[Hey all, just posting these program notes here. They seem dull to me, but they're not supposed to be incredibly long. Read them; if you see nothing wrong, whatever, enjoy the information. If you see something wrong, let me know. I have another couple of weeks before I have to print these off. Thanks! --kf]
Valli Profonde—Marco da Gagliano (1582-1642)
Marco da Gagliano was a composer from the late-Renaissance/early-Baroque period. He wrote countless works, and was a prominent figure in the development stages of early opera and solo and concerted madrigals. He lived in Florence, Italy, for most of his life, and held positions in the church of San Lorenzo, Mantua (where he wrote his famed opera Dafne), and Medici, where he was maestro di cappella for 35 years. In this piece, Valli Profonde, Gagliano uses detailed music to greatly enhance the text, including rapid ascending lines for aer (air), a complicated, winding run for serpenti (serpents), and even a tri-tone leap for dannata (damned soul).
In der Fremde; Waldesgespräch—Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
If Robert Schumann were alive today, he would have celebrated his 200th birthday in June, so it is fitting to perform the two songs from the Liederkreis, written in 1840. Both songs are based on poetry by Joseph von Eichendorff, and the songs from the Liederkreis both center on the theme of wanderers. In der Fremde (In a Foreign Land) describes a man who returns to his homeland, only to find that everything he knew has gone away in his absence. The man realizes that he is now without a home, and longs for the moment when he, too, will pass from this earth.
Conversely, Waldesgespräch is a story of a man in a forest who sees a young, beautiful lady who appears to be lost. The man, attempting to be a hero, offers to take the lady home. The lady refuses the offer, and tells the man to flee, as a warning that she is not who she seems. The man, taken in by the lady’s beauty, urges the lady to come home with him, until he suddenly realizes that this lady is a temptress known in German lore as Loreley. Now that she has been identified, Loreley tells the man that it is too late to leave the forest, and he must remain there with her for eternity.
Come away, death; Now sleeps the crimson petal—Roger Quilter (1877-1953)
Roger Quilter was a prominent English art song composer in the early-20th Century, composing over 100 songs for the genre. He studied at Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, and was a peer of several prominent composers, including Percy Grainger. Quilter also composed light orchestral music, and an opera called Julia. He descended into mental illness after the death of his nephew in WWII, and died in 1953, shortly after his 75th birthday.
Come away, death is the first song in Quilter’s Three Shakespeare Songs, Op. 6. The text comes from Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, Act II, scene iv, when Orsino—a love-sick, heartbroken nobleman—asks the court jester, Feste, to sing this melancholy song. The song describes the despair of a broken heart, how the speaker wishes to die alone and be buried in a place unknown to his true love.
The mood changes with the second song, Now sleeps the crimson petal, from Quilter’s Three Songs, Op. 3. The text for this piece comes from the poetry of Lord Alfred Tennyson. It is a love song in the truest form: the speaker of the poem wishes to remain with his lover forever, urging her to stay with him forever.
The Raising of Lazarus—Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
Sergei Rachmaninoff was a famed performer and composer most known for his piano compositions and the All-Night Vigil, a 15-movement choral work, of which two movements were performed by the Wartburg Choir last year. This selection, The Raising of Lazarus, is the sixth song in his Fourteen Songs, Op. 34, published in 1912. The Fourteen Songs are interesting, in that the songs are not all written for once voice part, but rather different songs are written for different voice parts. This song describes a person calling upon God to, using the strength and power that He used to raise Lazarus from the dead, renew the Spirit within themselves.
The Pilgrim’s Song¬—Pytor Illyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Pytor Illyich Tchaikovsky is probably best known for his ballets (Swan Lake and The Nutcracker), the 1812 Overture, and his symphonies, but he composed some wonderful vocal music, as well. This selection, The Pilgrim’s Song, is the fifth song of Tchaikovsky’s Seven Songs, Op. 47, written in 1880. The text of this selection follows a person seeming to attempt to return to the pastoral tradition of old. This person blesses the land, and becomes enraptured by the beauty of it all, to the point where they can do nothing by cry out with joy and exultation.
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