DMA Vocal Coaching and Accompanying Recital #1
William A. Murphy, piano
Andrew Miller, baritone
Bridget Ravenscraft, soprano
Julia Scannell, soprano
Memorial Room, Smith Memorial Hall
October 4, 2024
7:30 p.m.
ARTHUR SOMERVELL A Shropshire Lad (1904)
(1863-1937) Texts by Alfred Edward Housman
I. Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry now
II. When I was one-and-twenty
III. There pass the careless People
IV. In Summer-time on Bredon
V. The Street sounds to the Soldier’s tread
VI. On the idle hill of Summer
VII. White in the moon the long road lies
VIII. Think no more, Lad, laugh, be jolly
IX. Into my Heart an Air that kills
X. The Lads in their Hundreds
Andrew Miller, baritone
SAMUEL BARBER Knoxville: Summer of 1015, Op. 24 (1947)
(1910-1981) Text by James Agee
Julia Scannell, soprano
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Intermission
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LIBBY LARSEN Pharaoh Songs (2017)
(b. 1950) translated from the ancient Egyptian by John L. Foster
My love is one and only, without peer
If I could just be the washerman
Ho, what she’s done to me – that girl
I love you through the daytimes
My love is back, let me shout out the news
When I hold my love close
Andrew Miller, baritone
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RICKY IAN GORDON from Too Few the Mornings Be (2000)
(b. 1956) Texts by Emily Dickinson
Too Few the Mornings Be
If All the Griefs I Am to Have
The Bustle in a House
This is My Letter to the World
You Cannot Put a Fire Out
Estranged from Beauty
Will There Really Be a Morning?
Bridget Ravenscraft, soprano
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Program Notes
A Shropshire Lad
This song cycle by Arthur Somervell, was the first musical setting in 1904 of Housman’s poetry collection “A Shropshire Lad,” only eight years after its publication. The poems became popular during the turn of the century as the Second Boer War was transpiring; the themes of the poems focus on the journeys of men to war, especially “The lads that will die in their glory, and never be old.” The popularity of these texts grew during World War I and other composers continued to set them to music, most notably George Butterworth, who sadly was killed at the young age of 31 in the second phase of the Battle of the Somme.
Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op. 24
Celebrated American poet, James Agee, recounts several memories of his youth and carefully creates one scene of them all. His use of descriptive text gives the listener vivid pictures of what he experienced. Helping with the imagery, is the music composed by Samuel Barber. We can imagine the text as if it were happening right in front of us, particularly the section at “A streetcar raising its iron moan…” Although Barber composed this piece for orchestra, the version heard tonight is his arrangement for voice and piano. Please enjoy the sounds of a summer of ages past in Knoxville, TN.
Pharaoh Songs
Unrequited love is the theme of these songs. Libby Larsen has, with the help of John Foster, taken ancient Egyptian texts and created a liberal story of a royal woman that has caught the eye of a lower class man. Larsen says the following: “I created a loose, fantasized narrative which exists solely in the mind of the lover. Desire, fantasy, tension, frustration, reunion and fulfillment are projected on the object of the lover’s desire.” These pieces were premiered at the 2017 Source Song Festival in St. Paul, MN.
Too Few the Mornings Be
This cycle represents Ricky Ian Gordon’s love of Emily Dickinson’s poetry that began in 1976 with the play The Belle of Amherst by William Luce. The play was directed by Charles Nelson Reilly and Julie Harris played the title role of Emily Dickinson in the one-woman play. Twenty-four years later in February 2000, American soprano Renée Fleming and Harris came together to create a program of both spoken and sung texts of Emily Dickinson with music by various composers including “Too Few the Mornings Be” which were written for Fleming. As the encore, Renée performed Gordon’s “Will there really be a morning” from this set and during the interlude Julie recited the poem “It’s All I Have To Bring Today” – a poem that Gordon specifically remembered from the 1976 play. The texts chosen for this work follow Emily through her life and her struggle with philosophical ideals. During her lifetime only 10 poems were published. What we have today were published from 40 notebooks found after her death. I hope you can connect with these pieces as I have. We have much that we can learn from Emily’s writing.
It’s all I have to bring today,
This, and my heart beside,
This, and my heart, and all the fields,
And all the meadows wide,
Be sure you count, should I forget –
Some one the sun could tell, -
This, and my heart, and all the bees
Which in the clover dwell.
- Emily Dickinson