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Voice in Chamber Music

Aria and Parody

2 people, painting by Edvard Munch

Soprano, Bb clarinet, violoncello, and piano / This short suite is taken from a dance work created for Linda Rappaport and House on Fire entitled "Eyeless Tears in a Universe of Ether." The texts are by Robert Epstein. Whereas the surrealistic texts are treated dramatically in the Aria, the Parody is playful and irreverent and the wordless soprano is treated as another instrument.

 

The sound file has a MIDI realization of the aria followed by a performance of the Parody by Phyllis Fay Farmer, soprano, Martha Wade, piano, Richard Goldsmith, clarinet, and Nancy Ives, cello.

 

Duration: 6 minutes

Cry unto the Night

cloudy sky

Dramatic soprano and 2 bassoons / The texts are taken from James Joyce's Chamber Music, specifically the poems "The Noise of Waters," "Sleep Now," and "I Hear an Army Marching." The performance is by Linda Gravis Cox, soprano, and Ann Marie Lapinsky and John Iskra, bassoons at Florida State University.

Duration: 8 minutes

rising

Monongahela Rising

Point Park Fountain, Pittsburgh PA

Soprano (or mezzo) and piano / This song cycle describes the course of a woman's romance, from first stirrings of love to the dissolution of the relationship and hope of new loves to come. It all takes place in Pittsburgh, where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers meet. Lyrics are by Leah Maddrie.

 

The performance is by soprano Diana Solomon-Glover accompanied by Christopher Johnson.

 

Duration: 15 minutes

Moon Songs

moon in a cloudy sjy

Soprano and piano / Using poems from James Joyce's less well-known Poems Penyeach, these two songs invoke the moonlight and mystery of their texts.

 

They are performed here by JoAnne Dawson, soprano and Walter Cosand, piano.

 

Duration: 2 minutes

Songs from Spanish Poets

birds flying

Bass-baritone and string quartet / English translations of poems by Rafael AlbertiVicente Aleixandre , and Federico Garcia Lorca are used to create a dramatic sweep requiring virtuoso talents of both singer and quartet.

 

Duration: 20 minutes

Three Pastorales

woods

Tenor, oboe, and English horn / These three songs use as their lyrics poems from James Joyce's Chamber Music, "Welladay," "O Cool is the Vallery," and "Bright Caps and Streamers." The three voices are treated equally and contrapuntally.

 

This performance of the first two songs is by Dennis Altizer, tenor, Kurt Studier, oboe, and Lucy Beth Kruger, English horn.

Duration: 5 minutes

Winter Rain

raindrops splashing

Mezzo-soprano and piano / These four short songs were written on poems by Emily Hastings, herself a wonderful mezzo, who can be heard in excerpts from "The Girl on the Via Flaminia" the on the Chorus and Opera page. They speak of one woman's passionate love of another. The performance is by Phyllis Fay Farmer accompanied by Martha Wade.

 

 

Duration: 10 minutes

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