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2018 Peter Lieberson's Rilke Songs and Neruda Songs: Two Disparate Expressions of Love Emily Catherine Howes

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COLLEGE OF MUSIC

PETER LIEBERSON’S RILKE SONGS AND NERUDA SONGS:

TWO DISPARATE EXPRESSIONS OF LOVE

By

EMILY HOWES

A Treatise submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Music

2018 Emily Howes defended this treatise on April 10, 2018. The members of the supervisory committee were:

Douglas Fisher Professor Directing Treatise

Evan A. Jones University Representative

Chuck Chandler Committee Member

Valerie Trujillo Committee Member

The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the treatise has been approved in accordance with university requirements.

!ii I would like to dedicate this treatise to my fiancé. Adam, thank you for your endless patience and encouragement.

!iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Timothy Hoekman, Marcus Stadlmueller, and Alyna Salgado for their assistance with translations, as well as Adam Heilman for his help with musical examples. I would like to thank Professor Valerie Trujillo, Dr. Evan A. Jones, Dr. Chuck Chandler, and Professor Douglas Fisher for their willingness to serve on my committee and for their guidance in the writing of the treatise. And finally, I would like to thank the three marvelous voice teachers who have led me to where I am today: Edith Davis Tidwell, Shirley Close, and Marcy Stonikas.

!iv TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables ...... vi List of Musical Examples ...... vii Abstract ...... ix

1. PETER LIEBERSON: HIS PLACE IN THE MUSICAL WORLD ...... 1

2. LORRAINE HUNT LIEBERSON: HER CAREER AND INFLUENCE ...... 5

3. RAINER RILKE: HIS TEXTS ...... 8

4. RILKE SONGS: AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE ...... 12

5. PABLO NERUDA: HIS TEXTS ...... 26

6. NERUDA SONGS: A FURTHER EXPRESSION OF LOVE ...... 30

7. CONCLUSION ...... 43

APPENDICES ...... 45

A. RILKE SONGS: WORD FOR WORD ...... 45 B. NERUDA SONGS: WORD FOR WORD ...... 51

References ...... 58

Biographical Sketch ...... 61

!v LIST OF TABLES

1 Frequency of large intervallic leaps in Rilke Songs ...... 14

2 Frequency of large intervallic leaps in Neruda Songs ...... 32

!vi LIST OF FIGURES

1 Rilke Songs, “Atmen du unsichtbares Gedicht,” meas. 20 ...... 13

2 Rilke Songs, “Wolle die Wandlung,” meas. 20 ...... 13

3 Rilke Songs, “Stiller Freund,” meas. 15 ...... 13

4 Rilke Songs, “Wolle die Wandlung,” meas. 4-5 ...... 14

5 Rilke Songs, “O ihr Zärtlichen,” meas. 45-48 ...... 16

6 Rilke Songs, “Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht,” meas. 14 ...... 17

7 Rilke Songs, “Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht,” meas. 16-17 ...... 18

8 Rilke Songs, “Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht,” meas. 50-52 ...... 18

9 Rilke Songs, “Wolle die Wandlung,” meas. 14-16 ...... 20

10 Rilke Songs, "Wolle die Wandlung,” meas. 50 ...... 21

11 Rilke Songs, “Blumenmuskel,” meas. 24-25 ...... 23

12 Rilke Songs, “Stiller Freund,” meas. 21-25 ...... 24

13 Neruda Songs, “Si no fuera porque tus ojos tienen color de luna,” PV score, meas. 58-59 ... 31

14 Neruda Songs, “Amor, amor, las nubes a la torre del cielo,” PV score, meas. 116 ...... 31

15 Longing motive in Neruda Songs, “Si no fuera porque tus ojos tienen color de luna.” ...... 33

16 Neruda Songs, “Si no fuera porque tus ojos tienen color de luna,” clarinet, meas. 14 ...... 33

17 Neruda Songs, “Si no fuera porque tus ojos tienen color de luna,” woodwinds, meas. 58 ..... 34

18 Neruda Songs, “Amor, amor, las nubes a la torre del cielo,” PV score, meas. 23-33 ...... 35

19 Neruda Songs, “Amor, amor, las nubes a la torre del cielo,” RH piano, meas. 140 ...... 36

20 Neruda Songs, “No estés lejos de mí un solo día, porque como,” voice, meas. 3 ...... 37

!vii 21 Neruda Songs, “Ya eres mía. Reposa con tu sueño en mi sueño,” PV score, meas. 1-5 ...... 39

22 Neruda Songs, “Ya eres mía. Reposa con tu sueño en mi sueño,” percussion, meas. 13 ...... 39

23 Neruda Songs, “Amor mío, si muero y tú no mueres,” strings, meas. 1-2 ...... 40

24 Neruda Songs, “Amor mío, si muero y tú no mueres,” PV score, meas. 39-44 ...... 41

25 Neruda Songs, “No estés lejos de mí un solo día, porque cómo,” PV score, meas. 47-48 ..... 42

26 Neruda Songs, “Amor mío, si muero y tú no mueres,” PV score, meas. 55 ...... 42

!viii ABSTRACT

This treatise seeks to examine the similarities and differences between Rilke Songs and Neruda Songs, two song cycles by American composer Peter Lieberson. This will be done by comparing different elements, including text setting, harmonic language, instrumentation, etc. It includes a brief biography of the composer and his wife as well a translation of all texts and a brief biography of the poets. Peter Lieberson met and fell in love with his second wife, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (1954-2006), during a production of his opera, Ashoka’s Dream. The two were married in 1999. Over the course of their marriage, Lieberson wrote two song cycles with his wife’s voice in mind. The first, Rilke Songs, premiered just two years after their marriage. The texts are all from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Die Sonnete an Orpheus (Sonnets to Orpheus), and they center around the mythological musician demi-god who attempted to save his wife Eurydice from death. The second cycle, Neruda Songs (2005), contains five songs with Spanish texts by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Each song portrays love in a different phase, from the initial romance to the final farewell. Just a year after these songs were premiered, Lorraine died of breast cancer, making these songs especially poignant. Though these two cycles were written only four years apart, they are decidedly dissimilar. Neruda Songs exhibits a sweeping lyricism and an intense sense of urgency, while Rilke Songs has more disjunct melodies and a contemplative atmosphere. The primary reason for this difference is surely the text. In the Hal Leonard publication of Rilke Songs, Lieberson writes that he considers these five songs “love songs even though the poems themselves are not overtly about love.”1 However, no matter Lieberson’s intentions, Rilke’s texts simply do not contain the passion and fervor of Neruda’s. As a result, the two song cycles show two very different sides of love: one of which is staid, thoughtful, and profound, while the other is intense, ardent, and fiery.

