Love.Songs

Come "Music" with Us

2011-09-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since Erica or I have posted to this blog, but we are getting ready to present "Love.Songs" again two times in the remainder of this month, so I wanted to share some reflections I've had as we approach these performances.

Erica and I have been reading "Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening" by Christopher Small. Mr. Small challenges his readers to consider leaving behind the old concept of music as a thing and begin to think of music as an activity. According to Small, " To music is to take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing or practicing, by providing material for performance, or by dancing." When a music event is planned, many people become active in bringing the plan to fruition. Of course, Erica and I have to review and rehearse the music, but there are also individuals scheduling the space, arranging for rehearsal time, tuning the piano, and doing what they can to promote the recitals. All this is part of "musicking." When the appointed time arrives, more people become involved. People gather to listen. At the performance itself there is the metaphysical presence of the composer, Erica at the piano, me, poised and ready to sing, and the audience in whatever state they find themselves when they arrive. As the performance begins, all these persons become part of the musicking, a social activity centered around the meaningful organization of sound. Even though none of the composers will be present at these performances, their presence will undoubtably be felt. The performers are perhaps the most obvious part of the social group, but any performer will tell you that the audience has a very real affect on how the event proceeds. I'm thinking right now of an audience that we performed for in Germany just a few days ago. There was an American there who smiled and mouthed the words to almost every song I sang and there was a German gentleman in his seventies who listened as attentively to songs in English as he did to songs sung in his first language.

This concept of musicking is affecting me strongly as I approach these upcoming performances. What Erica and I have been attempting to do with our performances for almost two years now is to increase this sense of musicking in our performances. The talking that we do, the projection of translations and poetry and the various forms of media that we use is meant to increase the audiences' involvement with the music and our social interaction with the audience as we experience the musical material together. My aspiration is to be more adaptable and socially aware of those who have come to listen to "Love.Songs." Every audience is unique, and so every recital is a new opportunity to "music" with those who have gathered. In these upcoming performances I will be asking myself what I can do to increase our mutual enjoyment of the music we've come to present. If you're reading this post and are considering whether to come to "Love.Songs," I hope you will choose to come with the expectation that we will have a great time enjoying music in the company of Roger Quilter, Brahms, Ottorino Respighi, Jocelyn Hagen and Maurice Ravel. Come "music" with us.

If you are planning to come to one of these recitals, you can begin your musicking by browsing the other articles and videos that are a part of this blog!

A reflection on what the Love.Songs recital was all about and what it meant to us

2010-01-30T12:11:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday afternoon, Tadd and I performed our Love.Songs recital for the first time and for us it was a performing experience completely unlike any we have had before. It was a magical experience on stage and I'm hoping for at least some in the audience so I wanted to take some time to record some of what happened, in hopes that we'll be able to carry over some of the same ideas into future performances.

First of all, the blog...I'm not sure how many people read our blog prior to attending the recital so it's really hard to know how effective it was, if at all. We were hoping that more people would chime in every now and then to make comments or ask questions online but that never happened. Unfortunately we didn't get any feedback after the recital from audience members either. But if nothing else, the blog got Tadd and I to do a lot of extra research that we might not have done otherwise and videotaping our rehearsal sessions definitely made me think twice about the way I interacted with Tadd on a professional level. (Let's just say I'm not the most patient collaborator.) The videotaped sessions also encouraged us to listen to ourselves, which is a invaluable albeit painful process.

For the format of the recital, we decided that we wanted our performance to have no more than 60 minutes of music and that we would not have an intermission. Our reasoning was that the intermission, although convenient as a rest for the performers and a bathroom break for audience members, breaks everyone's concentration. We wanted to see what would happen by eliminating that break. Along that same line of reasoning, we decided that we did not want to exit the stage at all during the performance; once we walked on stage at the beginning, we were there to stay. The devil's advocate here, might ask, "But don't you need a break? And Tadd being a singer...his voice will need a rest." That definitely was discussed and was a concern but we decided it was important to give this a try so what we did was work it out so that I gave Tadd and his voice adequate rest in between certain sets by talking to the audience. And to give me a brief break, Tadd returned the favor and introduced one of the others. This killed many birds with one stone; we maintained a certain level of energy, established a relationship with the audience, and gave one another little breathers in between sets. After the recital, what I realized was that this format also worked marvelously because you could run on the adrenaline rush one gets when walking on stage that first time. Since there's no walking on and off stage, which for me tends to diffuse that adrenalin rush, that wonderful feeling of elation and other-worldly strength stays with you the entire time. It was really a fabulous feeling. I should add that we did put a sign outside the entrance to the hall stating that the program would be no longer than 60 minutes and that there would be no intermission. We didn't want anyone to complain that we hadn't warned them!

There were a few other things that we did that were a little different, at least for us. We performed three Respighi songs, all of them describing scenes in nature. We felt that Respighi's settings of all three are a bit like miniature tone poems...they evoke the scenes they describe and are filled with different colors and timbres. We decided that we wanted our performance to involve more of the audience's senses so at the beginning of the first song, "Notte (Night)," with Tadd off to the side of the stage, we had sounds of crickets and other night sounds arise out of silence while the entire translation of the poem appeared on a screen behind the piano. This lasted about 30 seconds and then Tadd moved towards the piano and I began the piece while the sound effects faded out and a simple video of a blooming rose was projected on the screen. We did each song in the same way. With the next song, "Pioggia (Rain)," the sound effects were of rain and thunder and the video was simply of falling rain and for the final song, "O Falce di luna (O waning crescent moon)," the sound effects were of waves lapping up against a shore with a video of a moon shining over a lake with waves gently splashing up on the beach. The 30 seconds of sound effects preceding the start of each song was incredibly magical, even for me. It seems so rare in our culture that we have moments such as this. They were almost like moments of communal silence, even though they weren't silent. They were moments of reflection and meditation and what was amazing to me and to many that I spoke to afterwards, was that there wasn't a sense of discomfort or impatience in the audience as I had anticipated. As a performer, such an experience, was awesome and enabled me to perform without those harmful tapes that can so often ruin a performance. I felt in the moment and connected with Tadd and with the music - a fantastic experience.

