The Songs of Charles T. Griffes (LINER NOTES)

THE SONGS OF CHARLES T. GRIFFES (1884-1920)

FAITH ESHAM, IRENE GUBRUD, JAN OPALACH AND LUCY SHELTON

1. Waikiki, Op. 9, No. 2

2. Two Birds Flew into the Sunset Glow

3. The Half-ring Moon

4. Pierrot

5. Les Ballons

Lucy Shelton, Soprano

Margo Garrett, Piano

6. Song of the Dagger

Jan Opalach, Baritone

Jeffrey Goldberg, Piano

7. The Water-Lily

8. In the Harem

Two Rondels, Op. 4

9. This Book of Hours

10. Come, Love, across the Sunlit Land

Irene Gubrud, Soprano

Margo Garrett, Piano

11. Der träumende See

12. Wohl lag ich einst in Gram und Schmerz

Faith Esham, Soprano

Thomas Muraco, Piano

Three Poems by Fiona Macleod, Op. 11

13. The Rose of the Night

14. Thy Dark Eyes to Mine

15. The Lament of Ian the Proud

Faith Esham, Soprano

Thomas Muraco, Piano

16. Evening Song

17. Symphony in Yellow, Op. 3, No. 2

18. An Old Song Re-sung

Jan Opalach, Baritone

Jeffrey Goldberg, Piano

19. Auf geheimem Waldespfade

20. Auf dem Teich, dem regungslosen

21. Nachtlied

Irene Gubrud, Soprano

Margo Garrett, Piano

Five Poems of Ancient China and Japan, Op. 10

22. So-fei Gathering Flowers

23. Landscape

24. The Old Temple among the Mountains

25. Tears

26. A Feast of Lanterns

Irene Gubrud, Soprano

Margo Garrett, Piano

27. Phantoms (Tabb)

28. Sorrow of Mydath

29. La Fuite de la Lune, Op. 3, No. 1

30. Phantoms (Giovannitti), Op. 9, No. 3

Jan Opalach, Baritone

Jeffrey Goldberg, Piano

31. Könnt' ich mit dir dort oben gehn

32. Auf ihrem Grab

33. Elfe

Lucy Shelton, Soprano

Margo Garrett, Piano

34. We'll to the Woods and Gather May, Op. 3, No. 3

35. The First Snowfall

36. In a Myrtle Shade, Op. 9, No. 1

37. La Mer (1912)

Faith Esham, Soprano

Thomas Muraco, Piano

38. An den Wind

39. Nacht liegt auf den fremden Wegen

Jan Opalach, Baritone

Jeffrey Goldberg, Piano

Four Impressions

40. Le Jardin

41. Impression du Matin

42. La Mer (1916)

43. Le Réveillon

Lucy Shelton, Soprano

Margo Garrett, Piano

Writing about the American composer

Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920) in

Music in the Modern Age, W.D. Shirley calls

his songs "part of the small and select

company of outstanding songs composed in

English during the present century." The

rediscovery of Griffes's songs is a fairly

recent phenomenon: one beneficial side-

effect of the increased attention to

American music during the past couple of

decades. Before that he was known chiefly

by a few orchestral and piano compositions,

like The White Peacock and The Pleasure-

Dome of Kubla Khan, which have found a place in the standard repertoire. With the

new revaluation of American music,

however, the full scope of Griffes's artistic

achievement is coming into view. Winthrop

Sargeant comments that he "wrote some of

the most beautiful music ever composed by

an American. " In America's Music Gilbert

Chase tells us: "His major works are

American classics; his songs are among the

best we have. "

Griffes began composing songs at an early

age. Born in 1884 in Elmira, New York, he

first took piano lessons with his eldest sister

Katharine, who, when she had brought him

as far as she could, turned him over to Mary

Selena Broughton, her own teacher at

Elmira Col0lege. Miss Broughton, a colorful

New Zealander, had arrived from study in

Berlin to become "Professor of Piano

Playing" at the college. Quick to discern the

boy's unusual talent, she not only taught

him piano but gave him lessons in harmony

and counterpoint as well.

She also encouraged Griffes's first efforts at

composition which included, besides a

number of piano pieces, a few songs in

French. One of these has been lost, but the

two which remain may be dated 1901: Si

Mes Vers Avaient des Ailes, to words by

Victor Hugo, and Sur Ma Lyre, l'Autre Fois,

to words by Sainte-Beuve. Miss Broughton

regarded them as French in more than just

language, an opinion which the young

composer himself came to share, even after

he later heard them adjudged English in

style. German they were not, he decided:

The Germans go in for a heavier and more

solid style, I think....

As Griffes neared graduation from Elmira

Free Academy in 1903, Miss Broughton felt

she had nothing more to offer her gifted

pupil and that he must proceed now with

some more formal kind of musical

education. There was only one place to go:

Germany. For Griffes's father, a shirt-cutter

and clerk in a men's clothing store, with a

wife and five children to support, the

expense was of course unthinkable. So Miss

Broughton generously loaned the money,

which Griffes himself would be expected to

repay in due time after he returned. To help

defray the incidentals of his journey, his

fellow Elmirans "passed the hat" at a

farewell concert he gave prior to departure.

Included on the program were his two

French songs done by a local singer.

From 1903 to 1907 Griffes underwent a

profound and intensive apprenticeship in

Berlin. Discovering certain limitations in his

technique as a pianist, he came to

recognize his true vocation as composer,

not performer, and proceeded to attain the

mastery of craftsmanship requisite to that

high calling. For the first two years he was

enrolled at the Stern Conservatory, where

he studied composition with Philippe Rüfer and piano with Ernst Jedliczka, and then

Gottfried Galston. The last two years he

studied outside the conservatory and had the benefit of a few private lessons in

composition from Engelbert Humperdinck,

famed composer of Hänsel und Gretel.

Apart from the excellent instruction offered

him, Griffes was acquiring some of the sophistication and polish to be gained by

living, working, and attending concerts in one of the great musical centers of the

world. "Do you know any of Hugo Wolfs

songs?" he wrote Miss Broughton early on.

"Everybody here seems to sing them

now...They are beautiful. " And with vast

amusement he looked back upon the parlor-

genteel effusions, gems like The Rosary and Violets, which held Sway in middle-class

America: "| have heard so many of the fine

German songs -- in fact only them -- since I

have been here that those sentimental

American songs seem terribly silly."

Even so he maintained a certain independence of taste, daring for example

to scoff at the banality of the prize lied in

Die Meistersinger. Right from the start, when one of his Elmira songs was torn to

pieces in composition class, Griffes

carefully sifted the changes suggested by

his teacher: "Most of them suited me as well

as the original, but I didn't hesitate to say so

if they didn't., " One proposed alteration he

flatly rejected as "terribly ordinary and common, " insisting that "l should much

rather have it as at first even though it might be 'unnatural. "

Richard Strauss, Wagner, Brahms,

Schumann, Robert Franz, Schubert, Hugo

Wolf -- these were the names that appeared

on the programs of song recitals he attended, whether at school or at the

concert hall or at musicales in the homes of

friends. These also are some of the

influences reflected in the remarkable,

sometimes glorious, outpouring of German

song that constitutes his earliest period as a

professional composer. Twenty-five in all,

his German songs were composed, some of

them in Berlin, the rest during the first

several years after his return to America.

The body of his musical composition would

in time come to include, in addition to his

songs, works for piano, orchestra, string

quartet, and a considerable variety of other

chamber ensembles. To sustain himself,

however, soon after arrival in America he

took a job as piano teacher, with auxiliary

duties as organist and choir director, at the

Hackley School for Boys in Tarrytown, New

York. The pay was meager, but Hackley was

only about an hour by train from New York,

where he absconded on every free day he

could wrest from the school. There he

would run through his music for a multitude

of concert artists, hoping always to inveigle

a performance. Sometimes he succeeded.

One notable triumph occurred at Aeolian

Hall on November 1, 1917, when a notoriously daring interpreter of modern

song, Mme. Eva Gauthier, ventured his Five

Poems of Ancient China and Japan, the

composer as accompanist.

Griffes also worked hard at getting his

music published. In that era when music

was still something performed at home,

publication mattered to a composer. In 1909

G. Schirmer, Inc. brought out a set of five of

his German songs; then a year later, one

more German song. After that, nothing:

years of rejection. The gates of Schirmer clanged firmly shut, closed to every

manuscript he, with unstaunchable

persistence, continued to submit.