1 Peter Lieberson, Rilke Songs (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2007), vi.

!ix CHAPTER 1 PETER LIEBERSON: HIS PLACE IN THE MUSICAL WORLD

American composer Peter Lieberson was born October 25, 1946, in New York.2 His father, Goddard Lieberson, was the head of Columbia Records, and his mother, Vera Zorina, was an actress and former ballerina. Through his father’s work, Lieberson was exposed to many types of music at a young age. The creative spirit must have touched Lieberson quite early because he taught himself how to play the piano, and would often try to reharmonize the pieces he heard at his father’s work with jazz chords.3 Before pursuing degrees in composition, he attended New York University and earned a degree in English Literature in 1972. He studied composition informally with Milton Babbitt for some time before formally beginning studies at Columbia University where he received a Master of Arts in 1974. While at Columbia he studied composition with several teachers including Charles Wuorinen and Harvey Sollberger, and he even spent time as an assistant to Leonard

Bernstein in 1972.4 It was at Columbia that Lieberson began to practice Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. After his Master’s degree, he moved to Colorado to continue studying Buddhism.5 There he met and married his first wife, Ellen Kearney, who was a fellow student. After their studies, they moved to Boston where they helped to found and direct the Shambhala Training meditation center.6 The Shambhala Center still exists today and teaches the ancient practices of Vajrayana Buddhism and

2 Zachary Woolfe, “Peter Lieberson, Composer Inspired by Buddhism, Dies at 64,” New York Times, published 23 April 2011, accessed 9 Feb. 2018, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/arts/ music/peter-lieberson-64-composer-inspired-by-buddhism-dies.html.

3 Ibid.

4 Steven Ledbetter, "Lieberson, Peter,” in Grove Music Online, accessed 7 Feb. 2018, http:// www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/ 9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000042681.

5 Woolfe.

6 Woolfe.

!1 Shambhala. Their mission is to “awaken kindness, goodness and wisdom within society.”7 Lieberson remained committed to the practice of Buddhism throughout his life, and its influence can be seen in many of his works, including Drala (1986), Ziji (Shining Out, 1987), Raising the Gaze (1998), and his opera, Ashoka’s Dream (1997).8 In 1981 Lieberson began his doctoral work at Brandeis University, where he studied with Donald Martino, Martin Boykan, and several others.9 It was around this time that Lieberson began to garner national recognition. His Piano Concerto, written for Peter Serkin, was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Seiji Ozawa. This led almost immediately to another commission from the BSO, which resulted in the composition of Lieberon’s symphony Drala in 1986.10 After receiving his PhD, Lieberson taught composition at Harvard for several years (1984-1988) before moving with his family to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he again directed Shambhala Training. He continued to compose, and in 1994 he stopped teaching Shambhala in order to devote himself more fully to composition.11 In 1997 Ashoka’s Dream premiered at Santa Fe Opera. The opera tells the story of an Indian ruler, who foreswears the violent command of previous sovereigns and becomes a benevolent ruler. The story is based on Ashoka the Great, who ruled India from approximately 265-238 BCE. After witnessing the destruction of war, Ashoka converted to Buddhism and began a reign that was characterized by humanitarian efforts.12

7 Blue Mandala, “Shambhala: Making Enlightened Society Possible: Boston,” accessed 8 Feb., 2018, https://boston.shambhala.org/.

8 Ledbetter.

9 Ibid.

10 “Peter Lieberson,” Musical Sales Classical, last modified Sept. 2012, accessed 8 Feb. 2018, http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/long-bio/Peter-Lieberson.

11 Woolfe.

12 Amulya Chandra Sen, “Ashoka: Emperor of India,” in Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed 10 Feb. 2018, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ashoka.

!2 It was during this production that Lieberson met Lorraine Hunt, who was singing the role of Triraksha, Ashoka’s second wife. The two had an instant connection which, arguably, may have begun before they ever met in person. In an interview with Jeff Lunden in 2006, Lieberson said he had heard a recording of Lorraine that made an indelible impression upon him. He said, “I realized it was a kind of force I was listening to. It wasn’t the trained voice so much that impressed me… it was the soul behind it.”13 After a complicated divorce with his first wife,

Lieberson and Lorraine married in 1999.14 The two spent nine years together before Lorraine’s death in 2006.15 Likely due to his studies with many modernist composers, Lieberson’s early works were in a 12-tone idiom. However, he was also influenced by American jazz, late Stravinsky, musical theatre, and minimalism,16 and later in his career his works became significantly more lyrical. Alex Ross, a music critic for The New Yorker, asserts, “He wrote with a rare combination of modernistic rigor and Romantic sensuality, the latter coming ever more to the fore in recent years.”17 This was likely due to his close collaboration with Lorraine, and this “Romantic sensuality” can be seen most clearly in Neruda Songs. Critics seem to agree that Lieberson was able to artfully combine intellectual rigor and expansive lyricism, particularly in his later compositions. Allan Kozinn writes: Mr. Lieberson’s works meld most [of his] influences into a cohesive, energetic and intensely communicative style, with brainy, atonal surfaces that attest to his

13 Jeff Lunden, “Lieberson’s ‘Neruda Songs,’ Tracing Love’s Arc,” NPR Music, published 30 Dec. 2006, accessed 10 Feb. 2018, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=6696483.

14 Woolfe.

15 The two were together from the time they met in 1997.

16 Vivien Schweitzer, “Sounds of a Composer Given Voice by His Muse,” New York Times, published 29 July 2010, accessed 10 Feb. 2018, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/arts/music/ 01peter.html?mcubz=0.