We performed one work on the program that was composed just last year - three songs from Jocelyn Hagen's set of songs, Love.Songs, with poetry by e.e. cummings. Since it can be harder for an audience to connect to music they've never heard before, we wanted to find a way to help the audience identify with at least one of the songs. We chose the last one, "i carry you in my heart," for our little project. I cut out heart cards (they opened like a card) out of thick scrapbook paper, just some nice, solid, neutral tones, punched holes in the corner and tied twine ribbons onto them. We then put them in a basket and placed it on a table with pens and a sign which read, "If you want to participate in a special way during Jocelyn Hagen's song, "i carry your heart," please take a heart from the basket, write the name of someone you love on the inside, and then bring it into the Recital Salon with you. When we get to the song in the recital, hold the heart in your hand and think of the person whose name you wrote down while you listen to the words of the song." For you curious folks, here is a link to the poem. I'm not sure how many people actually took part in this, but I did see some and at least a couple of those that did, really surprised me...folks I wouldn't have expected to do something so personal. And another thing that was very evident was that by the end of this particular song, there were definitely some audience members and at least one performer, (me!) that had been moved by poem, the song, or both...it was audibly evident.

Tadd also did another thing in regards to the projections that was interesting for the Hagen set. Jocelyn Hagen, in composing her Love.Songs set was very careful to preserve e.e. cummings unusual syntax and use of line breaks by putting rests in the vocal line in the corresponding places. This gives the vocal line quite a unique and challenging quality about it. Tadd wanted the audience to be able to see the connection between Ms. Hagen's composition and cumming's poetry so during the performance he had projected on the screen the portion of the poem, as cummings had written it.

Some other small details...after I welcomed the audience to our recital, I had decided that I was going to ask the audience to clap between the sets and not in between each individual piece. Tadd and I had gone back and forth a little bit whether or not we thought this should be an issue but in the end we decided that because it was a song recital, made up of such short works, and because we were going for more of a sustained mood, we would go ahead and just bring it up in a non-judgemental way. So we did and I'm glad we did. I simply said something like, "If you're not used to being at a recital like this and you're not exactly sure what I'm talking about, that's OK...there's somebody here that will. Just wait and let them clap first." The other thing I decided to bring up was that we really didn't want people to text or twitter during the recital. I debated whether or not to say anything about this too, but I decided to go ahead since it is such a tiny hall and because it had really been a distraction in previous recitals. Since we had a college student running our projection system and sound I decided to use him as a foil...I said, "Now in regards to texting and tweeting...you can do so at your own risk, but I must warn you, Chris here, our sound and projection guy, he's quite clever and if you do send a text or a tweet while we're performing, you may find it pop up on our projection screen here." That got a good laugh and well, point well taken! I don't believe we saw any electronic devices being used during our performance.

So there you have it...that is what our Love.Songs recital was all about. It truly was a fun, moving, magical time. If only every musical experience could be like that. Oh, and if you were at the concert last Sunday and you have a comment, please do send any comments. We really would like to hear them!

Bringing art song into the 21st century

2010-01-21T06:35:00.000-08:00

Up to this point Erica and I have not said much about the visual aspect of our recital, but it is a significant part of our plans. I feel very strongly that whatever can be done to enhance the audiences' appreciation of art song performances without distracting from the poetry or music should be, perhaps must be, done. Those of us who feel passionate about conserving western art music and specifically art song need to "sell it" and find ways to help people connect to it. Art music requires a bit of investment on the audiences' part, and it is incumbent upon performing musicians to do more than simply make the music available for people to hear.

For some time I have been wanting to have projections behind me as I perform. Primarily this is so that the audience can see me and Erica and the translations of the text at the same time. In the past I've had supertitles above me (thanks to Dr. Paul Zweifel), but I could feel the audience choosing between looking at me or looking at the translations. I think we've found a good way to have the translations and the performers in the same line of vision. In addition to text we will also have limited images, both still and moving. I believe that all this will enhance the experience of and connection to this music for the audience. Again, Erica and I would be interested in your feedback on this for those of you who can make it to one of our performances. We will most likely continue in the direction we have begun and will be eager to improve upon our efforts.

For those of you who are interested, in the end we decided that buying our own equipment was the best way to get the job done. I searched and searched for a reasonably priced projection screen and eventually found a very unorthodox, but inexpensive and highly portable screen from DJ Screens. Click here to go to their site. We also needed to be able to have both the screen and the projector behind us, so that meant we would need a short-throw projector. The one we found is made by Optoma, was reasonably priced for a projector, and is doing a great job. Click here to see the projector. Our sincere thanks to Carol Burch-Brown from VT's School of Visual Arts and Kristen Morgan from the Department of Theatre and Cinema, for their help and advice along the way.

-Tadd

Finally coming to an understanding of Respighi's "Notte"

2010-01-20T11:13:00.000-08:00

Playing and listening to Ottorino Respighi's song, "Notte (Night)" puts me in a state of great peace. I must admit, however, that is a relatively recent revelation and that I've gone on bit of a philosophical and emotional journey with this seemingly simple song during the past few weeks. Perhaps that's hard to believe for some of you out there. Why should anyone get so wrapped up in any piece of music, especially an accompanist? Why don't I just play the right notes, ok, maybe musically would be nice, and call it a night? Well, for people who know me or who know "passionate" accompanists, a.k.a. collaborators, the more politically-correct term for accompanists these days, I just love music and poetry too much. I have to be able to fully comprehend how the music and text work together in order to perform a song with confidence. Anyway, on with my explanation of "Notte"...

It might be helpful, first of all to read the poem...here is a link to a good translation. And here, too, is a Youtube video of a singer, Cristina lordachescu lordache, singing the song. During my explanation below, I'll put some time markers in that refer to the video so you can refer to them if you'd like.