In a letter dated November 30, 1911, to

Gottfried Galston, his former piano

instru

ctor and continuing friend, Griffes

mentioned, "With songs I am trying to limit

myself only to English texts, which is

diffic

ult for me. " Beyond the shift in

language, however, his songs were moving

in a direction altogether dangerous to his

prospects for publication. "It is only logical, "

he afterwards stated, "that when I began to

write I wrote in the vein of Debussy and

Stravinsky; those particular wide-intervaled

dissonances are the natural medium of the

composer who writes today's music. "

Tenaciously holding to the line of his own

development as an artist, Griffes was, more and more, finding and taking a great new

freedom in his music that rendered it

commercially unacceptable. Hans Nathan in

A History of Song aptly describes the

historic and creative significance of this

evolution: "Griffes was the first American-

born composer of consequence whose work

was closely linked to the international scene of his time. He was familiar with new scores

by Debussy, Scriabin, Stravinsky,

Schoenberg, Busoni, Milhaud, Varèse, and

the American Ornstein -- and thus keenly

aware of the new trends indeed contributing

to them...But he was no mere observer

uncritical admirer of the European avant-

-gardists. Instead, he utilized their stimulus

to pursue his own course. ”

Already in his 1911 letter to Galston, Griffes himself explained, "One cannot possibly

play the new composers much without being influenced by them in one's own

compositions. But I do have a deathly fear

of becoming one of the dull imitators of the

innovators. There are already enough of those. ”

G. Schirmer, Inc. was having none of it. Not

till after a hiatus of several years did they

bring out any of the English songs.

Thereafter, it was touch-and-go:

intermittently and unpredictably they took

chances on his music. Griffes's renowned

contemporary Charles lves, a solitary who

functioned outside the musical landscape,

printed his Own songs privately and offered

them free to anyone requesting them.

Griffes by contrast managed to get a

portion of his music published. But $62.49

was the most he ever collected on royalties

in a single year.

A thousand miles away from the drudgery of

his routine at the boys' school, he lived the

existence he cared about in the exhilarating

milieu of New York. The great pianist and

composer Ferruccio Busoni personally

interceded on his behalf with Schirmers and got them to issue some of his piano pieces.

Edgard Varèse, who warmly supported and

sponsored his work, turned pages for him at

a piano run-through of a score he had

composed for a dance drama. His friend

Sergei Prokofiev, who later publicly

lamented Griffes’s early passing.

A thousand miles away from the drudgery of

his routine at the boys' school, he lived the

existence he cared about in the exhilarating

milieu of New York. The great pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni personally

interceded on his behalf with Schirmer's and got them to issue some of his piano

pieces. Edgard Varèse, who warmly

supported and sponsored his work, turned

pages for him at a piano run-through of a

score he had composed for a dance drama.

His friend Sergei Prokofiev, who later

publicly lamented Griffes's early passing,

appeared with him on a program in which

both men accompanied their own songs. An admired French acquaintance, Darius

Milhaud, needed help in getting his music

published in America, and Griffes obliged

with a note of recommendation.

His duties at Hackley he found unbearably

dull and unrewarding, but he could not

afford to leave. The pay was scant but

dependable, and he had a widowed mother and sister to help support. There was also

his debt to Miss Broughton. And if he

intended to risk setting up as a composer in

New York he would need a small stake to

start out with. When Pierre Monteux and the

Boston Symphony scheduled work of his for

performance in 1919, Griffes, unable to

afford the services of a professional copyist, got to work copying out the parts for all the instruments himself. He was at that time in

the midst of several other projects, including other symphonic works and a large theater piece he had been commissioned to write. And with it all, he had still to carry out his obligations at the school.

In a precarious state of debility and exhaustion he nevertheless managed to fulfill the immensely taxing labor of getting ready the parts for the Boston Symphony. And that was when he was stricken with the

illness which finally took him. Griffes died in

1920 of empyema. The New York Times

devoted an editorial to his demise, invoking

parallels with the bad old days when the public had allowed a Mozart or a Schubert

to go. Forty-four prominent figures in the

musical world affixed their signatures to a

statement expressing tribute to Griffes and proclaiming the great loss that American

music had suffered. "Griffes's music is first-

class all through, " writes Virgil Thomson in

American Music Since 1910, "and can be

played anywhere. His death at 35 seems

somehow unfair."

Griffes left behind a total of 64 songs,

including four song cycles. The 43 songs in

this album appear not in chronological

sequence but, as in concert presentation, in

an order devised for effective listening. All

34 of his songs in English are performed

except one for which permission was

unobtainable (Cleopatra to the Asp, words

by John B. Tabb, 1912, unpublished). The

25 German songs he wrote are represented

here by 10 of the best. Omitted are three

Javanese folksongs which appear to be

fairly simple transcriptions of material

supplied him by Mme. Eva Gauthier.

Edward Maisel

The following notes on the songs are

presented in the order of their appearance in the album.

1.Waikiki, one of the most curious

productions in the whole modern literature

of song, was composed on April 23, 1916.

Griffes had received from a friend, the

preceding Christmas, the collected edition

of Rupert Brooke's poems with a request

that he "put more music 'around' those

words." He had studied the long front-page

article giving Henry James's views on

Brooke in the literary supplement of The

New York Times, then tore it out and kept it

with the poems. The resulting inspiration, a

song possibly closer in its psychological intricacy to James than to Brooke,

accurately conveys the enigma of "two that loved -- or did not love. " A passionate, romantic song, it is at the same time tinged

with an irony that mocks the romantic

involvement described. The piano

accompaniment, suggesting the voluptuous

quality of night in Hawaii, cleverly imitates

the ukulele, characteristic of those years

when the plucking and strumming of the instrument were novel and popular.

2.Two Birds Flew into the Sunset Glow uses

a poem taken from a book of Romanian folk

poetry, The Bard of the Dimbovitza,

translated by Carmen Sylva (pen name of

Queen Marie of Romania) and Alma

Strettell. Griffes handles the mournful G

minor chords differently for each of the

strophic stanzas, 1, 2 and 4. The third

stanza offers a variation in B-flat of the

opening melody. The melancholy beauty of the vocal line is perfectly suited to the

sorrowful theme.

1.The Half-ring Moon opens with a short

introduction in the piano part, its chords changing quickly, C major to C minor and back again within one measure, a clue to

the vacillation between hope and

disappointment in the text. The poignant cry, "Over the sea, " and the rhythmic

pattern of four against six occurring between voice and piano parts, intensify the

wild and dramatic mood of the song, until,

with the mention of the new moon, comes

bitter resignation. The abandoned woman

sees the half-moon as half the ring she

hoped to wear.

4.Pierrot is set to words of an American

poet well known in the early part of the

century. Griffes's diary on May 6, 1912,

notes: "l started to compose some of Sara

Teasdale's poems." Lighthearted in text and

music, the song has proved itself a true

audience-pleaser and a sure fire encore

number. The staccato accompaniment

simulates Pierrot's plucking of the lute in

the garden.

5. Les Ballons occupied Griffes over several

years. A possible reason was that he -- like

several other composers in history – had

come to tonality of color, which in this song

presented a particular challenge. Two years

after starting on it he comments in his diary:

“Worked some at Wilde's Ballons...a sort of

old war-horse which I have worked at over

and over again. The poem fascinates but

defies me. " How should it not have

fascinated and defied him with its

"turquoise, " "pearls, " "silver, " "rose, "

"amethyst, " "opals, " and "rubies"? ln the

clear, seductive vocal line, whose pitches

bounce lightly from harmony to harmony,

the colors are captured.

6. Song of the Dagger, another Romanian

folk poem from the same collection which

provided Two Birds, is a man's song in the

heroic genre written with the voice in the

bass clef. The text gives the words of both

the dagger and its owner, recounting in

fierce and even gory detail the vengeance

craved by a rejected suitor (and by his

dagger as well). The piano, always a

dominant concern with Griffes, is here co-

equal with the voice throughout. A

sustained work, the longest of Griffes's

songs, in which the dissonance is entirely

appropriate to the savagery expressed, the

Dagger -- blood-thirsty, obsessed, barbaric,

relentless -- is a brilliant and exciting

showpiece.

7. The Water-Lily, one of Griffes's earliest

songs in English, was composed to words

by the American John B. Tabb, a favorite

source of texts for Griffes. Tabb, a Virginian

who had served in the Confederate army,

was converted to Roman Catholicism and became a priest. Father Tabb wrote several

books of poems of an epigrammatic nature

which earned him a certain popularity. The

slow deliberate chordal accompaniment

there presents a challenge to both singer and pianist who must convey the essential

flow of the song.

