Bye, Bye Toots: A Memorial Cantata celebrates the life of Burt Chernow, a Westport resident, noted art dealer, writer and educator, and the biographer of the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Among his other achievements, Burt was responsible for bringing art into schools and colleges throughout the Westport-Bridgeport area of Connecticut.
The texts of the four-movement choral work are four poems that Burt and his wife, the artist Ann Chernow, wrote for each other and for family members. The centerpiece is a setting of Burt’s wry and ironic poem, “Bye, Bye Toots,” in which he imagines himself kidnapped by extraterrestrials. The poem ends,
Farewell, Dearie.
There’s no resisting their call.
I’ll write if I can,
if not…
Bye, bye Toots.
The composer writes, “Burt has gone bye-bye, but I still think of him as the primary audience for Bye, Bye Toots. Besides art, Burt brought laughter into the lives of all who knew him. He would never have sat still for any mawkish tributes to him. I have tried to capture the exuberance and humor of Ann and Burt in my music, and at the end have managed to sneak in an elegiac movement.”