Skylar Johnson, Voice
Skylar Johnson is a fourth-year music education major from Avondale, PA. She studied music at the University of Delaware for two years before transferring to West Chester University. Throughout her time at these universities, she has been a member in multiple ensembles, including University Singers (University of Delaware), Mastersingers, and Concert Choir. She currently teaches private voice and piano lessons at both West Chester Music Academy in West Chester, PA and Pollock Music Lessons in Kennett Square, PA. Skylar also enjoys writing her own music on the side and hopes to get that out to the public one day. Aside from music, she proudly represents the Delta Gamma chapter of Alpha Sigma Alpha. After graduation, Skylar hopes to begin teaching middle or high school general music and choir.
O mio babbino caro
Mi piace, è bello, bello
Vo ’andare in Porta Rossa
A comperar l’anello!
Sì, sì, ci voglio andare!
E se l’amassi indarno,
Andrei sul Ponte Vecchio,
Ma per buttarmi in Arno!
Mi struggo e mi tormento!
O Dio, vorrei morir!
Babbo, pietà, pietà!
Babbo, pietà, pietà!
Oh my dear papa
I like him, he is so handsome.
I want to go to Porta Rossa
To buy the ring!
Yes, yes, I want to go there!
And if my love were in vain,
I would go to the Ponte Vecchio
And throw myself in the Arno!
I am pining, I am tormented!
Oh God, I would want to die!
Father, have pity, have pity!
Father, have pity, have pity!
NACHT UND TRÄUME- SCHUBERT NIGHT AND DREAMS
Heil'ge Nacht, du sinkest nieder; Holy night, you sink down
Nieder wallen auch die Träume
Wie dein Mondlicht durch die Räume
Durch der Menschen stille Brust
Die belauschen sie mit Lust
Rufen, wenn der Tag erwacht
Kehre wieder, heil'ge Nacht!
The dreams flow down, too
Like your moonlight through the rooms
Through the people’ s silent chests
They listen softly with desire
They call, when the day awakens
Come back, holy night!
Holde Träume, kehret wieder! Sweet dreams, come back!
DU BIST DIE RUH- SCHUBERT
YOU ARE THE CALM
Du bist die Ruh, You are the calm,
Der Friede mild, the mild peace,
Die Sehnsucht du, You my longing
Und was sie stillt. And what stills it.
Ich weihe dir
I consecrate to you,
Voll Lust und Schmerz Full of joy and grief,
Zur Wohnung hier to dwell here
Mein Aug und Herz. my eye and heart.
Kehr ein bei mir, Come to me
Und schließe du And softly close
Still hinter dir the gates
Die Pforten zu. behind you
Treib andern Schmerz Drive other pain
Aus dieser Brust. from this breast.
Voll sei dies Herz
Full be my heart
Von deiner Lust. Of your joy.
Dies Augenzelt, The canopy of my eyes
Von deinem Glanz by your splendour, Allein erhellt, alone is lit,
O füll es ganz.
MUSIC FOR A WHILE- PURCELL
-OEDIPUS
Music for a while
Shall all your cares beguile.
Wond'ring how your pains were eas ’d
And disdaining to be pleas’d
Till Alecto free the dead
From their eternal bands,
Till the snakes drop from her head, And the whip from out her hands.
Music for a while
Shall all your cares beguile.
STRIKE THE VIOL- PURCELL
Strike the viol, touch the lute, Wake the harp, inspire the flute.
Sing your patroness ’ s praise, In cheerful and harmonious lays.
DIDO’S LAMENT- PURCELL
-DIDOANDAENEAS
Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me, On thy bosom let me rest, More I would, but Death invades me; Death is now a welcome guest.
When I am laid, am laid in earth, May my wrongs create No trouble, no trouble in thy breast; Remember me, remember me, but ah! forget my fate. Remember me, but ah! forget my fate.
O, fill it completely.