8. In the Harem, an eighth-century Chinese

poem, was probably composed at about the

same time as the song cycle Five Poems of Ancient China and Japan. Like most of

those songs, it is written on a pentatonic

scale. The song is a caprice based on the

proximity of a potentially mischievous bird.

9. This Book of Hours is cited by Hans

Nathan in A History of Song as an example

of how Griffes, in spite of his use of block

harmonies, always showed an interest in

linearity as well. He cites the lines, "This

priceless book is bought/ With sighs and

tears untold, " adding that the purity

attained here against the raffinement of

sound "stems from the tranquil motion of

quasi-modal voices regulated by a

contrapuntal setting. " The song has a

notably medieval flavor.

10. Come, Love, across the Sunlit Land is a

song of dancing gaiety set to words by the

American Clinton Scollard. The marking by

the composer, "Allegro con spirito, " is

reflected in the distinctive and lively right-

-hand motif which begins in the introduction

and carries through the first four lines and the following interlude, in contrast to the

smoother-flowing vocal melody. The joyous

first motif returns at the end.

11. Der träumende See, bearing a dedication

to Geraldine Farrar, was one of five German

songs published by G. Schirmer, Inc. in 1909, and most likely composed while

Griffes was a student in Berlin. The gentle

movement of the water is differently handled in each stanza, and the vocal line

moves on the swaying 6/4 meter, suggesting the idyllic blue lake with its

water-lilies, birds, and butterflies.

12. Wohl lag ich einst in Gram und Schmerz,

another of the 1909 set and also dedicated

to Farrar, presents the subject of recovery

from despair. The song invigorates with its

flash of hope regained.

The Three Poems by Fiona Macleod were

composed in 1918 when Griffes was writing

at his peak. These settings are regarded as

among the finest of his achievements in music -- the mystical, fateful elements of the texts offering splendid opportunity for

hitherto untapped resources of his creative

power. Griffes chose them from among the

works of William Sharp, who wrote his

poems of Celtic inspiration under the

pseudonym Fiona Macleod. Originally

conceived as a cycle for voice and

orchestra, the songs were first designed in a

piano version, which in its lush and

gorgeous accompaniment betrays its

orchestral conception. Their first

performance was given, the composer at

the piano, by Vera Janacopulos on March

22, 1919, in Aeolian Hall in New York. Two

days later followed the premiere of the

orchestral version in Wilmington, Delaware,

by Marcia van Dresser and the Philadelphia

Orchestra.

14.The Rose of the Night, where the sign of

a soul among the dead that wishes to be

united with a soul among the living is a

burning rose in the heart of the night,

depicts the rose of flame in the right hand of the accompaniment as a figure

composed in part by a glittering sequence

of sixteenth notes. Each of the three

stanzas ends with a different interpretation

of the phrase, "O Rose of my Desire!" The

last iteration, coming after the words "Kiss

me, Imperishable Fire, " is a passionate cry

reaching out in desperation and

unfulfillment. The sense of finality is

delayed till the resolution of the drama

carried out by the seven measures of

epilogue in the accompaniment.

15. Thy Dark Eyes to Mine, placed between

the other two more tragic songs of the

cycle, attracts with a shimmering quality

that glances off reality with sparklets of color. The sensuous opening lines of the

poem are embodied in the melody whose

exaltation of spirit sets the mood. The song

contains some of the most complicated

polyrhythms to be found in Griffes,

16. The Lament of Ian the Proud appears

first in the cycle (a reverse sequence has been followed by the singer in this album).

The opening motif in the accompaniment symbolizes blind Ian's lamentation as he seeks to fathom a cry carried by the wind,

his listening anticipated in the syncopation of the introductory measures. James Husst Hall in The Art Song finds the melody a

counterpart of the "old Scot, stooped and bent, almost broken by the remembrance of

a stone among the heather, on which is

written: 'She will return no more. ' And

then, as it were, Ian the Proud squares his

shoulders and faces the wind.

Momentarily, there seems respite as the

major is touched; but it cannot be

sustained, and while the voice intones its

last phrase on the dominant, the simple

chords in the quietest motion since the

introduction sink to the tonic. "

17. Evening Song, to words by the famous

American poet Sidney Lanier -- who, like

John Tabb, was a Southerner and a

veteran of the Confederate army-

underwent final revision in 1912 soon after

its first performance at a concert in

Lowell, Massachusetts. A warm, sensuous

love song, its frequent use of dissonance

distinguishes it utterly from the early

German love lyrics.

18. Symphony in Yellow reminds us again of Griffes's preoccupation with the precise tonality of color. An especially delicate yet striking effect occurs in the

line "And, like a yellow silken scarf, " by an

upward skip of a minor ninth on "yellow, " sung pianissimo. The reiterated tones

throughout create an almost ostinato effect.

19. An Old Song Re-sung, a rollicking sea chanty about pirates ship that sinks, was

obviously intended for men, as the

manuscript placement of the vocal line in the bass clef indicates. The assertive rhythmic design of open fifths played in

both hands of the accompaniment at the beginning suggests the arrogance and brawling of the ship's drunken crew. The jollity persists into the final stanza which becomes interfused with sinister overtones leading to the catastrophe. An uncannily precise sound effect, following a dramatic silence, accompanies the words, The broken glass was chinking as she sank among the wrecks."

20. Auf geheimem Waldespfade, one of the first batch of early German published songs, has strangely retained a certain popularity

on the concert platform. James Husst Hall says that, though it seems to stem in an evolutionary line from Brahms and Strauss,

"It has maintained its favored place not so

much because of its likeness to others as because of its unique beauty. N. Lenau's

p

oem is a song of the longing of the loved

one, who dreams of his dearest as he

wanders down a secret path in the

darkening, rustling woods. The trees speak

to him of her, and in fancy he hears her

voice singing in the distance, dying away."

Griffes's setting compares favorably with

Alban Berg's.

21. Auf dem Teich, dem regungslosen, a calm essay in late German romantic vein, makes an exceptional use of the device of crescendo building up to muted climax.

Mendelssohn did a quite different version,

with which Griffes was doubtless acquainted.

22. Nachtlied, perhaps the last song Griffes

wrote to a German text, is dedicated To

Miss Mary Selena Broughton, " his boyhood

music instructor in Elmira. Its harmonic intricacy foreshadows the chromaticism of Griffes's later songs. The four stanzas are followed by a page of piano epilogue which forms an integral part of the composition, extending the last thought: the image of the

lover gazing out into the world.

the New Music Review about a Japanese

ballet he had composed which applies

equally well to the Chinese and Japanese

song cycle completed the same year. "It

[the ballet] is developed Japanese music, "

he said, "I purposely do not use the term

'idealized. ' Cadman and others have taken

American Indian themes and have idealized

rather than 'developed them in Indian style.

There is really nothing in them save themes;

the harmonization, etc., might have come

from Broadway. Modern music tends more

and more toward the archaic, especially the

archaism of the East. The ancient Greek

modes, the pentatonic Scales of China and

Japan are much used, and there is little

difference between the whole-tone and one of the Chinese scales. There is a striving for

harmonies which suggest the quarter-tones

of Oriental music, and the frequent employ of the characteristic augmented second, as

well as of the organ point common to both

systems. In the dissonance of modern music

the Oriental is more at home than in the consonance of the classics." Citing the

example of Whistler who learned engraving

from Japanese prints, Griffes believed that

the composer in an Eastern mode need not

Five Poems of Ancient China and Japan

In 1917 Griffes volunteered a statement to

sacrifice his own individuality.

22. So-fei Gathering Flowers, a happy

pentatonic song based on an eighth-century

Chinese poem, is marked at one point: This

is a genuine Chinese melody." A dancing

theme occurring first in the right hand of the

piano introduction is countered by a

staccato figure which forms the basis of the

left-hand accompaniment throughout.

23. Landscape, Japanese 13th-century,

also pentatonic, projects a mournful

atmosphere, the sparse, slow chords of the

piano confirming the sense of aridity and desolation which pervades the text.

24. The Old Temple among the Mountains, again pentatonic, a Chinese poem of the

T'ang Dynasty, surrounds its central theme -

"Come to the shrine while revolutions

reign” -- with a mysterious impression of the

ruined temple, a suggestion of temple bells embodied in various motifs.

