Stanley Grill rustling flights of wings innova 019

FARRIS RALPH

GOSLING STEPHEN piano

NANCY ALLEN LUNDY ALLEN NANCY

soprano 1:34 — 67:41 — Recordings is the label of the ® Produced by Ralph Farris. American Forum. innova www.innova.mu stangrillcomposer.com www.innova.mu © Stanley Grill. All Rights Reserved, 2018. 3:47 3:40 1:06 1:26 3:22 2:42 (Verlaine) 3:24 (Verlaine)

3:43 (Lorca) 3:46 (Lorca) 4:25 4:09 2:47 2:05 (R.M. Rilke) 4:05 1:08 1:50 (Sandburg) 2:52 (Sandburg) 2:32 3:13 3:31 (C.F. Cilliers) 1:26 (C.F. 1:34 3:32 Two Songs of a Fool (II) Two The Cat and the Moon The Rose of the World in theThe Old Men Admiring Themselves Water He Hears the Cry of the Sedge Songs of a Fool (I) Two At Melville’s Tomb At Melville’s Interior Exile A Name for All Casida del llanto Kreisler Haiku Finally Der Nachbar Chanson d’Automne Angels Time A Game Our Lives Grow Gladly Not Who Would Out of Season Out The Nymph People The Owl 23 24 6 SONGS (W.B. YEATS) YEATS) 6 SONGS (W.B. 19 20 21 22 15 16 17 18 12 13 14 CRANE 4 SONGS TO POEMS BY HART 09 IN A COMMON LANGUAGE THE VIOLIN SINGS 10 11 04 05 06 07 08 A COLLECTION OF SONGS TO POEMS BY C.F. CILLIERS C.F. BY POEMS TO SONGS OF A COLLECTION 01 02 03 STAN GRILL

