Luke Streleckis: ReAwaken Program Notes
George Frederic Handel is one of the most influential British composers and a significant contributor to the tradition of English oratorios, notably through his most well-known work, Messiah. The selection Total Eclipse comes from his oratorio Samson, based upon the biblical story which Samson’s tremendous strength is lost after his hair is cut by Delilah. Newburg Hamilton (1692-1751), an Irish librettist, wrote three of Handel’s works with Samson being one of them. His text explores Samson’s torment and deep lamentation of the loss of his sight as he has been chained up and blinded. The piece begins with a recitative where Samson declares his discontent with his new affliction, followed by an aria where he describes his inability to see or feel the joy of the sun, moon, and stars.
Reynaldo Hahn is a French composer who is known for his contributions to melodie, which is the French art song from the 19th century. Its style can be compared to the German Lied. In L’heure exquise he sets the poetry of Paul Verlaine, an influential symbolist writer, in which the goal is to represent absolute truths through metaphorical text and imagery. L’heure exquise, originally set for soprano voice, was composed as part of Hahn’s 7 Chansons grises between 1887-1890 and describes the moment in which the moon becomes full and mesmerizing. Explored through the lens of two lovers, the vocal line is as delicate and as sweet as the exquisite hour itself and is encouraged through the soft, lyrical writing of the piano.
L’heure exquise (1870)
La lune blanche
Luit dans les bois;
De chaque branche
Part une voix
Sous la ramée...
Ô bien aimée.
L'étang reflète, Profond miroir,
La silhouette
Du saule noir
Où le vent pleure...
Rêvons, c'est l'heure.
Un vaste et tendre
Apaisement
Semble descendre
Du firmament
Que l'astre irise...
C'est l'heure exquise.
Text by: Paul Verlaine
Exquisite hour
The white moon Gleams in the woods; From every branch
There comes a voice Beneath the boughs...
O my beloved.
The pool reflects, Deep mirror,
The silhouette
Of the black willow
Where the wind is weeping...
Let us dream, it is the hour.
Avast and tender
Consolation Seems to fall
From the sky
The moon illumines...
Exquisite hour.
Translation © Richard Stokes, fromAFrench Song Companion (Oxford, 2000)
Vincent d’Indy was born into a family of nobility and wealth.Along with Chausson and Duparc, d’Indy studied under Belgian composer Caesar Franck. To perpetuate the teachings of his teacher, d’Indy found Schola Cantorum in 1894 and became its director in 1900. In 1912 he also accepted a position as head of orchestration at the Paris Conservatoire. His compositional style frequently was influenced by earlier music on Gregorian plainchant, as well as Renaissance and Baroque music. Robert de Bonnieres (1850-1905) was a French poet and lifelong collaborator with d’Indy. He provided song texts and opera libretti for many of d’Indy’s works. Madrigal is d’Indy’s second song for voice and piano. The simplicity of the song echoes elements of the solo madrigal of the earlier periods such as the use of the strophic form and homophonic texture.
Madrigal
Qui jamais fut de plus charmant visage, De col plus blanc, de cheveux plus soyeux; Qui jamais fut de plus gentil corsage, Qui jamais fut que ma Dame aux doux yeux!
Qui jamais eut lèvres plus souriantes, Qui souriant rendit coeur plus joyeux, Plus chaste sein sous guimpos transparentes, Qui jamais eut que ma Dame aux doux yeux!
Qui jamais eut voix d'un plus doux entendre, Mignonnes dents qui bouche emperlent mieux; Qui jamais fut de regarder si tendre, Qui jamais fut que ma Dame aux doux yeux!
Text by Robert de Bonnieres
Madrigal
Who ever had a more charming face
Awhiter neck, more silken hair, Who ever had a lovelier figure
Who but my lady of the lovely eyes!
Who ever had more laughing lips
Whose smile made the heart more joyous
Had a more chaste bosom beneath filmy bodice
Who but the lady of the lovely eyes!
Who ever had a voice sweeter to hear
Or whiter teeth shining like pearls; Who ever had a look more tender,
Who but my lady of the lovely eyes!
Translation by Carol Kimball
Franz Schubert is a late classical, early romanticAustrian composer who wrote over 600 lieder throughout his life Ganymed is one of Schubert’s most notable works and is set to the poetry of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1842). His poetry was considered a cornerstone to many German Lieder due to his reputation as the most influential writer in the German language. Schubert’s masterful expression can be found throughout with many moments of text painting and imagery in both the piano and vocal lines. Ganymede is a divine hero from the Greek mythology often described as Earth’s most beautiful mortal. Goethe’s poem describes the moment in the myth in which Zeus, in the form of an eagle, takes Ganymede up to Olympus to act as his cup bearer Ganymede is delighted by his ascension as well as the natural scenery which he gazes upon as he ascends.
Ganymed
Wie im Morgenglanze
Du rings mich anglühst, Frühling, Geliebter!
Mit tausendfacher Liebeswonne
Sich an mein Herz drängt
Deiner ewigen Wärme
Heilig Gefühl,
Unendliche Schöne!
Dass ich dich fassen möcht’
In diesenArm!
Ganymede
How your glow envelops me in the morning radiance, spring, my beloved!
With love’s thousandfold joy the hallowed sensation of your eternal warmth floods my heart, infinite beauty!
O that I might clasp you in my arms!
Ach, an deinem Busen Lieg’ich, schmachte, Und deine Blumen, dein Gras Drängen sich an mein Herz. Du kühlst den brennenden Durst meines Busens, Lieblicher Morgenwind!
Ruft drein die Nachtigall Liebend mach mir aus dem Nebeltal. Ich komm’, ich komme! Wohin?Ach wohin?