17 Ross.

!3 post-tonal pedigree and a current of lyricism and drama that gives this music its warmth and passion.18 Not long after Lorraine’s death Lieberson was diagnosed with lymphoma. He continued to compose through this illness, writing The World in Flower, Songs of Love and Sorrow (written in Lorraine’s memory), and Remembering JFK.19 After Lorraine’s death, Lieberson married Rinchen Lhamo, a former Buddhist nun.20 Lieberson passed away April 23, 2011, due to complications with his illness while receiving treatment in Tel Aviv.21

18 Allan Kozinn, “Portrait Reveals a Collage of Influences,” New York Times, published 28 Sept. 2008, accessed 10 Feb. 2018, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/arts/music/29lieb.html.

19 Alex Ross, “For Peter Lieberson,” Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise, published 23 April 2011, accessed 10 Feb. 2018, http://www.therestisnoise.com/2011/04/for-peter-lieberson.html.

20 Andrea Shea, “Songs of Love and Sorrow… And Love Again,” WBUR Boston, published 25 Mar. 2010, accessed 16 April 2018, http://legacy.wbur.org/2010/03/25/songs-of-love-and-sorrow.

21 Ibid.

!4 CHAPTER 2 LORRAINE HUNT LIEBERSON: HER CAREER AND INFLUENCE

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson was born on March 1, 1954, near San Francisco, California.22 Her father, Randolph Hunt, was a music teacher and a conductor for several community music programs, and her mother was a local voice teacher.23 It should come as no surprise that Lorraine’s musical training began at a very young age. She began by taking piano and violin lessons, but at the age of twelve she switched to viola. She played in youth orchestras and sang in local choirs.24 It seems that her life was always filled with music. Lorraine attended San Jose State for her undergraduate degree, where she studied both voice and viola. After graduation she made a career as a freelance violist in the Bay Area. Several years later she moved with a boyfriend to Boston where she continued to freelance. It was not until she was twenty-six years old that she turned entirely to singing, attending the Boston Conservatory to study voice.25 In 1981 she won two competitions, one run by Boston Opera and the other by the

Metropolitan Opera.26 Though she was not a national winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions,27 her reputation as a singer began to grow. At this point she was singing

22 “Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: American Opera Singer,” Encyclopædia Britannica, published 22 Feb. 2018, accessed 28 Feb. 2018, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lorraine-Hunt- Lieberson.

23 Anthony Tommasini, “Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Luminous Mezzo, Dies at 52,” New York Times, published 5 July 2006, accessed 28 Feb. 2018, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/arts/ music/05hunt.html.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

26 Alan Blyth, "Hunt-Lieberson [Hunt], Lorraine,” in Grove Music Online, accessed 1 Mar. 2018, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/ omo-9781561592630-e-0000046063.

27 Alan Blyth is unclear about what level of the competition Lorraine won (district/regional/ national). However, she is not listed as a national winner on the Metropolitan Opera’s website, so so she must have been either district or regional winner.

!5 primarily Baroque repertoire, which she continued to perform adeptly throughout her entire career.28 Lorraine first garnered major attention after appearing as Sesto in Peter Sellars’s 1985 production of Giulio Cesare.29 This sparked a close professional relationship, and she appeared in many of his later productions, including Oedipus rex (Jocasta), Don Giovanni (Elvira), L’incoronazione di Poppea (Ottavia), Serse (title role), and Theodora (Irene).30 She also appeared in a controversial staging of two Bach cantatas at Lincoln Center in 2001. These two cantatas, No. 199 and No. 82, were conducted by Craig Smith and were staged quite graphically. Interestingly, neither cantata was intended for mezzo-soprano/alto voice. The first of the cantatas, Mein Herze schwimmt in Blut, was written for soprano and the second, Ich habe genug, was written for baritone. In Sellars’s highly stylized production, the second cantata featured Lorraine in a hospital gown frantically pulling at tubes attached to her arms.31 This was particularly moving at the time because Lorraine had recently undergone treatment for breast cancer. In fact, the concert was originally planned for 1999, but had to be postponed when Lorraine was diagnosed. This diagnosis caused her to withdraw from several performances, including the premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin.32 Furthermore, Lorraine lost her younger sister, Alexis, to breast cancer in 2000, which must have made Sellars’s staging all the more heartbreaking both for the performer and for audience members who were aware of her loss. Before her bout with breast cancer, Lorraine made her Metropolitan Opera debut singing Myrtle Wilson in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby, and she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera

28 Ibid.

29 “Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: American Opera Singer,” Encyclopædia Britannica.

30 Blyth.

31 James R. Oestereich, “Music; Staging Unstagable Bach, Again,” New York Times, published 4 Mar. 2001, accessed 1 Mar. 2018, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/04/arts/music-staging- unstageable-bach-again.html.

32 Tommasini.

!6 again in 2003 as Dido in Berlioz’s Les Troyens.33 Aside from her role in The Great Gatsby, her major operatic premieres include the mezzo role in John Adams’s El Niño and Triraksha in

Lieberson’s Ashoka’s Dream.34 Lorraine was never attached to a record label, presumably because she so valued live performances. Relatively few recordings were made during her lifetime, and the majority that are available now were recorded live and released posthumously. It has been speculated that this may be the reason why Lorraine was not better known during her life, despite a formidable career.35 In 2001, she was named Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year. In a touching obituary, Charlotte Higgins describes Lorraine’s voice: Inextricable from the passion she brought to her music was an incomparable beauty of phrasing, a matchless, velvety tone and a quality, barely definable, of rapture. Her artistic powers were still in full and glorious flow; she was one of the greatest mezzos of our age. A woman of immense grace, she was disarming in her candour and warmth.36 Though Lorraine was a relatively private person, she never shied away from baring her soul onstage. Despite the gleaming richness of her sound, her voice somehow conveyed poignant intimacy. Although she paid scrupulous attention to rhythm, phrasing and text, she came across as utterly spontaneous. Her person disappeared into her performances. And yet in a Handel aria, a Britten cantata or a song by her husband, she could be so revealing you sometimes wanted to avert your eyes for fear of intruding.37 Sadly, after a performance of Neruda Songs in 2006, Lorraine returned to her Santa Fe home complaining of stomach problems. She was diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer and died peacefully on July 3.38

33 Tommasini.

34 “Lorraine Hunt Lieberson,” Naxos Records, accessed 1 Mar. 2018, https://www.naxos.com/ person/Lorraine_Hunt_Lieberson/1833.htm.