Raised in the Bronx, Stan While always inspired by great poetry to com- has been obsessed with pose songs, Stan is also a prolific of music since the age of six, chamber music. Several of his string quartets are when his mother took him also available from Innova Recordings in a bril- to Carnegie Hall and he liant recording by the Diderot String Quartet. was astonished and awe- “As I see it, as much as we strive to find reason struck by a performance and purpose in our having been born into this of “La Mer.” While that amazing, mysterious and awe-inspiring universe, obsession first took the that attempt is largely futile. It is however, the form of playing piano at every possible moment best part of our nature that obliges us to make (when not otherwise engaged in activities typical the attempt, though the most we can hope for of a kid growing up in the Bronx of the 1950’s is to gain some small degree of understanding and ‘60s), it was Stan’s music theory studies at of the world around us, and, more importantly, the Manhattan School of Music that converted of ourselves. To achieve this, we each approach that obsession to writing music – and to finding the problem in our own way, uniquely shaped by his own musical voice. our cultural background, innate talents and abili- He learned the craft from extraordinary mu- ties, education and so on. For some, science may sicians: among others - Robert Helps, Leon be the window through which they best perceive Kushner, Ursula Mamlok and Joseph Prostakoff. and interpret the world, for others, religion. For Stan’s passion for medieval and Renaissance mu- those to whom the world seems to express it- sic has greatly influenced his writing - a contem- self most clearly and beautifully through sound, porary expression of ageless techniques based music is the voice that speaks to us and through on melody, modal harmonies, and contrapuntal, which we, in turn, most effectively express our- extended, interweaving lines. Two main themes selves. The best of my music has arrived, rather permeate many of his works - music composed in inexplicably, as part of a personal effort to under- an attempt to translate something about the na- stand the world and myself. It is, in a way, an act ture of the physical world, and music composed of translation. The world says something, I try to to inspire and promote world peace. understand it, and then translate it into musical Stan’s music has been performed the world language. The particular musical language which over – from Ecuador to Poland; Toulouse to To- I speak, is, of course, a product of my conserva- kyo; Brooklyn to Vienna – by such artists as Cam- tory training and personal musical tastes, but erata Philadelphia, Camerata Arkos, Englewinds, hopefully, the outcome, imperfect a translation as the Pandolfis Consort, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, it may be, will convey to others something of its One World Symphony, violists Brett Deubner and original intent.” Ralph Farris, and violinist Jorge Avila. — Stan Grill THE ARTISTS chestra, London’s BBC Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Nancy Allen Lundy has as well with orchestras in Lyon, Paris, Shanghai, earned critical acclaim for Lisbon, Sapporo (Pacific Music Festival), and her unique vocal beauty, New York (Brooklyn Academy of Music). 2002 skillful musicianship and saw the world premiere in Tokyo of Tan Dun’s theatrical prowess in a Tea for which Ms. Lundy created the role of Lan variety of classical and under the direction of Pierre Audi, a production contemporary styles. En- which was later reprised in Amsterdam. She has gagements with opera sung Tea in Stockholm and in a concert version companies and festivals at Teatro Carlo Felice (Genova), Lawrence Renes include English National Opera, Netherlands conducting. Other contemporary opera roles Opera, Opera, Houston Grand she has interpreted include Claire in the Ameri- Opera, Washington Opera, Cincinnati Opera, can premiere of Peter Bengtson’s The Maids, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Hawaii Opera Caroline Gaines in Richard Danielpour’s Margaret Theater, Minnesota Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Garner, Pat Nixon in Nixon in China, Singer #1 Louis, Portland Opera, Spoleto, USA, Teatro Mu- in Conrad Sousa’s Transformations, and Water in nicipal de Santiago (Chile), Bregenzer Festspiele Tan Dun’s Marco Polo. (Austria), Festival Euro Mediterraneo (Rome), and Suntory Hall (Tokyo). Her operatic repertoire Stephen Gosling enjoys encompasses more than thirty roles, of which she a varied career as solo- has earned particular acclaim for her portrayals ist and chamber musician of Curley’s Wife in Of Mice and Men, Gilda in with a particular focus on Rigoletto, Musetta in La Bohème, Ann Trulove in the music of our time. The Rake’s Progress, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, He earned his bachelor’s, the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Rosina in Il master’s, and doctoral Barbiere di Siviglia, and Cunegonde in Candide. degrees at The Juilliard Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun began School, where he was writing for Ms. Lundy following her success in his awarded the Mennin Prize and Sony Elevated Peony Pavilion, directed by Peter Sellars at Lon- Standards Fellowship, and appeared as concerto don’s Barbican Center with subsequent perfor- soloist on an unprecedented four occasions. He mances in Rome and Paris. With her skills in mind, is a member of the New York New Music Ensem- Tan Dun scored the role of Juliet in his Orchestral ble, Talea Ensemble Orchestra of the League of Theater IV: The Gate, which she premiered with Composers, as well as pianist with the New York the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo). She