25. Tears, sixth-century Chinese, provides a pulsing, rhythmic accompaniment to the despondent, hopeless text. The song is

written in hexatonic scale enriched to

poignant effect by the addition of an

extraneous note to the climactic passage on

the word "tears."

26. A Feast of Lanterns, 18th-century

Chinese, pentatonic with departure on one

expressive note for the word Thou, " brings

a light swift moving finale to the cycle.

Molto vivace, it has a sparkling four

measure piano introduction leading to a

melody of long, sustained notes that is

balanced by the staccato shower in the accompaniment.

27.. Phantoms, to another poem by Tabb,

must not be confused with the musically

very different later song of the same title to

a poem by Griffes's friend Arturo

Giovannitti. This one presents a dual vision

of snow: the first stanza looks back to dead

leaves; the second ahead to spring. The rippling accompaniment layers both moods.

28. Sorrow of Mydath, a powerful

utterance, regarded by some as the most

"advanced" of the composer's songs, calls

to mind the unbridled freedom and originality of Griffes's great piano sonata,

composed at approximately the same time.

The motifs

surge and pull, one overlap ping the other

as the waves in the poem. A unique feature of the vocal line is the use of assorted

glissandi, nowhere else to be heard in the

songs of Griffes. There are moments closely

approaching polytonality. and the whole

builds into a pounding, terrifying picture of

the surf and the soul's desolation.

29. La Fuite de la Lune, which received its

first performance with the composer at the

piano in Lockport, New York, is a poem of

half tints for which Griffes conjures up an

opalescent shimmer. The call of the

corncrake breaks the early morning silence, and with the approach of dawn the moon's

flight is "wrapped in a veil of yellow gauze. "

30 .Phantoms, to a poem by Griffes's friend

Arturo Giovannitti, is light-years away from

the first Phantoms, set to Tabb. Giovannitti,

a member of the I.W.W. who had been imprisoned during the famous Lawrence textile strikes, was an ardent admirer of Griffes's music. The wildness of the song portrays the poet's anguished thoughts

jangling in the night hours. Hans Nathan

calls attention to the "astonishingly narrow

spacing" of some of the chords here.

31. Könnt' ich mit dir dort oben gehn in its

23 measures lies within a comfortable range

for high voice, a tessitura rare among

Griffes songs. It probably belongs near the end of his German period and already in its

semi-tonal glides anticipates the shape of

things to come.

32. Auf ihrem Grab is the third poem from a

trilogy by Heine entitled Tragödie which

Griffes set to music. In the preceding two

songs a pair of young runaway lovers has

come to grief. That is the reason for the

inexplicable disquiet experienced by the

miller's boy and his sweetheart meeting at

the grave: they are unaware of the tragic

history of the grave's occupants. Delicate

runs in a high keyboard range simulate the

tender breezes over the grave. The piano

epilogue of some length ends the song and the trilogy.

33. Elfe sparkles with the fancy of sprites and moonlight. The elves extend a warm

invitation to join their dance, and the song

disappears in a flash.

34. We’ll to the Woods and Gather May is

set

to a rondel by Ernest Henley, the title taken

from a work by Charles d'Orléans, the great

French poet of the late middle ages. In May, 1914, Griffes noted in his diary: "Spent the

whole P.M. sitting on the bank of the

Sawmill over near East View. It was

charming there. I composed two stanzas of a Rondel by Henley." This may be the most

joyful song Griffes ever wrote.

35. The First Snowfall, again to a poem by

Tabb, ingeniously plays dissonances against one another in a cross-rhythm

device between the accompaniment figures of the right and left hands. This overlapping,

mostly of three eighth notes, aptly parallels

the description of the first snowfall as the

messenger of life for the fir tree and the

counter part of death for the last falling leaf.

36. In a Myrtle Shade, set to a poem by

William Blake, was written in 1916, long preceding the current enthusiasm among composers for Blake as an ideal source for

texts. Griffes himself embarked on but did

not complete another Blake setting. The myrtle is depicted in a motif of twining

triplets played in the right hand of the piano

part to accompany the languorous

complaint of the singer. When the voice

has delivered its quietly lucid final

statement, there follows a piano epilogue

ending upon an unresolved dominant ninth

chord.

37. La Mer, composed in 1912, was

subsequently intended as no. 3 of the song

cycle Four Impressions. In 1916, however,

Griffes wrote a new song to the same words

(included as no. 3 of the cycle in this

album). This earlier song conveys a more

tempestuous sea than the later setting.

Rapid, staggered chordal patterns between

the left and right hands suggest the fury of

the storm, as does the piano interlude with

its markings of "presto furioso" and

"feroce. " The tranquil after math follows,

with the singer in a delicate wailing descent

on the words, "Float on the waves like

ravelled lace. "

38. An den Wind hurls vehement abuse at

the wind which has snatched from the

departing traveler the last words of farewell

spoken by his beloved. Descriptive writing

in the piano part maintains a surging image

of the wind throughout. In the second

stanza the

exasperated traveler at one point seeks to

make his voice heard above the shrieking

wind, an effect Griffes obtains by

completing the second half of his angry

rebuke in words raised an octave higher

than the first half.

39. Nacht liegt auf den fremden Wegen was

the setting of a Heine text to which Brahms

had already applied his hand as Griffes,

undaunted, must have known. The

weariness of the open fifth chords at the

beginning yields to comfort and serenity

with the appearance of the moon as the

song shifts from minor to major.

Four Impressions, chosen from among the

poems of Oscar Wilde and bound together

as a cycle by the composer, along with its

other delights shows Griffes's subtle

mastery in handling an extended form. Ever

challenged by the musicality and color of

Wilde's verse, he constantly revised and

altered the component songs even after the

cycle had been rejected by his publisher -- a

not uncommon fate for his music -- and

even when he must have been aware that

they were unlikely to appear during his

lifetime. La Mer, the song which constituted

no. 3 of the Impressions, for example, was

composed in 1912 (heard on Side 4, Group

One in this album). Then, in 1916, entirely

new music was done for the same poem, which forms no. 3 of the cycle in the

present recording. With all the variety and

contrast embodied in the four songs, they

nonetheless hold together in a marvelously

conceived larger unity.

40. Le Jardin in the opening melody of the piano introduction portrays a dying garden

bereft of bloom and beauty: a theme

reminiscent of the phrase which begins

Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, where a

doomed love had flowered in a garden. The call of the wood-pigeon is heard in the

melancholy chromaticism accompanying

the vocal line, and a flourish of sixteenth and thirty-second notes sets the phrase

"the gaudy leonine sunflower."

41. Impression du Matin opens with a muted

conception of early morning in London, revealed in the bell-like chords which grow

to a clangor with the mention of St. Paul's.

Griffes's design of the fourth stanza as an

epilogue interprets Wilde's bleak observation of "one pale woman all alone, "

with the dissonant chords of the bells

enveloping the prosaic reality of the

prostitute.

42. La Mer, discussed above, unlike the

1912 song to the same words, is a restrained and lyrical interpretation of the poem. The

climactic passage in the engine room is

reached suddenly with a swift ascent of the

voice up to high B-flat. A throbbing effect in

the accompaniment almost throughout is

produced by the rapid alternation of interlocking hands in the manner of Ravel.

43. Le Réveillon starts in the piano part with

a memory of the sunken bells in Debussy's

famed prelude La Cathédrale Engloutie. The bells continue as the exaltation increases

with the resurgence of day. In final

exhilaration of rising voice, a dawn is

revealed which is almost a resurrection. E.M.

THE SONGS Of CHARLES T. GRIFFES

1.WAIKIKI, Op. 9, No. 2 (Rupert Brooke), 1916

Warm perfumes like a breath from vine and tree

Drift down the darkness. Plangent, hidden from

eyes, Somewhere an eukaleli thrills and cries

And stabs with pain the night's brown savagery.

Against these turbid turquoise skies

The light and luminous balloons

Dip and drift like satin moons, Drift like silken

butterflies;

Reel with every windy gust,

And dark scents whisper; and dim waves creep to

me,

Gleam like a woman's hair, stretch out, and rise;

And new stars burn into the ancient skies,

Over the murmurous soft Hawaiian sea.

And I recall, lose, grasp, forget again,

And still remember, a tale I have heard, or known,

An empty tale, of idleness and pain,

Of two that loved-or did not love- and one

Whose perplexed heart did evil, foolishly,

A long while since, and by some other sea.