35 Higgins.

36 Ibid.

37 Tommasini.

38 Higgins.

!7 CHAPTER 3 RAINER RILKE: THE TEXTS

Austrian-Bohemian poet René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke was born

December 4, 1875, to a German speaking family in Prague.39 Both of his parents were somewhat discontent in life; Josef Rilke had ambitions of a military career and Sophia had dreamed of a life in high society, but neither attained those desires. Likely as a result of living under the weight of those unfulfilled ambitions, the poet described his own childhood as “anxious and heavy.”40 In 1885 Rilke’s parents separated, and he was sent to the military academy of St. Pölten. Unfortunately, Rilke found himself even more miserable at St. Pölten’s than he had been in his parents’ home, and it was with great relief that he found himself free of the military in 1891.41 His uncle, Jaroslav Rilke, then became his main source of support in both his academic and artistic endeavors. Rilke was employed at his uncle’s law office and began studies at the

University of Prague.42 In 1894, Rilke wrote Lives and Songs, his first book of poetry, and in 1896 he left for Munich without finishing his studies.43 While in Munich, Rilke met Lou Andreas-Salomé, a Russian psychoanalyst and author. Lou exposed Rilke to Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophies and Freudian psychology. It is also theorized that Rilke changed his first name to the more masculine “Rainer” due to her

39 Rüdiger Görner, “Rilke: a biographical exploration,” in The Cambridge Companion to Rilke, edited by Karen Leeder and Robert Vilain (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 10.

40 Görner, 9.

41 H. F. Peters, Rainer Maria Rilke: Masks and the Man (New York: University of Washington Press, 1960), 195.

42 Ibid.

43 Görner, 11.

!8 influence.44 In 1901, Rilke married Clara Westhoff, a German painter and sculptor.45 The two later separated to pursue their individual careers, though they never divorced. When the First World War broke out, Rilke’s traveling became limited to German- speaking countries. In 1915 he was briefly drafted, and his poetic output was brought to a near standstill.46 After the war, Rilke resumed traveling, but found that his psyche was not entirely unscathed. Several years later in 1921, Rilke moved to Château de Muzot in the Canton of Wallis in Switzerland,47 and it was here that his “imagination finally mended” after encountering “a world that was shattered by World War One.”48 In February of 1922, the poet found himself in a frenzy of writing, and it is out of this that the Sonnets to Orpheus emerged. The sonnet sequence is divided into two parts, the first containing twenty-six poems and the second containing twenty- nine. The first half was written in a mere four days (February 2-5), and the second was finished in a little over a week (February 15-23). In the intervening ten days, Rilke finished writing Duino Elegies, a collection of ten elegies.49 Interestingly, though they were practically written in tandem, they represent two different periods of his poetic output. The elegies are commonly referred to as coming from his “late” period, while the sonnets are from his “very late” period.50 While both books of poems deal with similar themes, in particular metamorphosis, the elegies lament the absence of this transformation in human existence, whereas the sonnets

44 Ibid, 12.

45 Peter Branscombe, "Rilke, (René) Rainer (Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef) Maria,” in Grove Music Online, accessed 30 Jan. 2018, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/ grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000049390.

46 Peters, 198. After being drafted, Rilke was transferred to the military archive in Vienna due to the intervention of some friends.

47 Thomas Martinec, “The Sonnets to Orpheus,” in The Cambridge Companion to Rilke, edited by Karen Leeder and Robert Vilain (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 95.

48 David Young, Introduction to Sonnets to Orpheus, by Rainer Maria Rilke (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1987), vii.

49 Martinec, 96.

50 Ibid, 96.

!9 portray humans in the process of metamorphosis. David Young states, "If... Duino Elegies are about what it really means to be human, the sonnets seem to be about how you can love the world, and survive in it, given that condition.”51 In a letter to Countess Sizzo (April 12, 1923), Rilke wrote: Anyone who has not acknowledged the fearsomeness of life on occasion, even acclaimed it, will never fully take possession of the ineffable authorities of our existence, he will pass by on the verges, and when judgement is made one day will be neither alive nor dead. To demonstrate how formidableness and blessedness are identical[…]: that is the core meaning and conception of my two books.52 For centuries mankind had looked to God for meaning in life, but Nietzsche had declared God dead in the late 1800s. Then many looked to science, but the atrocities of World War I shattered the idea that technology and progress could give direction. Rilke’s poetry suggests an alternate source for meaning in life - specifically the reintegration of the “formidable” and the “blessed.” Rilke believed that the ability to reconcile the two would enable humankind to transform and transcend mundane life. Orpheus acts as a symbol of this reconciliation. Stephen Mitchell puts it well, saying: Orpheus is a symbol of absolute connection… He willingly steps into the transforming flame and enters the Double Realm, a mode of being in which all the ordinary human dichotomies (life/death, good/evil) are reconciled in an infinite wholeness.53 Orpheus was able to transcend the normal bounds of human life at three times in mythology. He is able to walk through the underworld while still living; he is able to charm nature and beasts with his singing; and after his own death his severed head continues to sing.54 Orpheus’s ability to exist in death while alive (and vice versa) as well as his ability to unite the human and inhuman make him the figure of metamorphosis.

51 Young, ix.

52 Quoted in Martinec, 97.

53 Stephen Mitchell, Introduction to The Sonnets to Orpheus, by Rainer Maria Rilke (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), 9.