Most of the music in the piano part sounds to me like a lullaby with the steady eighth notes gently rocking back and forth in both the right and left hands. The melody in the voice is quite simple, riding lightly on top of the accompaniment below. In my mind, there is nothing too baffling about this setting of the poet's first two stanzas of text as she sets the scene, talking of a garden at night, where stillness and quiet seems to reign. After this quiet opening, the mood quickly changes (1:13)...major changes into minor and the rhythm in the piano part quickens, causing us as listeners to realize that something is not quite right, that perhaps there is more to the darkness than peace. The voice part here starts to be move more chromatically, in tinier steps, and Respighi sets the text in dotted rhythms, making the words sound a little more jagged rather than smooth as in the previous section. Next comes the section that was throwing me off a bit. After the short mysterious section just described, we return to the peaceful, rocking material that was at the beginning of the song with the only difference being a slightly faster pattern in the right hand of the piano part (1:36). What was throwing me off was the text that accompanies this music. Ada Negri's poem talks of "rising miseries," "lost passions," "mute dreams and mute anxieties," and "fleeting joys shattered by disillusion." She then ends the poem with the line, "The night weeps her tears." All of these haunting images are accompanied repeatedly by the lullaby ostinato. I was really having a difficult time playing this section peacefully while thinking of the poetry - the two just did not go together. But yesterday, as I was practicing, I sat and played that one section over and over again, reading the Italian while I was playing, thinking of the translation at the same time and I think I finally came up with an explanation that will at least work for me. Perhaps what Negri is saying, and Respighi is trying to support through his music, is that the we can be at peace at night, while we are rest because it is the night that will take our fears, sorrows, our miseries, and she will make them her own. That is why there is dew on the flowers in the morning...the dew is night's tears. Once I came to this interpretation, the second half of the song made perfect sense and took on a completely different feel. Now one of the clinchers for me is when the voice passes the lullaby melody to the right hand of the piano (2:28) and switches over to singing the text on one pitch. To me, this heightens the almost meditative, peaceful state of the song and it demonstrates the magic that can come from the union of nature with man.

I realize that for some this all may seem like way too much thought has gone into this one little piece, but that's just the way I approach my music making...and I wanted to share it with you in hopes that someone out there might find it interesting or that it might help someone enjoy the song a little bit more on Sunday or someday in the future.

-Erica

Why can't you just sing in English?

2010-01-19T19:47:00.000-08:00

Voice recitals offer a unique challenge to the audience in the simple fact that most of the time a large portion of the literature is sung in languages that are not native to the audience. This is true regardless of where you are in the world unless, of course, the singer chooses to present a program of songs that are native to his or her country. In my somewhat limited experience, this rarely happens, possibly because of the variety that comes with programming music from different eras and from different countries. This makes for some fabulous recitals but I think it's important to keep in mind that for many people, listening to songs in foreign languages can be downright frustrating and exhausting. In fact, I wonder if there are folks that sometimes wish they could ask us classical performers, "Hey, why can't you just sing those songs in English? It would make a lot more sense and then I might actually enjoy it!" I think that's a good question, really, and I don't think those folks should be embarrassed at all; it's a valid question. And since our recital this coming Sunday happens to have songs in French, Italian, and German - insert groan here - I thought that maybe I would take a stab at explaining why we have chosen to perform them in their original languages rather than in English.

One of the unique aspects of song that set this genre apart from most other musical forms is its use of words, usually poetry. More often than not, the composer carefully crafts both the piano part and the voice part to fit the rhythm and the meter of the poetry in the original language. If we were to try and use a translation of this same poetry, I think we would have a very difficult time indeed, trying to match the original rhythm and meter of the poetry while also providing an understandable and meaningful translation. Even beyond these technical details, Tadd and I feel that the poetry, in its original language is a piece of art, just as the music is a piece of art. To translate the words into English for the purposes of singing would create a different, all together new piece of art that was not necessarily part of the composer's original picture. I suppose if the composer himself or herself provided the translation, that would be another story, but that is not the case with any of the pieces on the program.

Another viewpoint we have about this topic is that we enjoy preserving and honoring each composer's culture and as I mentioned before, I think it helps to bring more variety and interest into our lives. For me, part of the wonder of music-making is the way it can transport audiences and performers alike into different times, different worlds and in a recital those experiences are shared experiences. I find that tremendously exciting and rewarding. I have a feeling that if Tadd sang the Ravel, the Respighi, and the Brahms in English, the spices and colors from around the world would become dull and yes, we would be able to understand more of the words, but we might also forget what we were listening to.

So with all of this said, what can we do to enjoy listening to songs in foreign languages more? Well, I think there are several ways to approach this...I'll list them here and you can try them out as you wish. Let me know what you think, by the way, or what you try on Sunday and how it works out...I'd love to hear about your experiences!

-take some time before you go to the recital to read the translations of the songs. They can be found here on our webpage. Just go to the top of the blog where we've listed the songs on the program and click on the song's name. It should take you to a translation.

-the program at the recital will also have translations so you can get there a little early to read them there.

-you can read the translations word-for-word while Tadd is singing...this is a little easier if you can read foreign languages a little bit because the original poems will be written out right next to the translation in the program so you can follow along that way.

-we will also have supertitles overhead. Sometimes we'll have the entire poem at the very beginning of the song, all in one slide on the screen, and we'll give you time to read the poem before we start playing

-sometimes it's helpful just to read through a poem and then sum it up for yourself before the song starts so that you're not distracted by reading the words while the singer is singing.

-there's nothing wrong with just sitting back and enjoying the music. You don't have to know what the words are about to enjoy the music! Remember, this isn't an assignment, it's supposed to be entertainment!

-Erica

From the program - notes on my collaboration with Jocelyn Hagen

2010-01-14T06:14:00.001-08:00

I met Jocelyn Hagen at a National Association of Teachers of Singing conference in Nashville in the summer of 2008. She was accompanying someone who was singing one of her song cycles in a master class. I was taken with her music, and I introduced myself to her after the class. A few months ago she and I began discussing the possibility of creating a new cycle for baritone, guitar and cello. That project has not progressed as quickly as we had hoped, but in the meantime she had sent me a copy of her “love. songs” cycle for baritone and piano. I showed it to Erica as a possibility for this recital and we both agreed it would be a good project. We are performing the first, second and last songs in the cycle.

Use the index on the right to find a link to Jocelyn's own program notes on the songs themselves and also links to some of our early rehearsals on each of the songs.

Addendum: A bit more about the project to which I referred above... One of my goals as a singer is to promote the creation of new chamber music for baritone. It's not that there isn't enough vocal music already. Rather, it's that I want to inspire my contemporaries to create music in this genre and that I want to personally be involved with the creation of new music.