Ah ! la charmante chose
Ah! How delightful it is Quitter un pays morose to leave a dismal place Pour Paris and head for Paris
Paris joli Pretty Paris, Qu'un jour dût créer l’Amour.
Which one day love had to create.
TE SOUVIENS-TU- GODARD
Te souviens-tu de ta promesse?
Te souviens-tu des ans passés?
Te souviens-tu de notre ivresse
Quand nos bras étaient enlacés?
Oh! garde-moi bien ta tendresse
J'ai tant besoin de tes baisers!
Te souviens-tu de ma tristesse
Lorsque je partais pour un jour?
Loin de toi je rêvais sans cesse
À l'instant joyeux du retour
Oh! garde-moi bien ta tendressе
J'ai tant besoin de ton amour!
DO YOU REMEMBER
Do you remember your promise?
Do you remember the years gone by?
Do you remember our drunkenness
When our arms were intertwined?
Oh! Keep your tenderness for me
I need your kisses so much!
Do you remember my sadness
When I was leaving for a day?
Far from you I dreamed constantly
At the joyous moment of return
Oh! Keep your tenderness for me
I need your love so much!
PAYSAGE- HAHN LANDSCAPE
À deux pas de la mer qu'on entend bourdonner
Je sais un coin perdu de la terre bretonne
Où j'aurais tant aimé, pendant les jours d’automne
A stone's throw from the sea that we hear buzzing
I know a lost corner of Breton land
Where I would have loved so much, during the autumn days
Chère, à vous emmener !
Dear, to take you!
Des chênes faisant cercle autour d'une fontaine Oak trees forming a circle around a fountain
Quelques hêtres épars, un vieux moulin désert A few scattered beech trees, an old deserted mill
Une source dont l'eau claire a le reflet vert A spring whose clear water has a green reflection
De vos yeux de sirène;
La mésange, au matin, sous la feuille jaunie
Viendrait chanter pour nous, et la mer nuit et jour
Viendrait accompagner nos caresses d’amour
De sa basse infinie
From your mermaid eyes;
The titmouse, in the morning, under the yellowed leaf
Would come and sing for us, and the sea night and day
Would come to accompany our caresses of love
Of its infinite bass
OMioBabuinoCaro,Puccini (1858-1924)
Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer known for his operas. His work was rooted in traditional late-19thcentury opera and developed into realistic verismo style. Some of his most famous works include La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (1924).
O Mio Babbino Caro is a soprano aria from the opera Gianni Schicci (1918). It is a one-act comic opera to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. The work is the third part of Puccini’s Il Trittico (The Triptych), which is three one-act operas with contrasting themes that written to be performed together. This aria is sung by Lauretta after having some tensions with her father, Schicchi, and the family of Rinucchio, the boy who she is in love with. The families threaten to separate Lauretta and Rinucchio, so Lauretta sings to Schicchi, pleading him to let her marry Rinucchio.
NachtundTräume,Schubert (1797-1828)
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. He left behind more than 600 secular vocal works, seven symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music, and a plethora of piano and chamber music. Some of his most popular works include Gretchen am Sprinnrade, Ave Maria, the “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8 in B minor, and the song cycle Winterreise. He died at the young age of 31, due to typhoid fever. Nacht und Träume is a lied for voice and piano from a text by Matthäus von Collin, published in 1825. It is a mediation on night and dreams, as it is marked “sehr langsam” , meaning very slowly. It is also marked “pianissimo” all throughout the piece, meaning very quietly.
DuBistdieruh,Schubert (1797-1828)
Du bist die Ruh is a lied, set for voice and piano, composed by Franz Schubert in 1823. The text is from a set of poems by Frederick Rückert (1788-1866). The poem was originally untitled, but Schubert used the first line as the title for the song. Rückert ended up titling his poem “Kehr ein bei mir” , which is also seen in the song. Schubert set this song to be very gentle and tender to Rückert’ s words.