54 Martinec, 99.

!10 Wera Ouckama Knoop, a young dancer who died just prior to Rilke’s frenzy of inspiration, appears as another symbol of metamorphosis in several sonnets. Though Rilke did not know the dancer well, he was deeply touched by her death, and the sonnets are dedicated to her memory. Wera’s death at such a young age struck Rilke as another illustration of human metamorphosis. She was taken out of life prematurely and therefore she unites youth and death in the Double Realm, or Doppelbereich.55 Rilke’s sonnets are modeled after Petrarch’s; each poem is made of two strophes of four lines (quatrains) followed by two strophes of three lines (tercets).56 Sonnet form has strict rules and is built on longstanding tradition, which may at first seem like an odd choice for poems that center around transformation. It is customary for the two quatrains to share a rhyme scheme and for the tercets to share a rhyme scheme, and, generally speaking, the first two quatrains raise a question or a problem to be solved which is then somehow concluded in the tercets. To some degree, Rilke adheres to these rules. All of his sonnets have fourteen lines: two quatrains and two tercets. They have identifiable rhyme schemes and metrical patterns, but the rhyme schemes sometimes change between strophes. The stanzas vary greatly in length, and often, rather than having a clean break between the quatrains and the tercet, Rilke links them with an enjambment.57 A sonnet sequence is usually linked by a common theme or sequence of events, and it often tells the story of a romantic relationship. Sonnets to Orpheus take a slightly different approach. [Rilke] does not center his poem on love for a particular person, but writes instead a kind of extended love-poem to the world celebrating such diverse love-objects as mirrors, dogs, fruit, ancient sarcophagi, roses, a strip of cloth, unicorns, breathing and childhood.58 Essentially, by breaking the traditional rules, Rilke has transformed sonnet form itself.

55 Martinec, 101. Wera is referred to in Sonnets I:25 and II: 28.

56 This is unlike the Shakespearean sonnet, which contains two strophes of six lines followed by a couplet.

57 For example, see Sonnet II.5 “Blumenmuskel,” pages 21-22.

58 Young, viii.

!11 CHAPTER 4 RILKE SONGS: AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE

As a child, Peter Lieberson's mother often spoke lines of Rilke’s poetry to him. Though Vera was Norwegian, her first language was German, and she instilled in the young Lieberson an affection for the German poet.59 Moreover, it is easy to see why Sonnets to Orpheus specifically appealed to the composer, especially when considering the tenets of Vajrayana Buddhism. Whereas Mahayana [another denomination of Buddhism] seeks to destroy the poisons of craving, aggression, and ignorance, Vajrayana places an emphasis on transmuting them directly into wisdom. This is based in the Tibetan Buddhist belief that the mundane world (samsara) is inseparable from enlightenment.60 Like the sonnets, Vajrayana Buddhism is all about metamorphosis. This is evident in the poems that Lieberson chose, which share themes like openness, transformation, and being one with the forces around us. Furthermore, breath, nature, and space frequently appear as motifs in these texts. Rilke Songs was premiered in 2001 at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival,61 though it was not printed until 2007, a year after Lorraine’s death.62 In spite of the uniqueness of each of the songs, they do share some common, salient qualities. Lieberson uses enharmonic equivalents freely throughout the cycle, as can be seen in Examples 1-3. Examples 1 and 3 feature the voice singing a D-flat while the piano plays a C-sharp, and Example 2 shows the voice singing a D- sharp while the piano plays an E-flat.

59 Lieberson, Rilke Songs, vi.

60 “Intro to Tibetan Buddhism,” Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism, accessed 13 Feb. 2018, https://www.sakya.org/introtibetanbuddhism.html.

61 Lieberson, Rilke Songs, ii.

62 Lieberson, Rilke Songs, i.

!12

Ex. 1, Rilke Songs, “Atmen du unsichtbares Gedicht,” meas. 20.

Ex. 2, Rilke Songs, “Wolle die Wandlung,” meas. 20.

Ex. 3, Rilke Songs, “Stiller Freund,” meas. 15.

!13 Rilke Songs also contains a generous amount of part doubling between the piano and the voice, though this is not often obvious upon a first listen. Lieberson often shifts octaves, even within a melodic phrase, in order to maintain the independence of the two voices. This can be seen in Example 4.

Ex. 4, Rilke Songs, “Wolle die Wandlung,” meas. 4-5.

In these two measures the voice and right hand of the piano have the exact same pitches and rhythms, but there are octave displacements in the piano part. This inversion of the intervals changes the contour, making the two parts more independent. Lieberson also tends to write huge leaps in the vocal line. The table below demonstrates the frequency with which large leaps occur in the set.

Table 1, Frequency of large intervallic leaps in Rilke Songs.63

Leaps from m6-8ve Leaps over an 8ve “O ihr Zärtlichen” 12 3 “Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht” 18 0 “Wolle die Wandlung” 14 3

63 Excludes any intervals separated by a rest.

!14 Table 1, continued.

“Blumenmuskel" 8 0 “Stiller Freund” 3 2

“O ihr Zärtlichen” O ihr Zärtlichen, tretet zuweilen Oh you gentle ones, tread occasionally in den Atem, der euch nicht meint, in the breath that is not meant for you, laßt ihn an eueren Wangen sich teilen, Let it divide itself on your cheeks, hinter euch zittert er, wieder vereint. Behind you it trembles, again united.

O ihr Seligen, o ihr Heilen, O you blessed ones, o you whole ones, die ihr der Anfang der Herzen scheint, you seem to be the beginning of hearts, Bogen der Pfeile und Ziele von Pfeilen, Bow of the arrows and targets of arrows, ewiger glänzt euer Lächeln verweint. your tear-stained smile shines forever.

Fürchtet euch nicht zu leiden, die Schwere, Do not fear to suffer the difficulties, gebt sie zurück an der Erde Gewicht; Give the weight of your burdens back to the earth; schwer sind die Berge, schwer sind die Meere. heavy are the mountains, heavy are the seas.