has City Ballet, and has appeared as guest artist with sung The Gate and Orchestral Theater III: Red The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Forecast with the Vienna Radio Symphony Or- Orpheus, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, eighth blackbird, American to Reserva), and Kurt Elling (on the GRAMMY®- Composers Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra winning album Dedicated to You: the Music of of Europe, among many others. He frequently Coltrane and Hartman); toured extensively with performs in the Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart, (as Music Director and lead fiddle), and June in Buffalo festivals. Mr. Gosling has Todd Rundgren, Joe Jackson, Ensemble Mod- collaborated with composers including Pierre ern, , Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road En- Boulez, Elliott Carter, Brian Ferneyhough, Oliver semble, Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, and Kaki Knussen, Steve Reich, Poul Ruders, Charles Wu- King; performed in concert with Seiji Ozawa, orinen, and John Zorn, with whom he has per- John Williams, , David Byrne, formed worldwide over the past several years Thomas Dolby, Tom Verlaine, Jill Sobule, An- and released several recent recordings (including drew Bird, Fernando Otero, Jake Shimabukuro, the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-nominated Hexentarot); JP Jofre, Pete Townsend, Alice Cooper, Sinead and John Psathas, whose music he has recorded O’Connor, Lou Reed, and Trey Anastasio; con- on two award-winning albums and whose con- ducted The Lion King and Annie on Broadway; certo Three Psalms he premiered with the New composed for film (Noelle Brower’s short Every- Zealand Symphony Orchestra. thing Is Ordinary; Anika Burt’s short Begin Again; Susan Todd’s short The Mother Is the One Who Ralph Farris is a Juilliard- Stretches (with ); Danièle Wilmouth’s fea- trained conductor, multi- ture Eleanore And The Timekeeper (with ETHEL); instrumentalist, compos- Jehane Noujaim’s industrial Pangea Day), for er, arranger, and record dance (Monkeyhouse), and for the stage (Aquila producer. He is a tireless Theatre’s productions of A Female Philoctetes collaborator, whether and The Tempest, Jarrett & Raja, Lawler & working as an individual, Fadoul, the Jerome Foundation, BRIC Arts Me- or as a founding mem- dia, Arts Brookfield, OZ Nashville, BAM, and ber and Artistic Director the NEA); arranged music for Five For Fighting of ETHEL, the genre-bending string quartet de- (the GRAMMY®-nominated hit “Superman (It’s scribed by The New York Times as “indefatigable Not Easy)”), Dishwalla, Chantal Kreviazuk, Room and eclectic,” and by The New Yorker as “vital 11, Pound, Dayna Kurtz, Lord Graham Russell and brilliant”. That spirit has led to work with a (of Air Supply), and the University of Michigan; who’s-who of rock stars, filmmakers, choreogra- recorded with Paul Simon, Depeche Mode, Ivy, phers, educators, stage directors and poets. Fountains of Wayne, Regina Carter, Clay Aiken, Rod Stewart, Natalie Merchant, Better than Ezra, Ralph has taken part in major collaborations with and Harry Connick, Jr.; and produced records for ETHEL, Robert Mirabal, Molissa Fenley and Frank ETHEL and the Hevreh Ensemble. Cassara, Annie-B Parson, Vijay Iyer, Stewart Co- peland, Martin Scorsese (on the short The Key Currently, Ralph is composing a full-length musi- THE VIOLIN SINGS IN A COMMON LANGUAGE cal, a ballet based on Snow White for Pineapple Dance, performing in his new all- quartet The first song in this cycle, Der Nachbar, was Firewood with Gallim Dance in their production composed for Ursula Fiedler, soprano and vio- of Stone Skipping, touring as part of ETHEL’s linist. At the time, I had intended to set other production of CIRCUS – Wandering City, which songs for soprano and violin, but years went by premiered at The Ringling Museum of Art, and without my getting around to it. Recently, find- producing a series of contemporary classical re- ing several other wonderful poems which employ cordings for composer Stanley Grill. the violin as a central image, it seemed that com- bining these poems, each written in a different THE MUSIC language, in a single group accompanied by the violin, conveyed something important about the A COLLECTION OF SONGS (C.F. CILLIERS) nature of music as a universal language that can bond people together, despite our many differ- We live in a world governed by incidental colli- ences. sions – and such incidents are greatly multiplied by the technology of the internet. How else 4 SONGS TO POEMS BY HART CRANE would a poet living in South Africa and a com- poser sitting in his attic writing music in New Jer- Not daring to begin setting his masterpiece, The sey ever have crossed paths and begun to share Bridge, to music, I settled instead on four lovely our work? Having accepted a “friend” request poems with startling imagery. on Facebook from Charl, without having any idea of who he was, or where he was from, I began 6 SONGS to read – and love – the poems he occasionally posted. Amongst all of the ignorable nonsense Of all poets in the English language, I always that people post, these stood out as gems – de- found W.B. Yeats to be the most musical. Eng- manded my attention – and some seemed to cry lish, after all, is not a beautiful singing language out for music. Having set one poem, then anoth- – but somehow, he was able to make it so. These er, from Facebook, I reached out to Charl directly 6 songs, taken from poems spanning his output, to ask for more – and he sent me volumes. This are some of my favorites. collection is a beginning, as I’m sure Charl will keep on writing words – and I will continue to write notes. THE POEMS what no one else hears.