MusicforaWhile,Purcell
(1659-1695)
Henry Purcell was an English composer of Baroque music. His style was mainly English and often incorporated Italian and French elements. He is said to have been composing since he was nine years old, but his earliest work identified is an ode for the King’ s birthday, written when he was eleven. Music for a While is a da capo aria for voice (usually soprano or tenor), harpsichord, and bass viol. It is the second of four movements from his incidental music to Oedipus (1679), a version of Sophocles’ play by John Dryden and Nathaniel Lee. The aria was published in Orpheus Britannicus book 2, 1702. The voice is accompanied by an ascending ground bass pattern. The text is part of a longer musical interlude in act 3, scene 1 of Oedipus. In the tragedy, a priest tries to summon the ghost of King Laius by singing Music for a While. In the instrumental line, the ground bass represents the entrance of the priest and the arpeggiated chords of the bass represent King Laius rising from the dead. The text describes one of the furies, Alecto, who is capable of “free(ing) the dead from their eternal bands” and snakes drop from Alecto’ s head.
Striketheviol,Purcell (1659-1695)`
Strike the viol was written for Come Ye Sons of Art, also known as Ode for Queen Mary’ s Birthday. It is a series of odes in honor of Queen Mary II of England’ s birthday in 1694 and she ended up dying at the end of that year. This was the only ode from the work that was published in Purcell’ s Orpheus Britannicus.
Dido’sLament,Purcell (1659-1695)
Dido’ s Lament (“When I am Laid in Earth”) is the closing aria from Purcell’ s opera Dido and Aeneas The opera is a prologue and three acts with a libretto by Nahum Tate. It was premiered in London in 1689 and the story is based on Book IV of Virgil’ s Aeneid It is about Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, the Trojan hero. Dido loves Aeneas and she is in despair when he leaves her. In her lament, she is singing as she is dying, after she decides to take her own life.
VoyageàParis, Poulenc (1899-1963)
Francis Poulenc was a French composer and pianist. He composed solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Some of his best known works include the piano suite, Trois mouvements perpétuals (1919), and the ballet, Les biches (1923). He was in a group of young composers known as Les Six. He was also one of the first composers to use the gramophone, where he started recording in 1928.
Voyage à Paris is from a collection of mélodies titled, Banalités, set for piano and voice. It is the fourth song in a set of five, written in 1940 based on poems by Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918). Voyage à Paris was published in the Poèmes retrouvés from the Œuvres poétiques by Apollinaire in 1956.
TeSouviens-tu,Godard (1849-1895)
Benjamin Godard was a French violinist and Romantic-era composer. He composed eight operas, his best known being Jocelyn, five symphonies, two piano and two violin concertos, string quartets, sonatas for violin and piano, piano pieces and etudes, and more than a hundred songs. He died of tuberculosis at 45 and was buried in a family tomb in Taverny.
Te souviens-tu ranges from pianissimo (very soft) mellow notes, to forte (loud) notes, carrying lots of vivid emotions in the piece. It is one of Godard’ s best known works for voice and piano.
Paysage,Hahn (1874-1947)
Reynaldo Hahn was a Venezuelan-born French composer, conductor, music critic, and singer. He is best known for his mélodies, of which he wrote over 100. He was born in Caracas, but moved to Paris when he was a child and lived there most of his life. He became a member of the fin de siècle French society after success of his song, Si mes vers avaient des ailes, which he wrote when he was 14. More of his vocal works include secular and sacred pieces, lyric scenes, cantatas, oratorios, operas, comic operas, and operettas. Orchestral works include concertos, ballets, tone poems, and incidental music for plays and films. He also wrote a range of chamber music and piano works. He sang as well as played his own songs, and made recordings as a soloist and accompanying other performers. Paysage (Landscape) was composed in May 1890 and dedicated to Jules Massenet. It is a gorgeous, ecstatic song, set to the poetry of André Theuriet.