 2011 that would eventually be diagnosed as a brain tumor. After Morsberger received surgery for the terminal brain tumor, he was motivated to create as much music as possible before his death. ''Midnight Garden'' would be the second project he would complete before his death. The premiere performance of the song cycle would be at a benefit concert raising money for Morsberger's family and his medical expenses.

Composition

The origins of the album were an unused "pile of lyrics" written by Brad Roberts. The music, composed by Morsberger, is a traditional

song cycle A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice ...

scored for string quartet and piano, with Morsberger and Roberts performing vocals. The song cycle was inspired by

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

, Stephen Foster, and

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

, resulting in a combination of classical and popular music.

Track listing

References

2012 albums {{2010s-rock-album-stub