A COLLECTION OF SONGS TO POEMS BY For longings larger than grief C.F. CILLIERS theirs are wings softer than fur sight boundless as belief. Out of Season They sit in the sunlight of stars sunlight out of season till a sound’s shape appears. in an empty crystal vase has burst into flower Then, in the spark of an eye, seize the shape, take it apart colours of the rainbow that a short shift of time only to find grief’s tiny cries lie will soundlessly erase in the tree-hollow dark of the heart.

The Nymph Angels

Clothed in grey Colder and fainter are they the garden nymph than the extinguished light stood all day of comets that burn on a concrete plinth. in the cold space of night.

Dull and drab No warmth pulses as ashen granite in their hearts like a star. she stood, stone slab, Their shape is dust. silent, inanimate. And yet they are.

Till that one They sometimes hover, haloed day I saw her wear, in light from afar, in the dazzling sun as if seeking the warmth as she stood there, of something familiar a crimson butterfly in her grey hair. something so intimate The Owl People we almost feel the magic of a world They who are hidden, from afar that thought has made unreal. can hear Time And going, we cannot show ourselves again to others loved, except where we’ve ceased sand to live, framed on desks or shelves. in the hollow of your hand We are in their tears, blurred ghosts speaking into dreams where they still live, sky eager, ineffectual hosts in the depth whispering love to souls to which they cannot give of your eye a body’s substance. So as we are we shine on, exploded, like a star. death in each breath taken Who Would Not Gladly and time Who would not ticks by gladly cast off like a chrysalis A Game this obtect body hard and stiff Down by a once and bitter sea with the formality joy was a game we used to play. of customary years Once was a bitter and bright day if they could know for you and for me. there was in them all Our castles against the slow waves ready rustling flights of wings. stood – crumbled and were caves again. In our laughter then we knew, Finally I think, that joy would always be a game we played beside the sea. Our first loves are fairytales. Before we can speak words Our Lives Grow needing to be said, before us lie worlds so frail with wonder – magical, urgent and absurd – Our lives grow golden in our leaves, that a single loss shatters them to tears: and leaving we are moulded into earth but words we learn for love and loss and air, though no one grieves grow closer with encroaching years our true going for what its worth. as familiarity obscures the gloss until with the futility of one last breath Grief only stays for loss beyond release. love and loss are finally one in death. THE VIOLIN SINGS IN A COMMON LANGUAGE

Der Nachbar (Rilke) The Neighbor

Fremde Geige, gehst du mir nach? Strange violin, are you following me? In wieviel fernen Städten schon sprach Already, in how many distant cities deine einsame Nacht zu meiner? has your lonely night spoken to mine? Spielen dich hunderte? Spielt dich einer? Are hundreds playing you? Only one?

Gibt es in allen grossen Städten Are there such men in all great cities, solche, die sich ohne dich who without you would already schon in den Flüssen verloren hätten? have lost themselves in the rivers? Und warum trifft es immer mich? And why does it always hit me?

Warum bin ich immer der Nachbar derer, Why am I always the neighbor die dich bange zwingen zu singen of those who anxiously force you und zu sagen: Das Leben ist schwerer to sing and to say: Life is harder als die Schwere von allen Dingen. than the heaviness of all things.

Chanson d’Automne (Verlaine) Autumn Song

Les sanglots longs The long tears Des violons Of Autumn’s De l’automne Blessent mon cœur Wound my heart D’une langueur With a monotonous Monotone. lethargy. Tout suffocant All suffocating Et blême, quand And pale when Sonne l’heure, The hour strikes, Je me souviens I remember Des jours anciens The old days Et je pleure; And I cry… Et je m’en vais And I am going away Au vent mauvais On an ill wind Qui m’emporte That carries me Deçà, delà, Here, there, Pareil à la Just like a Feuille morte. Dead leaf.