The same summer that I met Jocelyn I began thinking about creating a documentary song cycle that would have some kind of visual component, likely video or photographs. After I met Jocelyn I began thinking about a photo documentary about the "lost boys" of Sudan, now living in Chicago, that my nephew's wife, Lauren, had created. For some time I have also been attempting to put together a program of music with a guitarist friend, Anton Machleder. The idea was born to combine all these people and their skills by commissioning Jocelyn to write a song cycle for baritone, guitar and cello (Did you know Erica plays cello?) based on Lauren's photo documentary. Of course, there are costs associated with this project, primarily the commission for Jocelyn and expenses associated with premiering the work in various locations. So now I am about the process of finding funds to support this project.

-Tadd

Personal drama in Brahms' "Dein blaues Auge" - fact or fantasy?

2010-01-12T19:57:00.000-08:00

It seems that it is virtually impossible to discuss anything pertaining to the composer Johannes Brahms without mentioning some of the hearsay that's out there about the relationship between him and the musical couple Robert and Clara Schumann. Even with a tiny song like "Dein blaues Auge (Your blue eyes)" we cannot escape a bit of surmising. So although I simply hate to join in the gossip game, I feel I should share with you all a few interesting little observations about this song and I'll let you decide what to do with the information.

For those of you who might not be familiar with these musical protagonists, Johannes Brahms lived from 1833-1897 and was one of the leading German composers during the Romantic period. He wrote symphonies, chamber music, works for choir, piano, and voice. In 1853, when he was only 20 years old, the young Johannes traveled to Düsseldorf to meet and play for the revered composer, Robert Schumann who was then in his 40's. It was there that Brahms also met Robert's wife Clara who was a very talented and well-known pianist herself. Robert and Clara were very impressed by Johannes' talent so it was from then on that they were quick to support and encourage this young composer, pianist, and soon-to-be friend of the family. Unfortunately, Robert's health quickly deteriorated soon afterward and he ended up in a sanitorium following an attempt on his own life. He eventually died there in 1856.

So where does the gossip fit in you might ask? Well, Johannes Brahms never did marry, although he lived to be over 60 years old. He was very faithful to the Schumann family apparently and especially to Clara. While Robert was in the sanitorium, Johannes is reported to have stepped in and assisted with many of the household duties. There are letters, there are pieces that are dedicated, there are musical quotations hidden here and there...which leads me to the piece on our program...(never thought I'd get to the point, did you?)

First just read the first few lines of the poem...

Your blue eyes held so still,
I into their depths.
You ask me what I want to see?
I see myself whole.

This is, without a doubt, a poem about love and the music that Brahms sets the words in is incredibly tender and precious. It also seems to be intensely personal. At first I wasn't exactly sure why but I did a little analyzing and you might call me crazy, but let me tell you what I discovered...it has to do with our trio of friends, Robert, Clara, and Johannes. In his music, Robert often liked to hide names within his music. He would do this by transcribing names into musical notes. I won't bore you with all the gory details about transcribing german letters but the end result is this - for the name "Clara," the musical notes would end up being basically a set of three descending notes followed by one note that goes up. In this love song he uses this Clara theme twice in the piano part; the first time it occurs in half notes in the left hand to accompany the words, "You ask me what I want to see?", at the 31 second mark in the Youtube video below; the second time it is found in quarter notes in the left hand, accompanying the words "burned me once," at the 53 second mark, referring to the pair of eyes a lover of his once had.

So have I turned this blog into a classical music tabloid yet? Well, in case I haven't hooked you yet, let me throw one other wacky idea out at you. I picked this one up off the internet and you know about all the crazy stuff you can find there. In between the first and second verse there is a very brief piano interlude that lasts all of two measures. The first measure is a simple arpeggio, or broken-up chord which then leads to the second measure which has this very odd, chromatic, interval in the right hand that sounds a bit like a sigh. Apparently Brahms likened this motive to the sound toads make producing their mating call. It is reported that he actually said to a friend, "Is any sound sadder or more melancholy than this music...on this spot you can easily imagine how these stories arose about bewitched princesses, and - listen, there's the prince again with his C flat lamentation." This three-note figure that Brahms is referring to can be found at the 45 second mark in the Youtube video below.

Frogs croaking, names written into the music...can't this just be a nice, pretty love song? Oh, sure...of course it can be. And I hope you do enjoy this beautiful song. But for those of you who enjoy an interesting tale or two, I hope this post provided some interesting tidbits of information for you. Now it's up to you to decide what to do with all of it! Enjoy!!

-Erica

In rehearsal - Respighi's "O falce di luna" (O cresent moon)

2010-01-09T05:51:00.000-08:00

Tadd's a drag, Erica's a nag. :-)

Here's a recent video of one of our rehearsals. You will see a bit of a confrontational moment between Erica and me. Yes, it happens. As I wrote earlier, this piece has its built-in challenges. One of those is that the piano score is written in 4/4 with a consistent sixteenth note pattern, while the voice score is written in 12/8 with an underlying triplet feel. To complicate things more, the way the piano score is written supports the concept of two beats to the measure instead of four. Part of our discussion in this video concerns this complexity. Part of the discussion focuses on the sense that Erica had that I was dragging - can you imagine? Now my question is, "How can I be dragging if we're supposed to be 'together'?" However, I do tend to get indulgent at times, and I need Erica to check me on it. At this point in preparing a song I might be late on a beat because I'm trying to remember a word or I'm still working out my approach to a note technically, but those things can easily work themselves into habits. Hope you enjoy this rehearsal and a little preview of the lovely Respighi songs. Here is the text of the portion that you will hear.

Brief fluttering of leaves, flowers and breezes pass

from the woods to the sea.

No song, no cry, no sound can be heard in the vast silence.

-Tadd

Spinning a song out of thin air - Roger Quilter's "Love's Philosphy"

2010-01-05T19:09:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had the experience of hearing a piece of music that leaves you breathless? Or heard a piece that makes you just want to close your eyes and take in the entire experience of a song as if it were your own? Well if you're in need of a musical gem, you're in for a treat. And no, the song I have in mind has nothing profound to say in it, really, and I doubt that it's regularly found on the audition list at vocal competitions, but I think it's one of the most satisfying little pieces around. And it's fun...fun to hear, fun to play, fun to sing (at least I think...I'll have to double-check that with Tadd.) For Tadd and I, that makes it recital-worthy and a very satisfying part of the program, even though it's short. You can think of it like our dessert although I believe we may be starting off the program with it. Hmmm...well, I guess if you know us well, that might not surprise you too much...we have been known to eat our dessert before we start our meal.