Selbst die als Kinder ihr pflanztet, die Bäume, Even the trees you planted as children, wurden zu schwer längst; ihr trüget sie nicht. became too heavy long ago; you could not carry them. Aber die Lüfte… aber die Räume… But the breezes… but the spaces…

The first song, “O ihr Zärtlichen,” takes its text from sonnet I.4. Lieberson states that the poem is “about being childlike and open.”64 To evoke an unburdened and innocent character, Lieberson shifts freely and constantly between meters. This is particularly noticeable at the beginning of the piece where no more than two measures pass without a change of meter (measures 1-17). This constant shifting combined with rhythms that are tied across barlines creates a feeling of suspension and timelessness that colors the whole cycle with an esoteric quality. As the song continues, the vocal line departs from its gentle beginning and takes on an impassioned nature at measure 18, exclaiming “O ihr Seligen, o ihr Heilen, die ihr der Anfang der Herzen scheint” (Oh you blessed ones, oh you whole ones, you who seem to be the beginning of hearts). The voice then descends to the lowest pitches of the song (marked piano, ma intenso) at measure 31, and a heavy quality appears in both piano and voice. The listener finally hears a consistent 6/8 meter, and the piano plays primarily dotted quarter notes and plodding eighth notes. This, along with the voice’s laborious climb back up to a higher register

64 Lieberson, Rilke Songs, vi.

!15 followed by a slow stepwise descent, lends a strenuous feeling to the whole section, which textually centers around “die Schwere” (the heaviness). This is immediately followed by a slower, quieter section which is colored with fatigue and despondency (starting measure 40). However, the song does not end with lethargy; Lieberson sets the ending line adeptly. “Aber die Lüfte” (but the breezes) is set to a fluttering sextuplet in the voice, and “aber die Räume” (but the spaces) is set to a gentle major tenth leap. This is accompanied by sustained chords in the piano, which recall the timelessness of the opening (seen in Example 5).

Ex. 5, Rilke Songs, “O ihr Zärtlichen,” meas. 45-48.

Though Lieberson does not use overt text painting until the very end of the song, he is able to vividly take the listener through the entire sonnet. The introduction brings the simplicity and innocence of “the gentle ones” to life and is followed by their journey through suffering. He then ends by calling back the lighter elements, which essentially merges the heavy and the light in the Doppelbereich.

“Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht” Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht! Breathing, you invisible poem! Immerfort um das eigne Constantly around its own Sein rein eingetauschter Weltraum. Gegengewicht, Existence, purely exchanged universe. Counterweight, In dem ich mich rhythmisch ereigne. In which I rhythmically occur.

Einzige Welle, deren Only wave, whose

!16 allmähliches Meer ich bin; Gradual sea I am; sparsamstes du von allen möglichen Meeren, - Most frugal of all possible seas, - Raumgewinn. Space gain.

Wieviele von diesen Stellen der Räume waren schon How many of these points of space were already innen in mir. Manche Winde Inside me. Some winds sind wie mein Sohn. Are like my son.

Erkennst du mich, Luft, du, voll noch einst Do you recognize me, air, you, still full of meiniger Orte? places that were once mine? Du, einmal glatte Rinde, You, once smooth bark, Rundung und Blatt meiner Worte. Curve and leaf of my words.

The second song, “Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht,” is set to sonnet II.1 and begins with only the voice. It freely utters the title (Breathing, you invisible poem) before being joined by a churning, chromatic piano line. The roiling sixteenth notes of the piano (combined with one moment of moving sixteenth notes in the voice) create a flurry of sound in which one can imagine the constant exchange of air, which is the “invisible poem.” This whirlwind is finally broken in measure 14 when the voice and piano come together in a more staid passage. The two parts have a unified rhythm on the word “Gegengewicht” (counterpoint/counterweight), and they alternate between two chords, as if teetering back and forth between worlds.

Ex. 6, Rilke Songs, “Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht,” meas. 14.

The voice then sings another short a cappella passage before being rejoined by the piano in a lush swell of sound. The piano plays fluidly shifting tremolos as the voice sings a sustained, swaying line. In this, the listener hears the breath characterized again, but this time as the “einzige Welle” (only wave) described in the text. This is interrupted by a return of the persistent sixteenth notes in the piano. However, rather than returning to the churning legato of the initial

!17 passage, these sixteenth notes are much more turbulent. They change registers swiftly and roughly, and they grow in speed and volume before winding to a contemplative stop in measure 31. The voice reenters in measure 33, asking pensively, “How many of these spaces are already inside of me?” The sixteenth notes are reiterated one last time, and this time they are jagged and jarring. However they quickly dissolve, giving way to the shifting tremolos of the previous “wave.” This feeling of return is strengthened by the reappearance of a previous melody. The voice sings the melodic content of measures 16-17, but at a half-step transposition, seen in Examples 7 and 8.

Ex. 7, Rilke Songs, “Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht,” meas. 16-17.

Ex. 8, Rilke Songs, “Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht,” meas. 50-52.

!18 Granted, this is not much repeated material: simply a descending perfect fifth, descending minor third, followed by an ascending minor seventh. However, there is so little repeated melodic material throughout the set that this bears mentioning. The recurring wave gradually subsides, and both the voice and piano begin to slow and simplify. The listener is left with only the gentle remnants of the wind/breath in the occasional fluttering sixteenth and thirty-second notes of the piano.

“Wolle die Wandlung” Wolle die Wandlung. O sei für die Flamme begeistert, Desire the change. O be enraptured for the flame, drin sich ein Ding dir entzieht, das mit Verwandlungen Something from inside of it retreats from you, prunkt; resplendent with transformation; jener entwerfende Geist, welcher das Irdische meistert, That creating spirit, which masters earthly life, liebt in dem Schwung der Figur nichts wie den Loves nothing in the swing of the figure as wendenden Punkt. much as the inverting point.

Was sich ins Bleiben verschließt, schon ists das Erstarrte; That which locks itself in remaining is already frozen; wähnt es sich sicher im Schutz des unscheinbaren Grau’s? Does it imagine itself safe in the protection of the inconspicuous grayness? Warte, ein Härtestes warnt aus der Ferne das Harte. Wait, from the distance the most difficult warns of difficulty. Wehe -: abwesender Hammer holt aus! Careful -: The imperceptible hammer swings up!

Wer sich als Quelle ergießt, den erkennt die Erkennung; He who pours himself out as a source, recognition recognizes him; und sie fürhrt ihn entzückt durch das heiter Geschaffne, And it leads him delighted through the cheerful creation, das mit Anfang oft schließt und mit Ende beginnt. That often concludes with the beginning and with the ending begins.

Jeder glückliche Raum ist Kind oder Enkel von Trennung, Each happy space is a child or grandchild of separation, den sie staunend durchgehn. Und die verwandelte Daphne Which they go through astonished. And the transformed Daphne, will, seit sie lorbeern fühlt, daß du dich wandelst in Wind. Since feeling the laurel, desires that you transform into the wind.