2. TWO BIRDS FLEW INTO THE SUNSET GLOW

(Romanian Folk Poetry, trans. Carmen Sylva and

Alma Strettell), 1914

Two birds flew into the sunset glow,

And one of them was my love, I know.

Ah, had it but flown to my heart, its nest!

Two maidens down to the harvest go,

And one of them is my own, I know.

Ah, had she but come to me here, it were best!

Two stars remembered the long ago-

And one of them was my heart's great woe.

If it had but forgotten, and paled in the west!

Two children died in the hut below,

And one, my heart, to the grave doth go.

Ah, had it but taken me with it to rest!

3.THE HALF-RING MOON (John 8. Tabb), 1912

Over the sea, over the sea,

My love he is gone to a far countrie;

But he brake a golden ring with me

The pledge of his faith to be.

Over the sea, over the sea,

He comes no more from the far countrie;

But at night, where the new moon loved to be,

Hangs the half of a ring for me.

4.PIERROT (Sara Teasdale), 1912

Pierrot stands in the garden

Beneath a waning moon,

And on his lute he fashions

A little silver tune.

Pierrot plays in the garden,

He thinks he plays for me,

But I am quite forgotten

Under the cherry tree.

Pierrot plays in the garden,

And all the roses know

That Pierrot loves his music, -

But I love Pierrot.

5.LES BALLONS (Oscar Wilde), 1912-1915

Against these turbid turquoise skies

The light and luminous balloons

Dip and drift like satin moons,

Drift like silken butterflies;

Reel with every windy gust,

Rise and reel like dancing girls,

Float like strange transparent pearls,

Fall and float like silver dust.

Now to the low leaves they cling,

Each with coy fantastic pose,

Each a petal of a rose

Straining at a gossamer string.

Then to the tall trees they climb,

Like thin globes of amethyst,

Wandering opals keeping tryst

With the rubies of the lime.

How burning are my tears.

6.SONG OF THE DAGGER (Romanian Folk Poetry,

trans. Carmen Sylva and Alma Strettell), 19121916

The dagger at my belt, it dances

Whene'er I dance;

But when I drink the foaming wine-cup,

Then it grows sad;

For it is thirsty too, the dagger,

It thirsts for blood!

"Give, give me drink, " it saith, "O Master,

For if I wear no stain of crimson,

The sunshine is ashamed to glitter

Upon my blade.

The sunshine is ashamed to glitter

Upon my blade.

Then give, that I too may be drunken

With the warm blood that flows from wounds.

The maids will find thy kisses sweeter

When thou hast quenched my thirst,

And I shall dance, when thou art dancing,

More gaily at the belt."

Did I but heed my danger, now at night-time,

I should go find thee, love.

Beneath thy shift I should seek out so deftly

The spot where beats thy heart,

And pour thy blood's red warmth out for my

dagger,

Because thy kiss, 0 love. thou hast denied me,

And because I for that thy kiss have thirsted,

Even as the dagger thirsteth for thy blood.

Then will the sunshine sparkle and be merry,

Seeing thy red young blood,

Yea, and the merry sunbeams, they shall dry it,

Together with my tears.

My tears and thy blood shall flow together,

Mingling like rivers twain;

And though thy blood be hot, yet it can never

Be burning as my tears.

Nay, but thy blood will wonder when it feeleth

How burning are my tears.

7.THE WATER-LILY (John B. Tabb), 1911

Whence, 0 fragrant form of light,

Hast thou drifted through the night,

Swanlike, to a leafy nest,

On the restless waves, at rest?

Art thou from the snowy zone

Of a mountain-summit blown,

Or the blossom of a dream, Fashioned in the

foamy stream? Nay; methinks the maiden moon,

When the daylight came too soon,

Fleeing from her bath to hide,

Left her garment in the tide.

8. IN THE HAREM (Chu Ch'ing-yu, trans.

Herbert A. Giles), ca. 1917

It was the time of flowers, the gate was closed;

Within an arbour shade fair girls reposed.

But though their hearts were full, they nothing said,

Fearing the tell-tale parrot overhead.

TWO RONDELS, Op. 4, 1914

9. THIS BOOK OF HOURS (Walter Crane)

This book of hours Love wrought

With burnished letters gold;

Each page with art and thought,

And colours manifold. His calendar he taught

To youths and virgins cold;

This book of hours Love wrought

With burnished letters gold. This priceless book is

bought

With sighs and tears untold, Of votaries who

sought

His countenance of old-

This book of hours Love wrought

With burnished letters gold.

10. COME, LOVE, ACROSS

(Clinton Scollard)

Come, Love, across the sunlit land,

As blithe as dryad dancing free,

While time slips by like silvery sand

Within the glass of memory.

Ere Winter, in his reckless glee,

Blights all the bloom with ruthless hand,

Come, Love, across the sunlit land,

As blithe as dryad dancing free.

And all the years of life shall be

Like peaceful vales that wide expand

To meet a bright, untroubled sea

By radiant azure arches spanned;

Come, Love, across the sunlit land,

As blithe as dryad dancing free.

11. DER TRAUMENOE SEE (Mosen), ca. 19051909

Der See ruht tief im blauen Traum,

Vom Wasserblumen zugedeckt;

1hr Voglein hoch im Fichtenbaum,

Dass ihr mir nicht den Schlafer weckt!

Doch leise weht das Schilf und wiegt

Dass Haupt mil leichtem Sinn;

Ein blauer Falter aber fliegt

Daruber einsam hin!

THE DREAMING LAKE (trans. Anne Jennings)

The lake, in dark-blue reverie,

Sleeps 'neath a quilt of water flowers.

You small birds, in your spruce-tree home,

Do not disturb the placid hours.

The sedge waves softly, nods its head,

Light-hearted, free from care;

A glowing turquoise butterfly

Soars, lonely, through the air.

12. WOHL LAG ICH EINST IN GRAM UNO

SCHMERZ (Geibel), ca. 1905-1909

Wohl lag ich einst in Gram und Schmerz,

Da weint' ich Nacht und Tag;

Nun wein' ich wieder, weil mein Herz

Sein Gluck nicht fassen mag.

Mir ist's, als trug' ich in der Brust

Das ganze Himmelreich-

0 hochstes Leid, o hochste Lust,

Wie seid ihr euch so gleich!

TIME WAS, WHEN I IN ANGUISH LAY

(trans. Henry G. Chapman)

Time was, when I in anguish lay,

While day and night I wept;

Once more I weep, because my heart

/Is ;oy can not accept.

For now I fee/ as tho' I held

All heav'n within my heart-

Oh ! deepest pain, oh! highest ;oy,

How near akin thou art'

THREE POEMS BY FIONA MACLEOD, Op. 11, 1918

13.THE ROSE OF THE NIGHT

There is an old mystical legend that when a soul

among the dead woos a soul among the living, so

that both may be reborn as one, the sign is a dark

rose, or a rose of flame, in the heart of the night.

The dark rose of thy mouth

Draw nigher, draw nigher!

Thy breath is the wind of the south,

A wind of fire,

The wind and the rose and darkness, O Rose of

my Desire!

Deep silence of the night,

Husht like a breathless lyre,

Save the sea's thunderous might,

Dim, menacing, dire

Silence and wind and sea, they are thee, O Rose

of my Desire! As a wind-eddying flame

Leaping higher and higher,

Thy soul, thy secret name,

Leaps thro' Death's blazing pyre,

Kiss me, Imperishable Fire, dark Rose, O Rose of

my Desire!

14. THY DARK EYES TO MINE

Thy dark eyes to mine, Eilidh,

Lamps of desire!

O how my soul leaps,

Leaps to their fire!

Sure, now, if I in heaven,

Dreaming in bliss,

Heard but a whisper,

But a lost echo even

Of one such kiss-

All of the soul of me

Would leap afar-

If that called me to thee,

Aye, I would leap afar

A falling star!

What is this crying that I hear in the wind?

Is it the old sorrow and the old grief?

Or is it a new thing coming, a whirling leaf

About the grey hair of me who am weary and blind?

I know not what it is, but on the moor above the shore

There is a stone which the purple nets of heather bind,

And thereon is writ: She will return no more.

O blown whirling leaf,

And the old grief,

And wind crying to me who am old and blind!

16. EVENING SONG (Sidney Lanier), 1912

Look off, dear Love, across the sallow sands,

And watch yon meeting of sun and sea;

How long they kiss, in sight of all the lands!

Ah, longer, longer, we.