Casida del llanto (Lorca) Casida of the Weeping

He cerrado mi balcón I’ve closed my balcony porque no quiero oír el llanto for I don’t want to hear the weeping, pero por detrás de los grises muros yet out beyond the grey walls no se oye otra cosa que el llanto. nothing is heard but weeping.

Hay muy pocos ángeles que canten, There are very few angels singing, hay muy pocos perros que ladren, there are very few dogs barking, mil violines caben en la palma de mi mano. a thousand violins fit in the palm of my hand.

Pero el llanto es un perro inmenso, But the weeping’s a dog, immense, el llanto es un ángel inmenso, the weeping’s an angel, immense, el llanto es un violín inmenso, the weeping’s a violin, immense las lágrimas amordazan al viento, the tears have silenced the wind, no se oye otra cosa que el llanto. and nothing is heard but weeping.

Kreisler (Sandburg)

Sell me a violin, mister, of old mysterious wood. Sell me a fiddle that has kissed dark nights on the forehead where men kiss sisters they love. Sell me dried wood that has ached with passion clutching the knees and arms of a storm. Sell me horsehair and rosin that has sucked at the breasts of the morning sun for milk. Sell me something crushed in the hearts blood of pain readier than ever for one more song.

Haiku (C.F. Cilliers)

In die herfs In autumn Huil viooltjies Wild pansies cry In die wind In the wind 4 SONGS TO POEMS BY HART CRANE And even should the world break in With jealous threat and guile, At Melville’s Tomb The world, at last, must bow and win Our pity and a smile. Often beneath the wave, wide from this ledge The dice of drowned men’s bones he saw be- Exile queath An embassy. Their numbers as he watched, My hands have not touched pleasure since your Beat on the dusty shore and were obscured. hands, -- No, -- nor my lips freed laughter since ‘farewell’, And wrecks passed without sound of bells, And with the day, distance again expands The calyx of death’s bounty giving back Voiceless between us, as an uncoiled shell. A scattered chapter, livid hieroglyph, The portent wound in corridors of shells. Yet, love endures, though starving and alone. A dove’s wings clung about my heart each night Then in the circuit calm of one vast coil, With surging gentleness, and the blue stone Its lashings charmed and malice reconciled, Set in the tryst-ring has but worn more bright. Frosted eyes there were that lifted altars; And silent answers crept across the stars. A Name for All

Compass, quadrant and sextant contrive Moonmoth and grasshopper that flee our page No farther tides . . . High in the azure steeps And still wing on, untarnished of the name Monody shall not wake the mariner. We pinion to your bodies to assuage This fabulous shadow only the sea keeps. Our envy of your freedom—we must maim

Interior Because we are usurpers, and chagrined— And take the wing and scar it in the hand. It sheds a shy solemnity, Names we have, even, to clap on the wind; This lamp in our poor room. But we must die, as you, to understand. O grey and gold amenity, -- Silence and gentle gloom! I dreamed that all men dropped their names, and sang Wide from the world, a stolen hour As only they can praise, who build their days We claim, and none may know With fin and hoof, with wing and sweetened fang How love blooms like a tardy flower Struck free and holy in one Name always. Here in the day’s after-glow. 6 SONGS (W.B. YEATS) He Hears the Cry of the Sedge