“Wolle die Wandlung,” the third song in the set, is set to sonnet II.12, and it seems to grow right out of “Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht.” The voice and piano enter simultaneously, and the voice starts on C5, the note which ended the previous song. It is as though the “Luft” (breeze) of the second song died down only for a moment to rise again in the next song. Once again, the listener can hear persistent sixteenth notes in the piano, but unlike the previous song, these sixteenth notes seem a little freer. They are at the mercy of the wind, speeding up and

!19 slowing down liberally. Furthermore, while the text of “Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht” hints at metamorphosis (through the air/breath that links everything), “Wolle die Wandlung” revels in transformation. This particular poem is full of clever word play and paradoxical phrases, such as “den erkennt die Erkennung” (recognition recognizes him) and “das mit Anfang oft shließt und mit Ende beginnt” (which often concludes with the beginning, and with the ending begins). It is in this song that Lieberson uses some of his most overt text painting. For example, on the phrase "Schwung der Figur" (swing of the figure), the listener hears a distinct dotted, swinging rhythm which is unlike anything used previously in the song. This is quickly followed by “nichts wie den wendenden Punkt” (nothing as the inverting/turning point), which is skillfully represented in a winding vocal line that keeps inverting on itself. Both of these uses of text painting can be seen in Example 9.

Ex. 9, Rilke Songs, “Wolle die Wandlung,” meas. 14-16.

At measure 34, the song’s fury finally dies down. The passage is marked tranquillo, and the piano plays gently lilting chords while the voice moves smoothly across several registers. It is as though the voice and piano are leading the listener through the “heiter Geschaffne” (cheerful creation). From here, the song slowly intensifies again, as Daphne, the mythological nymph who transformed into a laurel tree, bids the listener to transform into the wind. This behest is illustrated in the piano part which plays a chime-like quintuplet figure that slowly fades into the distance (seen in Example 10).

!20 Ex. 10, Rilke Songs, "Wolle die Wandlung,” meas. 50.

“Blumenmuskel” Blumenmuskel, der der Anemone Flower muscle of the anemone Wiesenmorgen nach und nach erschließt, Which opens little by little to reveal the meadow morning bis in ihren Schooß das polyphone Until in her lap, heaven pours forth Licht der lauten Himmel sich ergießt, The polyphonic light, in den stillen Blütenstern gespannter, In the silent, tensed star-blossom, Muskel des unendlichen Empfangs, Muscle of infinite receiving, manchmal so von Fülle übermannter, Sometimes so overpowered by abundance, daß der Ruhewink des Untergangs That the quiet signal of the setting sun

!21 kaum vermag die weitzurückgeschnellten Can barely return Blätteränder dir zurückzugeben: The thrown-open petal edges: du, Entschluß und Kraft von wieviel Welten! You, determination and strength of so many worlds!

Wir, Gewaltsamen, wir währen länger. We, violent ones, we last longer. Aber wann, in welchem aller Leben, But when, in all of our lives, sind wir endlich offen und Empfänger? Are we open and receiving?

The fourth song, set to sonnet II.5, seems to have the least in common with the surrounding songs. Throughout the majority of the cycle the voice and piano are very closely related, but here they are quite independent of one another. In fact, they do not even share the same time signature until measure 22. It is easy to imagine the vocal line with an alternate harmony, which would change the song entirely. However, bustling sixteenth notes underneath the fluid vocal melody (which uses only white-keys on the piano) create a feeling of contradiction. The unaffected piano line represents the indifferent, passing day while the more romantic vocal line represents the opening anemone,65 happily receiving the sun’s light. Unlike the previous two songs, the sixteenth note pattern in the piano does not feel frantic or impassioned. It is more like clockwork, sometimes altering in dynamic level but never faltering rhythmically until measure 20 when it suddenly takes on a dotted swing. After a moment of stillness, this builds into a tense progression of chords that illustrate the anemone’s struggle to stay open, in spite of the setting sun. Though the vocal line here has several leaps, the piano’s chords stay tightly restrained, as though unable to move much more than a major second (seen in Example 11). In the last few measures, starting in measure 28, there is a stark contrast to the opening. This can be seen in the poem as well, whose last tercet changes tone abruptly. The focus shifts from the anemone to the “Gewaltsamen” (the violent ones), a term Rilke uses here to refer to humanity. The piano plays stark chords, many of which have wide intervals giving them a hollow quality, while the voice sings a limited range, a total reversal of measures 24-25. The song then ends with a haunting tritone in both the voice and piano that asks the accusatory question, “When, in all of our lives, are we as open and receiving?”

65 It should be noted that the “Anemone” mentioned in Rilke’s poem refers to a flower in the Ranunculaceae family, not a sea anemone.

!22 Ex. 11, Rilke Songs, “Blumenmuskel,” meas. 24-25.

“Stiller Freund” Stiller Freund der vielen Fernen, fühle, Silent friend of the many distances, feel, wie dein Atem noch den Raum vermehrt. How your breath expands space. Im Gebälk der finstern Glockenstühle In the beam of the grim belfries laß dich läuten. Das, was an dir zehrt, Let yourself ring. That which takes a toll on you wird ein Starkes über dieser Nahrung. Becomes strong through this nourishment. Geh in der Verwandlung aus und ein. Go in and out of transformation. Was ist deine leidendste Erfahrung? What is your most agonizing experience? Ist dir Trinken bitter, werde Wein. If drinking is bitter to you, become wine.

Sei in dieser Nacht aus Übermaß Be in this night of excess Zauberkraft am Kreuzweg deiner Sinne, Magic on the crossroad of your senses, ihrer seltsamen Begegnung Sinn. Sense of their strange encounter.

Und wenn dich das Irdische vergaß, And when earthly things have forgotten you, zu der stillen Erde sag: Ich rinne. Say to the quiet earth: I flow. Zu dem raschen Wasser sprich: Ich bin. Say to the rushing water: I am.