So what makes Roger Quilter's song, "Love's Philosphy" so easy to listen to and fun to perform? Here are some of my thoughts...

From the first to the last note, the piano part is an endless stream of fast notes that seamlessly pass from the right hand to the left hand. And he must have been a pianist because he really was quite kind - it is very playable and feels good in the pianist's hands. That might sound strange to a non-musician but some pieces really are not that way - they can be horribly awkward and gymnastic instead.
Similar to the last point but taking it another step further, he has numerous sweeping gestures in both the piano part and in the voice part that propel both the musicians' and listeners' ears and souls forward with the momentum of the music. How can you not get caught up in that?
Quilter wrote the song in such a way so that the general sound is incredibly open, sunny, and warm. I don't want to get into the theoretical ways in which he did this, but I will say that he did choose to keep things simple - good idea!
Although it appears that the song might be be strophic at first, meaning that the same musical material is repeated to accompany the different verses of text, Quilter alters the music at the ending of the second verse in order to intensify the line of inquiry at the end of the song:

What are all these kissings worth
If thou kiss not me?

This altered ending naturally leads into a bombastic postlude that gives the pianist the last word. Now how could I not love that?

OK, so now that I've shared that with you, here's a youtube video we found of an old, old recording of the song. It was recorded in 1919, only about 14 years after Quilter wrote the song and the recording is of Gervase Elwes, a tenor. The first song on the clip is "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal" which is another song set by Quilter to text by Tennyson. Enjoy. It's a unique clip.

-Erica

Respighi Songs - program notes and their place in art song literature

2010-01-05T18:34:00.000-08:00

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)

Notte (1905 Negri) | Pioggia (1909 Pompilj) | O falce di luna (1909 D'Annunzio)

Ottorino Respighi is best known for his orchestral works, in particular The Pines of Rome, The Fountains of Rome and Ancient Airs and Dances. Although he is not known as a song composer, he wrote almost forty songs, and they were the source of some of his early success as a composer. Many of his songs are miniature examples of his best work. One can hear in them the same orchestral color that has won him a place in music history and in the orchestral cannon.

The three texts on this program are all by different poets. What the texts have in common is that they are teeming with images of nature which in turn bring out themes of human drama. Although Gabrielle D'Annunzio, influential writer and sometimes politician, is the most famous of the three, Ada Negri was the poet that Respighi set the most, nine of the first ten texts he set being by her.

What Erica and I have learned about Respighi's songs is that they express the text very well in a general way even though the specific coordination of the music and the text is not consistently skillful. One of Respighi's most famous songs, "Nebbie," which we are not going to perform on this recital, was composed backwards. The composer was in a creative mode and wrote a sweeping, brooding melody in a very short time. Later that same day he read the Ada Negri poem that he claimed fit the music exactly without alteration. I would not be surprised if the story were similar for the creation of "O falce di luna," the D'Annunzio text which we are performing on this program. While the color of the music seems a perfect match for the text in general, the singer must often breathe in the middle of a musical phrase in order to be faithful to the delivery of the text, something that would virtually never occur in the music of great song composers like Schubert, Schumann or Debussy.

So this begs the question, "Why perform Respighi's songs if they are not great examples of song literature?" First of all, I believe that they represent a different, but not necessarily inferior, style of song writing. As I stated earlier, for all the ways in which the songs don't conform to Schubertian ideals, the music does beautifully express the text. According to Elsa Respighi's biography, Ottorino loved literature and poetry. His response was to write a sort of tone poem around the words rather than let the text drive every detail. Secondly, performing these songs allows singers to experience the genius of this composer first hand. It's one thing to listen to "Ancient Airs and Dances" it's an entirely different thing to experience "Notte" for oneself. We are very excited about the unique way in which we will be presenting these three pieces, and hope you will enjoy them as well. We will post rehearsals of these songs later, but for now I've included below a YouTube video of "Nebbie" - the best of the bunch in my opinion.

-Tadd

In Rehearsal - a discussion of memorization and Ravel's Chanson romanesque and Chanson épique

2010-01-03T18:38:00.001-08:00

For classical singers, pianists and concert soloists memorization is an expectation. Of course, for some this is more challenging than for others. My experience as a teacher and performer tells me that most artists struggle with it on some level. Memorizing in one's own language is a relatively simple thing; although some poetry can be tricky to memorize even then. Memorizing in a foreign language, one which you know how to pronounce but don't necessarily speak fluently, is an entirely different beast. In the video below you will witness some of my own work in this area. Here are some of the techniques that I've discovered over the years.

1. Erica has convinced me to memorize from the end of the piece forward. She learned this technique from Nelita True while studying at the Eastman School of Music. Erica memorizes a phrase at a time, beginning with the last phrase of the piece. I memorize chunks of text that make sense. Sometimes it's a half stanza of poetry, sometimes a whole stanza. In the video below we had already been working for ten minutes. We began by rehearsing the last stanza and then worked toward the beginning, stanza by stanza. Two things are great about memorizing this way, no three things. 1. It works. 2. When you perform you are always proceeding in the direction of the most familiar and secure material. 3. Memorizing/rehearsing from the front tends to breed the habit of rehearsing mistakes because one is always so anxious to get to the last bit of the song that it is easy to accept mistakes made at the beginning.

2. When singers are young most of them memorize foreign language in syllables. A song becomes a string of syllables instead of a string of words, lines and stanzas. Once a song is memorized young singers often aren't aware where words begin and end, and they often have only a vague idea of what is being said. If believe they almost never hear a word-for-word translation in their head as they sing. For a young brain this works well enough. For an older brain like mine it is very insecure. You will hear me talk about this in the video. When I first learned these songs in my 20s I basically memorized them as a string of syllables. This time around I am being very conscious of the words and the translations as I memorize and sing. I think you will notice a very subtle change as the video proceeds. As my memory becomes more secure and I am thinking about the words and translation one can actually hear where the words begin and end even if the translation isn't known. Here is a video of the late Arleen Auger singing three love songs in foreign languages. In her singing I can hear each word even though I don't know word-for-word what she's singing. It sets her singing apart. For a singer in his 40s the work involved with memorizing in this way is well worth the security and artistry it brings.