The Rose of the World I wander by the edge Of this desolate lake Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream? Where wind cries in the sedge: For these red lips, with all their mournful pride, Mournful that no new wonder may betide, Until the axle break Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam, That keeps the stars in their round, And Usna’s children died. And hands hurl in the deep We and the labouring world are passing by: The banners of East and West, Amid men’s souls, that waver and give place And the girdle of light is unhound, Like the pale waters in their wintry race, Your breast will not lie by the breast Under the passing stars, foam of the sky, Of your beloved in sleep. Lives on this lonely face. Bow down, archangels, in your dim abode: Before you were, or any hearts to beat, Two Songs of a Fool Weary and kind one lingered by His seat; He made the world to be a grassy road I Before her wandering feet. A speckled cat and a tame hare Eat at my hearthstone The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water And sleep there; And both look up to me alone I heard the old, old men say, For learning and defence ‘Everything alters, As I look up to Providence. And one by one we drop away.’ They had hands like claws, and their knees I start out of my sleep to think Were twisted like the old thorn-trees Some day I may forget By the waters. Their food and drink; I heard the old, old men say, Or, the house door left unshut, ‘All that’s beautiful drifts away The hare may run till it’s found Like the waters.’ The horn’s sweet note and the tooth of the hound. I bear a burden that might well try The Cat and the Moon Men that do all by rule, And what can I The cat went here and there That am a wandering-witted fool And the moon spun round like a top, But pray to God that He ease And the nearest kin of the moon, My great responsibilities? The creeping cat, looked up. Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon, II For, wander and wail as he would, The pure cold light in the sky I slept on my three-legged stool by the fire, Troubled his animal blood. The speckled cat slept on my knee; Minnaloushe runs in the grass We never thought to enquire Lifting his delicate feet. Where the brown hare might be, Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance? And whether the door were shut. When two close kindred meet. Who knows how she drank the wind What better than call a dance? Stretched up on two legs from the mat, Maybe the moon may learn, Before she had settled her mind Tired of that courtly fashion, To drum with her heel and to leap? A new dance turn. Had I but awakened from sleep Minnaloushe creeps through the grass And called her name, she had heard, From moonlit place to place, It may be, and not have stirred, The sacred moon overhead That now, it may be, has found Has taken a new phase. The horn’s sweet note and the tooth of the Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils hound. Will pass from change to change, And that from round to crescent, From crescent to round they range? Minnaloushe creeps through the grass Alone, important and wise, And lifts to the changing moon His changing eyes. THE RECORDING Stan Grill gratefully acknowledges those who helped make this recording possible: Produced by Ralph Farris Ralph Farris, Nancy Allen Lundy, Stephen Gosling, Recorded by Ryan Streber at Octaven audiO, Philip Blackburn, Chris Campbell, Renee Alberts, Mount Vernon, NY. oktavenaudio.com Christine LeBeau, and everyone I know of loving Edited and mixed by Ryan Streber and Charles and kind spirit who kindles my faith in music. Mueller Additional editing by Corin Lee On the Web: Mastered by Randy Crafton, Kaleidoscope Sound, stangrillcomposer.com Union City, NJ. kaleidoscopesound.com facebook.com/stanley.grill.9

Stan Grill’s Publishing: SG Music Publications nancyallenlundy.com ASCAP: #572328152 facebook.com/nancy.allenlundy

Poems by C.F. Cilliers are by permission of the author. facebook.com/goslingpiano Poems by R.M. Rilke, W.B. Yeats, Hart Crane, Carl Sandburg, Verlaine and Lorca are in the public do- ralphfarris.com main. facebook.com/TheRalphFarris

Photo Credits: Innova is supported by an endowment from the Lundy: Masataka Suemitsu McKnight Foundation Gosling: Michael Benabib Philip Blackburn, director, design Farris: Peter Gannushkin downtownmusic.net Chris Campbell, operations director Tim Igel, publicist

OTHER VOCAL MUSIC BY STAN GRILL To a Child (W.B. Yeats) soprano & string quartet, 1987 Crazy Jane Sings (W.B. Yeats) soprano, strings, piano, flute, 1999 Two Sad Songs (W.B. Yeats) soprano, string orchestra, 2002 Thinking of You (John MacKenzie) soprano, cello, harp, 2005 Love’s Little Pleasures (various) soprano, string orchestra, 2008 5 Rilke Songs (R.M. Rilke) soprano, viola d’amore, cello, 2009 Mystical Songs (Fernando Rielo) soprano, viola, string orchestra, 2009 Song of Loss and Remembrance (R.M. Rilke) soprano, viola d’amore, viola, cello, 2012 Sonnets to Orpheus (R.M. Rilke) tenor, piano, 2012 Rozmowa z kamieniem (Szymborska) soprano, 2 violins, cello, 2013 La selva de los relojes (Garcia Lorca) mezzo, cello, piano, 2018