Now in the sea's red vintage melts the sun,

As Egypt's pearl dissolved in rosy wine,

And Cleopatra Night drinks all. 'Tis done!

Love, lay thine hand in mine.

Come forth, sweet stars, and comfort Heaven's heart;

Glimmer, ye waves, round else unlighted sands;

O Night, divorce our sun and sky apart—

Never our lips, our hands.

17. SYMPHONY IN YELLOW, Op. 3, No. 2

(Oscar Wilde), ca. 1912"

An omnibus across the bridge

Crawls like a yellow butterfly,

And, here and there, a passer-by

Shows like a restless little midge.

Big barges full of yellow hay

Are moved against the shadowy wharf,

And, like a yellow silken scarf,

The thick fog hangs along the quay.

The yellow leaves begin to fade

And flutter from the Temple elms,

And at my feet the pale green Thames

Lies like a rod of rippled jade.

18

. AN OLD SONG RE-SUNG (John Masefield), 1918

I saw a ship a-sailing, a-sailing, a-sailing,

With emeralds and rubies and sapphires in her

hold;

And a bosun in a blue coat bawling at the railing,

Piping thro' a silver call that had a chain of gold;

The summer wind was failing and the tall ship

rolled.

I saw a ship a-steering, a-steering, a-steering,

With roses in red thread worked upon the sails;

With sacks of purple amethysts, the spoils of

buccaneering,

Skins of musky yellow wine, and silks in bales,

Her merry men were cheering, hauling on the

brails.

I saw a ship a-sinking, a-sinking, a-sinking,

With glittering sea-water splashing on her decks,

With seamen in her spirit-room singing songs and drinking, Pulling claret bottles down, and knocking off the necks,

The broken glass was chinking as she sank

among the wrecks

19. AUF GEHEIMEM WALDESPFADE (Lenau), ca.

1905-1909

Auf geheimem Waldespfade

Schleich' ich gern im Abendschein

An das ode Schilfgestade,

Madchen, und gedenke dein!

Wenn sich dann der Busch verdustert,

Rauscht das Rohr geheimnisvoll,

Und es klaget und es flustert,

Dass ich weinen, weinen soil.

Und ich mein' , ich hore wehen

Leise deiner Stimme Klang

Und im Weiher untergehen

Deinen lieblichen Gesang.

BY A SECRET FOREST PATH

(trans. George Bird and Richard Stokes)

By a secret forest path

I love to steal in evening light,

To the desolate reedy shore

And think, maiden, of you.

Then when the wood grows dark,

The reeds rustle mysteriously,

Lamenting and whispering

That I should weep, weep.

And I think I hear wafting

Softly the sound of your voice,

And, drowning in the pond,

Your sweet singing.

20.AUF DEM TEICH, DEM REGUNGSLOSEN

(Lenau), ca. 1905-1909

Auf dem Teich, dem regungslosen,

Weilt des Mondes holder Glanz,

Flechtend seine bleichen Rosen

In des Schilfes grUnen Kranz.

Hirsche wandeln dort am Hugel,

Blicken in die Nacht empor;

Manchmal regt sich das Geflugel

Traumerisch im tiefen Rohr.

Weinend muss mein Blick sich senken;

Durch die tiefste Seele geht

Mir ein susses Deingedenken,

Wie ein stilles Nachtgebet!

ON THE POND (trans. George Bird and Richard

Stokes)

On the pond, the motionless pond,

Lingers the moon's graceful gleam,

Plaiting its pale roses

Into the reed's green garland.

Deer wander, there on the hill,

Gazing up into the night;

Winged creatures stir at times,

Dreamily, deep among the reeds.

Tearfully must my gaze be lowered;

Through the depths of my soul

Sweet thoughts of you pass

Like a silent evening prayer.

21. NACHTLIED (Geibel), 1912

Der Mond kommt still gegangen

Mit seinem goldnen Schein,

Da schlaft in holdem Prangen

Die mode Erde ein.

Im Traum die Wipfel weben,

Die Quellen rauschen s.acht;

Singende Engel durchschweben

Die blaue Sternennacht.

Und auf den Luften schwanken

Aus manchem treuen Sinn

Vieltausend Liebesgedanken

Ober die Schlafer hin.

Und drunten im Thale da funkeln

Die Fenster von Liebchens Haus;

lch aber blicke im Dunklen

Still in die Welt hinaus.

NIGHT SONG (trans. Kim kostenbader)

The moon quietly makes its way

With its golden light.

Falling asleep, beautifully resplendent,

Lies the tired earth.

Dreaming tree-tops sway,

The springs rush softly,

Singing angels float through

The blue starry night.

And on the winds there drift,

From many true hearts,

Many thousand thoughts of love

Over those who are sleeping.

And down in the valley twinkle

The windows in the house of my beloved;

But I gaze in the darkness

Silently out into the world.

Of the 'Lien' leafs em'rald hue

So-fei glides amongst the lilies

Sprinkled with the morning dew.

Rose-hued are the lotus-blossoms,

Rose-hued, too, the maiden's cheeks;

Is it So-lei's form I follow,

Or the flowers she seeks?

Now I hear a song arising

From the lotus bowers,

Which distinguishes the maiden

From her sister flowers.

23.LANDSCAPE (Sada-ihe, trans. Laurence

Binyon), 1916

Out across the wave all is bare,

Not a scarlet leaf!

Not a flower there!

Only over thatched huts falling brief,

Twilight, and the lonely autumn air.

24.THE OLD TEMPLE AMONG THE MOUNTAINS

(Chang Wen-Chang, trans. Charles Budd), 1916

The temple courts with grasses rank abound,

And birds throng in the forest trees around;

But pilgrims few, though tablets still remain,

Come to the shrine while revolutions reign.

The mice climb through the curtains full of holes,

FIVE POEMS OF ANCIENT.CHINA AND JAPAN,

Op. 10

22. SO-FEI GATHERING FLOWERS (Wang

Chans, -Ung, trans. Charles Budd), 1917

In a dress of gauzy fabric

And thick dust overspreads the 'broidered stoles;

The temple pool in gloomy blackness lies

To which the sleeping dragon sometimes hies.

25.TEARS (Wang Seng-Ju, trans. Lancelot A.

Cranmer-Byng), 1916

High der the hill the moon-barque steers.

The lantern lights depart.

Dead springs are stirring in my heart;

And there are tears ....

But that which makes my grief more deep

Is that you know not when I weep.

26. A FEAST OF LANTERNS (Yuan Mei, trans.

Lancelot A. CranmerByng), 1917

In spring for sheer delight

I set the lanterns swinging through the trees,

Bright as the myriad argosies of night,

That ride the clouded billows of the sky.

Red dragons leap and plunge in gold and silver

seas,

And O! my garden gleaming cold and white,

Thou hast outshone the far, faint moon on high.

27. PHANTOMS (John 8. Tabb), ca. 1912

Are ye the ghosts of fallen leaves,

O flakes of snow,

For which, through naked trees, the winds

A-mourning go?

Or are ye angels, bearing home

The host unseen

Of truant spirits, to be clad

Again in green?

28. SORROW OF MYDATH (John Masefield), 1917

Weary the cry of the wind is, weary the sea,

Weary the heart and the mind and the body of

me.

Would I were out of it, done with it, would I could be

A white gull crying along the desolate sands!

Outcast, derelict soul in a body accurst,

Standing drenched with the spindrift, standing

athirst,

For the cool green waves of death to arise and

burst

In a tide of quiet for me on the desolate sands!

Would that the waves and the long white hair of the spray Would gather in splendid terror and blot

me away

To the sunless place of the wrecks where the

waters sway

Gently, dreamily, over desolate sands!

29. LA FUITE DE LA LUNE, Op. 3, No. 1

(Oscar Wilde), 1912

To outer senses there· is peace,

A dreamy peace on either hand,

Deep silence in the shadowy land,

Deep silence where the shadows cease.

Save for a cry that echoes shrill

From some lone bird disconsolate;

A corncrake calling to its mate;

The answer from the misty hill.

And suddenly the moon withdraws

Her sickle from the light’ning skies,

And to her sombre cavern flies,

Wrapped in a veil of yellow gauze.

30. PHANTOMS, Op. 9, No. 3 (Arturo Giovannitti),

1916

When in my night like gaunt, gray phantoms rise

The wild-eyed hours of brooding revery,

If in my heart a sudden anguish cries

That thou also hast passed away from me,

If I but think that one regretful sigh

Thy joyless love has breathed unaware,

I know not what a barren will to die

Dissolves my strength into a mute despair.