Hinauf! Hinauf strebt’s. Es schweben die Wolken Abwärts, die Wolken Neigen sich der sehnenden Liebe. Mir! Mir!
In euerm Schosse
Aufwärts!
Umfangend umfangen!
Aufwärts an deinen Busen, Alliebender Vater!
Text by: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Ah, on your breast I lie languishing, and your flowers, your grass press close to my heart. You cool the burning thirst within my breast, sweet morning breeze, as the nightingale calls tenderly to me from the misty valley. I come, I come! But whither?Ah, whither?
Upwards! Strive upwards! The clouds drift down, yielding to yearning love, to me, to me!
In your lap, upwards, embracing and embraced! Upwards to your bosom, all-loving Father!
Translations by Richard Wigmore first published by Gollancz and reprinted in the Hyperion Schubert Song Edition
Ben Moore is a modern American composer who has created a wide variety of works ranging from art songs, operas, musical theatre and chamber works. In 2006 he published a set of 14 songs, of which these 3 selections are from. Moore’s music provides a beautiful setting to each poem and demands an understanding of its construction to be performed properly. His writing creates vivid scenes of the poems and includes frequent word painting.
In the dark pine-wood and Bright cap and streamers are both selected from James Joyce’s (1882-1941) Chamber Music Joyce wrote this collection of 36 poems for his wife Nora Barnacle, and were meant to plea for her return as she left for her homeland of Galway after they had a tempestuous argument. Despite their frequent disagreement, it was obvious that Nora had inspired Joyce’s work In the dark pine-wood describes the sensual joy of making love with her in the forests of Dublin, while Bright cap and streamers details a similarly pastoral setting and calls to action to start the day with passion. In the dark pine-wood is dedicated to the mezzosoprano Marilyn Horne, which features her expressive and vibrant voice well. The Lake Isle of Innisfree is dedicated to theAmerican tenor Robert White, who began singing Irish songs on the radio at age of six. Moore sets the music to a poem by William Butler Yeats of the same name. Yeats is regarded as one of the greatest poets of the English language with a Nobel Prize in Literature from 1923. He is greatly influenced by his Irish heritage and the politics. The lyric details a longing for the uninhabited Irish island of Innisfree, which is a peaceful place that everyone longs for.
In the dark pine-wood In the dark pine-wood I would we lay, In deep cool shadow At noon of day.
How sweet to lie there, Sweet to kiss, Where the great pine-forest Enaisled is!
Thy kiss descending Sweeter were With a soft tumult Of thy hair.
O unto the pine-wood At noon of day Come with me now, Sweet love, away.
Texts by James Joyce from Chamber Music
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
Bright cap and streamers Bright cap and streamers, He sings in the hollow: Come follow, come follow, All you that love. Leave dreams to the dreamers That will not after, That song and laughter Do nothing move.
With ribbons streaming He sings the bolder; In troop at his shoulder The wild bees hum. And the time of dreaming Dreams is over As lover to lover,
Sweetheart, I come
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
Text by William Butler Yeats
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 is a musical composed by Dave Malloy which was first performed in 2012 on Broadway in the Imperial Theatre. The story adapts the first 70 pages of Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace which takes place in the 19th-century Russia. Malloy found the subjects of the story of two couples intriguing. The first was the explicit lovers Natasha andAnatole. To the composer, the other was Pierre and his relationship with external factors, whether it be God, humanity, himself, or Natasha (whom he would marry in the latter half of the book not covered by the musical ) The song Dust and Ashes occurs at the end ofAct 1. Pierre is a nobleman and drunkard, married to Elaine who blatantly cheats on and ridicules him. One night, as Elaine flirts with another man in front of him his drunken rage finally consumes him. In the bar he challenges her lover, Dolokhov, to a duel and ends up being shot on his left side. While the injury is not a fatal one, Pierre sings this song as he thinks of
facing death as a result of his injury. He laments at the way he has lived and pleas to God for a chance to wake up.
Dust and Ashes
Is this how I die?
Ridiculed and laughed at
Wearing clown shoes
Is this how I die?
Furious and reckless
Sick with booze
How did I live?
I taste every wasted minute
Every time I turned away
From the things that might have healed me
How long have I been sleeping?
Is this how I die?
Frightened like a child
Lazy and numb
Is this how I die?
Pretending and preposterous
And dumb
How did I live?
Was I kind enough and good enough?
Did I love enough?
Did I ever look up
And see the moon
And the stars
And the sky?
Oh why have I been sleeping?
They say we are asleep
Until we fall in love
We are children of dust and ashes
But when we fall in love we wake up
And we are a God
And angels weep
But if I die here tonight
I die in my sleep
All of my life I spent searching the words
Of poets and saints and prophets and kings
And now at the end all I know that I’ve learned
Is that all that I know is I don’t know a thing
So easy to close off
Place the blame outside
Hiding in my room at night
So terrified
All the things I could have been
But I never had the nerve
Life and love
I don’t deserve
So all right, all right
I’ve had my time
Close my eyes
Let the death bells chime
Bury me in burgundy
I just don’t care
Nothing’s left
I looked everywhere
Is this how I die?
Was there ever any other way my life could be?
Is this how I die?
Such a storm of feelings inside of me?
But then why am I screaming?
Why am I shaking?
Oh God, was there something that I missed?
Did I squander my divinity?
Was happiness within me the whole time?
They say we are asleep
Until we fall in love
We are children of dust and ashes
But when we fall in love we wake up
And we are a God
And angels weep
But if I die here tonight
I die in my sleep
They say we are asleep
Until we fall in love
And I’m so ready
To wake up now
I want to wake up
Don’t let me die while I’m like this
I want to wake up
God don’t let me die while I’m like this
Please let me wake up now
God don’t let me die while I’m like this
I’m ready
I’m ready
To wake up
Text by: Dave Malloy