3. You will hear me "mark" one time through a high passage in this song. I use soft singing, octave displacement and sometimes speaking in rhythm to avoid wearing my voice out as I work on memorization. These are particularly important techniques when one is sick and the voice is not strong. Now here's the video.

Below is a video of the last of the Don Quichotte cycle. It is basically a run through. I think the discussion between us of our interpretation of the rhythm in this 5/4 song is somewhat interesting. Enjoy.

-Tadd

Two Musicians' Dilemma:dealing with music that doesn't seem to match its text

2010-01-01T19:52:00.000-08:00

One of the glorious things about vocal music, at least in my mind, is that it is the union of two art forms - music and poetry. As with any genre of music, there are many different types of song, with one of the main distinctions being the way the composer chooses to set the text to music and the way it is accompanied. On one end there are the songs where the piano part seems to serve simply a harmonic purpose; it does not generally add much to the interpretation of the text aside from a general mood, perhaps. On the other side of the spectrum is a song such as Franz Schubert's "Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel)" in which the piano part represents Gretchen's spinning wheel getting faster and faster as she is anxiously dreaming of her lover. Everything then stops after the words "his kiss" as if speaking those words snaps her out of her reverie. After the brief silence, Gretchen slowly starts the spinning again but then slows back down as she resigns herself to her fate without him. Here is an unbelievable Youtube video of the song with the singer Barbara Bonney singing with Geoffrey Parsons at the piano..'I just have to include it because it's one of my all-time favorites and it really is an incredible example of great piano accompaniment writing. This song is also one of the reasons I am an accompanist/collaborator - I find it that powerful!

I suppose I have a bit of a preference for the latter type of song, mostly because the piano part is usually a bit more on the interesting and challenging side but there are some fabulous songs of the other type as well and those can be equally as challenging to perform well, just in a different way.

So with all of that said, we come to the topic of this post - Brahms' "O kühler Wald (O cool forest.)" Tadd and I posted an "In Rehearsal" video of us rehearsing this song on Christmas Eve but what you didn't get to see was an interesting little confession I made right after he pushed the stop button. I confessed that I was having a very difficult time making the piano part coincide with the text - to me, they just do not complement one another. When I read Brentano's poem and close my eyes, I definitely hear a song in the minor mode - a song to reflect the pain the protagonist is feeling as he is wandering all alone in the cool forest, lamenting the loss of his lover. But is this how Brahms chose to set the text? Of course not. He chose instead to set the poem in the rich, warm key of A-flat major, with rich, mellow chords pulsing below in quarter notes in the piano part. Half-way through the song, eighth-notes enter, thereby increasing the rhythmic intensity. Now for me, this makes it sound more hopeful, not gloomy or despairing as the text seems to be saying. And to make matters even more difficult we get to the brief postlude and the material is the same as opening, with an ethereal descent in the left hand, closing the song in the warm glow of A-flat major. Oh dear...this really is a challenge. So what am I to do? How am I supposed to set an appropriate scene for Tadd when I feel like the set I have been given is a bit off-color? Did Brahm's miss the mark this time? He is human, after all. Or am I missing something?

After discussing this with Tadd a bit, we decided that perhaps the answer to our little problem can be found in the general view of love that many artists and poets seemed to have had during the Romantic era. It seems that to many, love was the ultimate attainment for which it was worth sacrificing anything. And as with all artists, the search for this ultimate love had to be filled with passion, with drama, with death...if it wasn't, it wasn't art, or worthy of art. In relation to "O kühler Wald," perhaps Brahms was saying through his setting that one need not feel pity for the protagonist for in loving our character had reached a most holy and revered place, in spite of the pain and rejection that was also part of the package.

We haven't rehearsed this particular song much since we've had our discussion so I'm not sure yet if talking it through will help. If any of you have any other ideas or thoughts, I'd be curious to hear them.

-Erica

"In Rehearsal" Video of Ravel's Drinking Song and a Discussion of its Vocal Challenges

2009-12-30T06:27:00.000-08:00

Below is a video of Erica and me rehearsing the drinking song from the Don Quichotte à Dulcinée cycle by Maurice Ravel. I'm making myself vulnerable here, hoping that it will prove interesting to some and perhaps instructive for my students.

This cycle is pretty far up on the scale of difficulty in the baritone repertoire. It's virtuosic for sure. It includes the challenges of high-delicate-singing, full-bore-make-as-much-sound-as-one-can-singing, as well as a passage of florid singing (lots of notes on one vowel) that begins off the beat. The latter is the challenge with which I'm coming face-to-face in this rehearsal.

The first challenge is that this passage requires the singer to sustain a pitch and then begin moving after the downbeat of the measure three different times. Florid passages usually begin on the beat. Beginning off the beat means that the singer must prepare to move and have a very definite sense of where the beat is. In order for the voice to begin moving from a sustained pitch, the air pressure on the vocal folds must be lightened without the aid of consonant articulation. In this passage the downbeat is muddled by Ravel's use of hemiola. The singer must continue to feel a pulse of three while the pianist obstinately plays a pulse of two. The two challenges combined make the passage deceivingly difficult.

The remaining challenge for the singer is to decide where to breath in this passage. Ravel writes it without any rests at all, insinuating that the singer sing it in one breath. I can do this, but the quality of the singing in the latter part of the passage is compromised. Also, it tires my voice quite a bit to try this, and there's still a lot more singing to do. In the video you will hear me say that I'm convinced that I need to sing it all in one breath. However, after listening to several professional singers on YouTube, I now know that almost no one sings it in one breath, and some singers take a breath before each florid passage. I've now decided to try to take one breath after the first florid passage, which seems like the best compromise to me.

I hope you enjoy watching Erica and me work through this passage. It would be embarrassing if this kind of thing happened in a recital. However, this is just a rehearsal. It will all be beautifully worked out by the time we perform it on January 24.

-Tadd

More "In Rehearsal" Video of Brahms' Lieder and a Brief Post about Memory

2009-12-27T11:24:00.000-08:00

Here is an In Rehearsal video of Brahms' song, "Wie bist du, meine Königin (How blissful you are, my queen)."