Oh, if upon thy breast I could then lay

My weary head and hear thee sing again

That old sweet song, and as it dies away

Exhale my spirit in its last refrain!

31. KONNT' ICH MIT DIR DORT OBEN GEHN

(Mosen), ca. 1905-1911

Konn!' ich mit dir dort oben gehn,

Du traumerischer Mond,

lch konnte wohl hinubersehn,

Wo die Geliebte wohnt!

Zu glucklich ist die Nachtigall,

Die in dem Lindenbaum

Vor ihrem Haus mit sussem Schall

Durchklinget ihren Traum!

IF I COULD GO WITH YOU (trans. Louis

Untermeyer)

If I could go with you up there,

You dreamy moon above,

I could behold the dwelling where

Lives my true heart, my love.

O lucky is the nightingale

Who, from the linden, seems

To make his song of love prevail

And echo through her dreams!

Und drunter sitzt auf dem grunen Platz

Der Mullersknecht mit seinem Schatz.

Die Winde, die wehen so lind und so schaurig,

Die Vogel, die singen so suss und so traurig,

Die schwatzenden Buhlen, die werden stumm,

Sie weinen und wissen selbst nicht warum.

UPON THEIR GRAVE (trans. Louis Untermeyer)

Upon their grave a linden is growing,

Where breezes and bird-songs are lightly flowing;

And in this green and soft retreat

The miller's boy and sweetheart meet.

The breezes are tender, warm and clinging;

The birds warble sweetly, but sad is their singing;

The talkative lovers grow still and sigh.

They sit there, and weep there. Neither knows why.

33. ELFE (Eichendorff), ca. 1905-1911

Bleib bei uns! wir haben den Tanzplan im Thal

Bedeck! mit Mondesglanze,

Johanneswurmchen erleuchten den Saal,

Die Heimchen spielen zum Tanze.

Die Freude, das schone leightglaubige Kind,

Es wiegt sich in Abendwinden:

Wo Silber auf Zweigen und Buschen rinnt,

Da wirst du die schonste finden!

ELVES (trans. Louis Untermeyer)

Stay with us. We have a soft dance-floor below,

Moonlit for sweet romancing;

The glow-worms glimmer, the fireflies glow;

32. AUF IHREM GRAB (Heine), ca. 1905-1911

Auf ihrem Grab, da steht eine Linde,

Drin pfeifen die Vogel und Abendwinde,

The crickets all play for dancing.

Here Gladness, that lovely and innocent child,

At evening comes airily gliding;

Where bushes and boughs are with silver beguil'd

There you'll find the fairest hiding.

34.WE'LL TO THE WOODS AND GATHER MAY,

Op. 3, No. 3 (William Ernest Henley), 1914

We'll to the woods and gather may

Fresh from the footprints of the rain;

We'll to the woods, al every vein

To drink the spirit of the day.

The winds of spring are out at play,

The needs of spring in heart and brain.

We'll to the woods and gather may

Fresh from the footprints of the rain.

The world's too near her end, you say? -

Hark to the blackbird's mad refrain!

It waits for her, the vast Inane?-

Then, girls, to help her on her way

We'll to the woods and gather may.

35.THE FIRST SNOWFALL (John B. Tabb), ca. 1912

The Fir-tree felt it with a thrill

And murmur of content;

The last dead Leaf its cable slipt

And from its moorings went;

The selfsame silent messenger

To one the shibboleth

Of Life imparting, and to one

The countersign of Death.

36.IN A MYRTLE SHADE, Op. 9, No. 1

(William Blake), 1916

To a lovely myrtle bound,

Blossoms showering all around,

Oh, how weak and weary I

Underneath my myrtle lie!

Why should I be bound to thee,

O my lovely myrtle tree?

Love, free love, cannot be bound

To any tree that grows on ground.

37. LA MER (Oscar Wilde), 1912

A white mist drifts across the shrouds,

A wild moon in this wintry sky

Gleams like an angry lion's eye

Out of a mane of tawny clouds.

The muffled steersman at the wheel

Is but a shadow in the gloom;

And in the throbbing engine room

Leap the long rods of polished steel.

The shattered storm has left its trace

Upon this huge and heaving dome,

For the thin threads of yellow foam

Float on the waves like ravelled lace.

38. AN DEN WIND (Lenau), ca. 1905-1911

lch wandre fort ins ferne Land;

Noch einmal blickt' ich um, bewegt,

Und sah, wie sie den Mund geregt,

Und wie gewinket ihre Hand.

Wohl rief sie noch ein freundlich Wort

Mir nach auf meinen triiben Gang,

Doch hort' ich nicht den liebsten Klang,

Weil ihn der Wind getragen fort.

Dass ich mein Gluck verlassen muss,

Du rauher, kalter Windeshauch,

lst's nicht genug, dass du mir auch

TO THE WIND (trans. John W. Brunner)

I wander on into a distant land,

Having once more looked behind, stricken,

And seen how she moved her lips

And how she waved her hand.

Perhaps she still called out a friendly word

After me on my sad journey,

But I never heard these precious sounds

Because by the wind they were borne away.

That I must abandon my happiness,

You raw, cold gust of wind,

Isn't that enough-must you even

Snatch from me her last goodbye?

39. NACHT LIEGT AUF DEN FREMDEM WEGEN

(Heine), ca. 1905-1909

Nacht liegt auf den fremden Wegen,

Krankes Herz und mude Glieder; --

Ach, da fliesst, wie stiller Segen,

Susser Mond, dein Licht hernieder.

Susser Mond, mit deinen Strahlen

Scheuchest du das nacht'ge Grauen;

Es zerrinnen meine Qualen,

Und die Ajgen ubertauen.

NIGHT LIES ON UNFAMILIAR WAYS (trans.

George Bird and Richard Stokes)

Night lies on unfamiliar ways-

Sick heart and tired limbs;--

Then, ah, as silent blessing, streams

Down, sweet moon, your light.

Sweet moon, with your beams

You drive away night's horror;

My torments vanish,

And my eyes melt into tears.

FOUR IMPRESSIONS

40. LE

JARDIN

, 1915

(Oscar Wilde)

The lily's withered chalice falls

Around its rod of dusty gold,

And from the beech-trees on the wold

The last wood-pigeon coos and calls.

The gaudy leonine sunflower

Hangs black and barren on its stalk,

And down the windy garden walk

The dead leaves scatter, -hour by hour.

Pale privet-petals white as milk

Are blown into a snowy mass:

The roses lie upon the grass

Like little shreds of crimson silk.

41. IMPRESSION DU MATIN, 1915

The Thames nocturne of blue and gold

Changed to a Harmony in grey:

A barge with ochre-coloured hay

Dropt from the wharf: and chill and mid

The yellow fog came creeping down

The bridges, till the houses' walls

Seemed changed to shadows and St. Paul's

Loomed like a bubble o'er the town.

Then suddenly arose the clang

Of waking life; the streets were stirred

With country wagons: and a bird

Flew to the glistening roofs and sang.

But one pale woman all alone,

The daylight kissing her wan hair,

Loitered beneath the gas lamps' flare,

With lips of flame and heart of stone.

42. LA MER, 1916

See text of 1912 setting above.

43. .LE REVEILLON, 1914

The sky is laced with fitful red,

The circling mists and shadows flee,

The dawn is rising from the sea,

Like a white lady from her bed.

And jagged brazen arrows fall

Athwart the feathers of the night,

And a long wave of yellow light

Breaks silently on tower and hall,

And spreading wide across the wold

Wakes into flight some fluttering bird,

And all the chestnut tops are stirred,

And all the branches flushed with gold.

A. Marguerite Griffes hold the copyrights to the

nine unpublished songs presented here: Two

Birds Flew into the Glow, Pierrot, Les Ballons,

Song of the Dagger, The Water-Lily, in the

Harem, Nachtlied, Phantoms (Tabb), La Mer

(1916); all other songs have been published either

during the composer’s lifetime or at intervals since (1920,, 1941,, 1970,) by G. Schirmer, Inc and by C.F. Peters Corp. *******************************************

Edward Maisel, producer and writer of the liner notes, is the author of Charles T. Griffes: The Life of an American Composer (Knopf, 1943; new, revised and expanded edition forthcoming).

Professor David Reed of Muhlenberg College, consultant to the producer, has in recent years successfully construed a number of hitherto

unidentified manuscripts and thus added five new

songs to the Griffes canon. Professor Donna

Anderson of SUNY College at Cortland facilitated

permission to use unpublished manuscripts and made available her performing versions of some.

In the liner notes several insights were provided

by Marion Bradley Harvey, voice teacher and longtime student of the songs.

The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation continues in

the pursuit of ideals set out by Walter Naumburg in 1925. His desire to assist the young gifted

musician in America has made possible a longstanding program of competitions and awards in solo and chamber-music performance, composer

recordings, and conducting. It was Mr.

Naumburg's firm belief that such competitions

were not only for the benefit of new stars, but

very much for those talented young artists who

would become prime movers in the development of the highest standards of musical excellence

throughout America.

Pianist Margo Garrett has become well known to

American audiences for her frequent

collaboration with vocalists and instrumentalista alike.

Miss Garrett teaches at Sarah Lawrence College,

the Manhattan School of Music and, each

summer, the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood.

A native of North Carolina, Miss Garrett trained at

the North Carolina School of Arts, the Manhattan

School of Music, and the Juilliard School. While

at the Manhattan School, Miss Garrett was, and still is, the only accompanist ever to have won the

coveted Harold Bauer Award, customarily given

only to solo pianists.

Jeffrey Goldberg began his piano study at the

age of six in his native Los Angeles. He continued

his training with Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna and with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody

Conservatory in Baltimore. Since finishing his

master's degree he has devoted himself io vocal

accompanying and coaching, working for the

Opera Companies of Washington and San

Francisco and coaching the graduate voice

program of the University of Maryland. Currently

living in New York, he has worked with such

artists as Rockwell Blake, Nicolai Gedda, James

McCracken, and William Parker. He recently

appeared in the Gala Tribute to George London

at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.,

where he accompanied Mr. Blake, James King,

Mr. McCracken, Richard Stilwell, and Tatiana

Troyanos.

Thomas Muraco was raised in Philadelphia and

graduated from the Eastman School of Music

where he studied piano, accompanying and chamber

music with Brooks Smith. At the Aspen Music Festival he studied with Brooks Smith and Jeaneane Dowis and subsequently was appointed to the faculty. He makes his home in New York City, coaching and accompanying both singers and instrumentalists. He has established a program for training pianists in ensemble playing at the Cleveland Institute of Music and is also on the faculty of the Banff Centre in

Canada. Mr. Muraco has recorded for CRI, Serenus, and Musical Heritage Society. Artists with whom he has collaborated include Adele Addison, Martina

Arroyo, Phyllis Curtin, Faith Esham, Maureen Forrester, Jeannie Toure!, Robert Mann, Zara Nelsova, and The American String Quartet.

A winner of both the 1980 Naumburg Vocal Competition and 1979 Metropolitan Opera National

Auditions, Jan Opalach added an international dimension to his career by winning, in September of 1981, the First Prize for Bass-Baritones in the

prestigious International Vocal Competition of s'Hertogensbosch, held annually in The Netherlands. He made his New York City Opera debut in the world

premiere of Jan Bach's The Student from Salamanca, and was selected by General Director Beverly Sills as the recipient of the 1980 Debut Artist Award.

Among his orchestral appearances are Mozart's

Requiem with the Oratorio Society of Washington and a concert version of Julius Caesar with the Handel

Festival Orchestra, both at the Kennedy Center, Handel's Messiah and Joshua at Carnegie Hall with the

Oratorio Society of New York, and Messiah with the

Hartford Symphony Orchestra. On the opera stage, he has been featured in productions of La boheme with the Virginia Opera and Colorado Opera Festival, The

Marriage of Figaro with the Louisville Opera, and

La vera costanza at the Caramoor Festival. Of

special note was his Dutch debut, singing the role

of Smirnoff in a concert version of Walton's The

Bear at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

Jan Opalach's current season includes

performances of Don Giovanni and L'elisir d'amore

with the Des Moines Summer Festival of Opera and

recitals at the University of Southwestern

Louisiana and Middle Tennessee State University.

A Bach specialist, Mr. Opalach sang the master's

Magnificat and St. John Passion with Musica Sacra

in two separate performances in Lincoln Center's

Avery Fisher Hall and Mass in B Minor at the famed

Brattleboro Music Center in Vermont.

Jan Opalach has recorded for CBS Masterworks,

Nonesuch, Vox, and CRI.

Winner of the 1980 Naumburg International Voice

Competition, soprano Irene Gubrud has performed with most of the symphonies of this country, and

the Stuttgart and Bavarian Radio Orchestras. She

has also toured East Germany with the Baltimore

Symphony, the first American orchestra ever to play there.

In 1977 she presented the world premiere of

George Crumb's Star Child with the New York

Philharmonic under the direction of Pierre Boulez,

a piece commissioned for her by the Ford Foundation.

This past year Miss Gubrud made her Lincoln

Center and Kennedy Center recital debuts and her operatic debut as Mimi with Opera St. Paul in

a production of La boheme. The 1982-83 season

includes performances of the major works for

soprano and orchestra, highlighted by the Barber

Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Chicago

Symphony conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.

Miss Gubrud serves as an advisory panelist for

the Opera Musical Theatre Program, one of the

Grants and Policy Panels of the National En-

dowment for the Arts.

Born in Canby, Minnesota, Miss Gubrud entered St.

Olaf College as a flute major, but on freshman talent night, she made the decision to become a singer when

she received a standing ovation after singing an aria

from Madama Butterfly. Her graduate studies were

done at the Juilliard School and Yale University.

Faith Esham, a winner of the 1980 Naumburg

Vocal Competition, has performed in the leading

opera houses of the United States and Europe. In

recent seasons she has made a number of important debuts, at La Scala, Netherlands

Opera, Glyndebourne Festival and the Orchestre de Paris. She has also sung with the San

Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, New York City

Opera, Houston Grand Opera and the Opera

Theater of St. Louis. She appeared for the first

time at Aix-en-Provence in recital in the summer of 1981 as winner of the Concours International de Chant de Paris.

Born in Vanceburg, Kentucky, Faith During the

1983-84 season she will appear in the title role of

Brian Macdonald's highly acclaimed production of Cendrillon at the New York City Opera. She began her 1982-83 season with performances of Cherubino at the San Francisco Opera and makes her Geneva Opera debut as Melisande in Pelleas et

Melisande. Her New York City Opera engagements

this season include Micaela in Carmen and the title

role in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. In addition, she is

scheduled for her New York recital debut at Alice

Tully Hall as winner of the Naumberg Competition and makes a recital tour of the eastern United

States.

Esham completed work toward a master's degree in clinical psychology until she decided to make

singing her profession. She came to New York and was graduated from the Juilliard School with a

master's degree in voice and opera While at the

Juilliard School she was a member of the American

Opera Center and appeared in many roles. She has

also served as an Affliate Artist for three seasons.

In addition to her Naumburg and Concours de

Chant de Paris prizes, Miss Esham has received a

1978 and a 1979 Young Artists Award from the

National Opera Institute and a 1977 Study Grant from the National Opera Instituten addition to her

Naumburg and Concours de Chant de Paris prizes,

Miss Esham has received a 1978 and a 1979 Young

Artists Award from the National Opera Institute and a 1977 Study Grant from the National Opera

Institute

Lucy Shelton has the distinction of being the only

artist to have twice received the Naumburg Award-

as a winner of the 1980 Solo Vocal Competition, and a member of the 1977 Award-winning Jubal

Trio

Miss Shelton has appeared at the Chamber Music

Northwest, Bethlehem Bach, and Aspen Music

Festivals, at the Casals Festival with the baroque

ensemble Musical Offering, and as soloist with

orchestras. During the 1982-83 season, she will be

heard with the Houston, Baltimore, and Eugene

(Oregon) Symphonies, and will perform the world

premiere of a work by Pulitzer Prize-winner Joseph

Schwantner with the St. Louis Symphony and Leonard Slatkin.

In the fall of 1982, she will participate in a two-

month nationwide tour as soloist with Helmuth

Rilling and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in

Bach's St. John Passion. Miss Shelton has just

recorded two albums for Nonesuch Records with

pianist Lambert Orkis. Her earlier recordings have been for Vax, Vanguard, Grenadilla, Sonory, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Miss Shelton is a native of California and a graduate of Pomona College, where she studied

flute and voice. She received her master's degree

in voice at the New England Conservatory and subsequently taught at the Eastman School of Music.