In this rehearsal Tadd was primarily concerned with memory so there is a lot of repetition involved. This song is subtly tricky when it comes to memorizing because although it is basically strophic, meaning it has material that repeats over and over again, kind of like a hymn or a Christmas carol only with different words each time, Brahms makes tiny changes here and there which are hard to keep track of when you're trying to sing by memory. Sometimes the changes are rhythmic, sometimes they are harmonic...one of my favorite things Brahms plays around with is the interplay between the piano and voice with the word "wonnevoll" or "blissfull". This word occurs two or three times at the end of every strophe but if you listen closely, you'll notice that in some verses Brahms has the voice start with the "wonnevoll" two-note or three-note descending motive but in others he has the piano do the initiating. In my mind, it are these types of details that help make Brahms' music spine-tingling. They are so incredibly subtle and nuanced that the listener often doesn't realize how much they are being reeled into the drama of the music.

Here is an audio clip of the singer Heinrich Schulnus singing the entire song so that you can try and catch some of these subtleties...

It is also this incredible attention to detail that can make this music challenging to memorize, thus the painful rehearsing that we sometimes have to go through. But I am not complaining. Having to play Brahms over and over again is one of those sacrifices we collaborators are usually willing to bear.

-Erica

A belated Christmas note about Brahms' "Meine Liebe ist grün"

2009-12-26T08:50:00.000-08:00

It turns out that one of the songs on our program has a Christmas connection - how appropriate! Johannes Brahms, who was then in his 40's, apparently presented his song, "Meine Liebe ist grün (My Love is Green)," to Clara Schumann as a Christmas gift and I don't believe he could have paid homage to this family in a more fitting way. For the text, Brahms set the words of Felix Schumann, Clara and Robert's youngest son and Johannes' godson. Felix had tuberculosis and unfortunately died at the early age of 25. But about six years before his untimely death, Clara had sent Brahms a set of her son's poetry, hoping to get some sort of feedback from her friend, writing;

"Tell me frankly what you think of them. Don't think that I, like a weak mother, think him a genius. On the contrary, I have such fear of overrating the talent of his [Robert's] children that I probably sometimes demand too much of them."

Brahms' response was to set three of Felix's poems to music: "Wenn um den Holunder," "Es brausen der Liebe Wogen," and of course the one included in this recital, "Meine Liebe ist grün."

As is typical of this great musical friend of the Schumanns', Brahms manages to tip his hat to both Robert Schumann, and therefore also Clara, in the way he set this short, passionate love song. There are many subtle similarities between this song and Robert's song, "Schöne Fremde (Beautiful Foreign Land." For those that are interested, compare the following:

harmonic ambiguity in the opening measures of both songs
the perfect 4th in the piano part in the opening of Schumann's & the perfect 4th in the voice entrance in the opening of Brahm's song
the fast, syncopated, rippling piano accompaniment part in both songs
cascading eighth-note arpeggiations in left hand in both songs, particularly at end of strophes and ending in low resounding octaves

Here is a Youtube video of Schumann's "Schone Fremde," with baritone, Matthias Goerne singing:

And here is Anne Sofie von Otter, soprano, singing the Brahms, "Meine Liebe ist grün":

So what do you think? Do you here any similarities at all? Am I just crazy? That is possible.

Now of course some people might question the significance of these similarities and that's ok. Tadd and I happen to like looking for these types of connections because it makes the music come alive for us. In the end, when it comes time to perform, our hope is that those connections will translate into a more engaging performance for us and for our audience.

One thing I do know...as I was reading about this little Christmas present of Brahms' yesterday, coincidentally on Christmas, I kept closing my eyes and picturing that particular Christmas in the Schumann parlor as it might have been. Here comes Johannes Brahms through the parlor door, brushing snow off his overcoat, excitedly handing Clara his humble "present" - my, what a present. Clara goes to the piano, sits down to play this new composition, perhaps with Brahms singing? Felix walks in wondering what this new song might be when slowly it dawns on him that the words being sung are none other than his very own.

What a gift...is poetry...is song...is music.

-Erica

"In Rehearsal" Videos of Brahms Lieder

2009-12-24T05:49:00.000-08:00

In Rehearsal - Johannes Brahms: Botschaft (Message)

In Rehearsal - Johannes Brahms: O kühler Wald (O cool forest)

A short little anecdote about "your little voice"

2009-12-22T18:36:00.000-08:00

Tadd and I have a little anecdote to share with you that helps illustrate why we find being musical partners so incredibly entertaining. Towards the end of one of our first rehearsals for Jocelyn Hagen's, "your little voice," I made the comment that the disjunct musical and poetic lines of the piece seemed to represent how dreams feel when we are in them. Instead of getting any sort of response from Tadd, I got the dreaded blank stare. I tried to explain a little more, quoting bits and pieces from the poem to support my interpretation. For me, the poem represents a dreamscape in which the protagonist finds himself in a fantastical setting where a dance is being held and where his love is in attendance. As with so many dreams, however, his lover keeps slipping out of sight and out of his grasp so that all that is left is her sweet voice, leaping "over time and tide and death." Well, with that all worked out pretty firmly in my mind, Tadd told me his own interpretation which is completely different. To him the poem represents a telephone conversation, thus the phrase, "Over the wires" in which hearing his lover's voice makes the protagonist suddenly feel dizzy. He had even done his research, finding out that the telephone was just becoming more readily available at the time that E.E. Cummings was writing this poem.

So what to do? Two musicians that have to perform the same piece together with two completely different interpretations of the same poem. Do we flip a coin? Have a formal debate? Duke it out? Does it really matter if we aren't thinking the same thing? These are very good questions and we haven't found a solution yet but we will probably have to sometime soon. It's a great problem to have, however, and we think it's what makes music-making tremendously challenging and enriching.

So now with all of this said, we'll turn the blog over to you...here's a link to the poem...

What do you think?

Program notes written by Jocelyn Hagen for Love.Songs

2009-12-22T17:55:00.000-08:00

The following are program notes that are found in the score of Love.Songs and written by the composer, Jocelyn Hagen.

"This cycle of songs characterizes and illuminates some of the many aspects of love: desire, infatuation, physical love, parental love, and eternal love. The following poems by E.E. Cummings are lush, descriptive, and poignant, captivating the reader with their vivid imagery.

The first song, "burn," sets the poem "unto thee i," which incorporates Cummings' typical idosyncrasy of syntax (his own way of arranging words into larger phrases and sentences.) As a composer this poses a certain dilemma. Do I acknowledge the structure of the poem in the vocalist's musical phrase, and if so, how could I do that most effectively? The carriage returns are so purposeful, and force the reader to consider certain words differently. Please read the poem "unto thee i," and consider the placement of the words 'burn.' This significant assignment by Cummings greatly influenced my setting of the text, so much so that it gave the song its name. Not all of the songs in this cycle feature musical qualities that mirror Cummings' distinctive syntax, yet these "interruptions" and puntuations were taken into account during the compositional process.

The final song of the set depicts a great and true love that knows no boundaries: eternal love."

More "In Rehearsal" videos

2009-12-22T12:07:00.000-08:00

In Rehearsal - Jocelyn Hagen: Love.Songs, "i carry you in my heart"
The other day we did a lot of wood-shedding on the last of Jocelyn Hagen's Love.Songs. We have decided to post all four videos which together last about 20 minutes or so.

Our first "In Rehearsal" videos

2009-12-21T05:41:00.001-08:00

So here they are, the first installments in our "In Rehearsal" series of videos.

In Rehearsal - Jocelyn Hagen: Love.Songs, "burn"
This is one of our first rehearsals of the song "burn" from the song cycle Love.Songs by Jocelyn Hagen. Enjoy our daughter Emma dancing in the foreground as well as our Lovebird, Pistachio, chirping in the background. Recorded on December 19, 2009 using a Flip Video camcorder.

In Rehearsal - Jocelyn Hagen: Love.Songs, "your little voice"
A working rehearsal on this song from Jocelyn Hagen's cycle. Recorded on December 19, 2009 using a Flip Video camcorder.

Our final run-through of the day. Hear any improvement? Recorded on December 19, 2009 using a Flip Video camcorder.

YouTube video of Gerard Souzay singing entire Don Quichotte set

2009-12-19T07:59:00.000-08:00

Here is a video of another singer, Gerard Souzay, singing the Don Quichotte set with orchestra. Enjoy.

YouTube audio clip of Martial Singher singing Ravel's Chanson épique

2009-12-19T07:54:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the wonders of the internet and to YouTube, we have here an audio recording of Martial Singher singing the second song from the Don Quichotte set, the Chanson épique. Martial Singher worked closely with Ravel in preparing these songs which were first recorded with orchestra and Ravel ended up dedicated this particular song to the singer since it was Mr. Singher's, and possibly even the composer's favorite of the three. Apparently Ravel commented that Martial Singher "of course...had chosen the right one!"

In this song, Don Quixote prays to St. Michael and to St. George in front of the Madonna before setting out on his quest. In our minds, Ravel beautifully combines the subdued sounds of chant and distant church bells with the tender passion of Don Quixote. And in hearing this recording of Martial Singher, it is not hard to understand why Ravel dedicated this work to such a great singer.

Link to website with 1933 movie, "Adventures of Don Quixote"

2009-12-17T14:48:00.000-08:00

The film for which Ravel wrote the three songs, "Adventures of Don Quixote", was directed by G.W. Pabst and starred a famous Russian singer, Feodor Chaliapin. As mentioned in the previous post, Ravel's music was never used - Jacque Ibert's score was used instead since his was apparently finished first.

You can watch the entire movie for free here or you can click on the screen below, although it seems that our blog format is cutting off the right side of the screen.

1933 Don Quixote Movie

Bittersweet story behind Maurice Ravel's Don Quichotte à Dulcineé

2009-12-17T14:29:00.000-08:00

Maurice Ravel wrote these wonderfully simple yet evocative character sketches near the end of his life, in 1932. Even though it wasn't his intention, they ended up being his swan songs, athough he didn't die until five years later, in 1937. When I read about how these pieces came about, I was surprised by how much the scenario surrounding his Don Quichotte set sounded like a modern day one in which your typical Hollywood film company tries to save some time and money by cutting some corners. In this case, Ravel, Milhaud, Marcel Delannoy, and Jacques Ibert, were all approached by the same film company to write music for a film being made of Don Quixote with the title role being played by a famous Russian singer, Chaliapin. None of these composers were told that anyone else had also been approached. Ravel, who was beginning to deal with severe stroke-like symptoms and unaware that he was in competition with others for the commission, took too long to complete the music for the film so in the end, the commission went to Jacques Ibert. In a letter to a friend, he mentioned the Don Quixote project briefy stating, "Unfortunately, I was immersed in a project which I should never have undertaken and which made me lose more than 3 months needlessly." After reading about this, and realizing that this project, which he must have seen as a bit of a failure, was his final work, I couldn't help but feel a great sense of sorrow for this composer whose physical body was obviously losing his ability to keep up with his musical soul. Ravel described the bittersweetness well himself during his final years, saying, "I've still so much to say, so many ideas in my head."

With all of this being said, we turn to these three pieces and we step into a different world. This is not the world of a tortured composer, it is the world of the quintessential romantic. The music ranges from being tender, suave, and romantic as in the Chanson romanesque and Chanson épique to being boisterous and raucous in the Chanson à boire. Although there isn't anything really complex or sophisticated about this music, I have fallen in love with this set of pieces. They are gems, in my mind. If only I could tell Ravel that those three months spent on them weren't needless after all.

-Erica

Reminder about tomorrow's recital!

2009-11-23T17:11:00.000-08:00

So here we are! Tomorrow, Sunday, January 24th, is our Love.Songs recital at 3pm. If you are in Virginia's New River Valley, a lovely place incidentally, please do come and join us. We had our dress rehearsal just this afternoon with the young man who will be running our multi-media stuff, Chris Sangster, and it was really a lot of fun. If you have something else to do, no problem...we'll hopefully be posting some audio of the recital right here on this blog as soon as we can. Maybe we can even bribe someone to videotape it for us.

Thank you to all of you who have been following this blog...we hope that it has served some sort of purpose. We'd love to hear some feedback about it, especially since is the first time we've done something like this. And if you'd like us to add you to our mailing list so that we can let you know about our upcoming concerts and projects, you can e-mail me at ericasipes1@yahoo.com.

-Erica

Thanks again and we hope to see you tomorrow!