The final song of the the cycle, “Stiller Freund,” was actually written in 1997, several years prior to the rest of the set.66 The text is from sonnet II.29, which concludes Sonnets to Orpheus; it is only fitting that it should conclude Rilke Songs as well. In the words of Stephen Mitchell: By the end of the book… the cycle is completed. Life resolves in a single breath, and the tree of song that sprang up in the first line of the first Sonnets is

66 Ledbetter.

!23 transformed into the serene, rooted I am that is the Sonnets’ last word, the word uttered at every moment by each particular form, and also the name of God.67 Similarly, the opening of “Stiller Freund” recalls the opening of the song cycle. Both songs begin in a 5/8 meter, and, though neither stay there for long, the uneven meters combined with oddly tied and dotted rhythms create a feeling of timelessness. This, as well as the gentle register shifts in the piano and the primarily stepwise motion in the voice, creates an inviting soundscape that characterizes the first portion of this song.

However, this is interrupted by a menacing rhythmic figure in the piano which characterizes the middle portion of the song. The figure (seen below in Example 12) is a triplet rhythm made up of a sixteenth note and an eighth note, and it invades multiple registers “preying” on the subject.

Ex. 12, Rilke Songs, “Stiller Freund,” meas. 21-25.68

This gnawing figure finally subsides in measure 34 and gives way to sustained notes in the piano as the voice sings wide intervals, bidding the sufferer to take their bitterness and turn themselves into wine. In measure 45 the opening measures return. Though the voice has different words, much of the musical material is unchanged, implying that things are made new through metamorphosis. As noted previously, there is very little repeated melodic material used throughout Rilke Songs, so the use of an ABA’ form in the last song is quite remarkable. As the

67 Mitchell, 10.

68 It may be noted that this excerpt could easily become a 12-tone row. However, no permutations of the row appear throughout the rest of the song.

!24 set draws to a close both piano and voice slowly fade before cutting off abruptly, all the while affirming their existence, “Ich bin” (I am).

!25 CHAPTER 5 PABLO NERUDA: THE TEXTS

Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was born July 12, 1904, to José del Carmen Reyes, a railway worker, and Rosa Basoalto, a school teacher, who died within a month of his birth.69 His given name was Ricardo Eliezer Neftali Reyes y Basoalto.70 He was born in Parral, just south of Santiago, but within a few years the family had relocated to Temuco, a small town farther south.71 At the age of ten the precocious boy began writing poetry. His father disapproved,72 which may be why the poet adopted a pen name in honor of Czech poet Jan Neruda.73 Despite his father’s disapproval, Neruda’s poetic endeavors were encouraged by Gabriela Mistral, who at the time was the principal of the local girls’ school.74 Mistral, a poet herself, later won the Nobel Prize for literature (twenty-six years before Neruda).75 His first poem, “Entusiasmo y Perseverancia,” was published in the local newspaper when he was only thirteen.76 Neruda moved to Santiago in order to attend university, where he studied French with the intent of becoming a teacher. It was there that he published Veinte poemas de amor y una canción

69 Allén Sture, editor, Tore Frängsmyr, editor- in charge, Nobel Lectures, Literature 1968-1980, (World Scientific Publishing Co.: Singapore, 1993), https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/ literature/laureates/1971/neruda-bio.html.

70 “Pablo Neruda: 1904-1973,” Poetry Foundation, accessed 2 Mar. 2018, https:// www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/pablo-neruda.

71 Manuel E. Duran and Roberto González Echeverría, “Pablo Neruda: Chilean Poet,” Encyclopædia Britannica, published 15 Nov. 2017, accessed 2 Mar. 2018, https:// www.britannica.com/biography/Pablo-Neruda.

72 Ibid.

73 Sture.

74 Duran.

75 Horst Frenz, editor, Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, (Elsevier Publishing Company: Amsterdam, 1969), https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1945/mistral- bio.html.

76 Sture.

!26 desperada (Twenty poems of love and a song of despair).77 Initially his publisher refused to print the poems because of their overt eroticism. Unlike most poetry at the time, which spoke of courtly love with euphemisms and discrete wordings, Neruda’s poems were filled with references to commonplace relations and indelicate references to delicate subjects. The collection was finally printed in 1924, and it is now one of Neruda’s best selling books.78 Unfortunately, Neruda’s poetry alone did not provide much income, so in 1927 he took a position as a diplomat in Rangoon, Burma. The poet’s time spent in Burma was quite lonely, and this isolation led him to look inward. The resulting book of poetry, Residencia en la tierra (Residence on earth) has been described as “hermetic” and “unintelligible.”79 It was this bleak book of poetry that made Neruda well known throughout the Spanish speaking world.80 The hermetic style of expression he had […] perfected in Residencia en la tierra was soon spread all over the Spanish-speaking world, beginning the cycle of imitation and emulation that has come to be called Nerudism.81 Neruda spent the following years traveling back and forth between Chile and his diplomatic posts, which included Batavia (modern day Jakarta), Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Madrid, and Paris. In Batavia he met and married his first wife, a Dutch woman named Maria Antonieta Hagenaar. Their marriage dissolved within four years, and the poet later married an Argentine woman, Delia del Carril. This marriage lasted slightly longer, but the two divorced in the 1950s.82 In the 1940s Neruda entered the political arena. He was elected to senate in 1945 as a member of the Communist party. His strong political convictions led him to denounce Residencia en la tierra as too depressing; he believed that he had a social responsibility to create

77 “Pablo Neruda: 1904-1973,” Poetry Foundation.

78 René de Costa, The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979), 2-4.

79 Ibid, 5.

80 Sture.

81 Costa, 8.

82 Duran.

!27 poetry that “support[ed] life.”83 He lent his support to presidential candidate Gabriel González Videla. Two years after being elected Videla severed his ties with the Communist Party which led Neruda to publish a scathing letter of criticism. The poet was then forced into exile to avoid repercussions.84 In the following years the poet travelled through the USSR, Poland, Hungary, and Mexico. While in Mexico he met Matilde Urrutia, his third wife to whom he remained married for the rest of his life.85 This period led to most of Neruda’s “epic” poetry, in particular Canto general. Once again, there is a pronounced change in style. Obviously, Neruda has again altered his expressive system. There is not the hermetic style of Residencia en la tierra. There is a disciplined use of rhyme and meter. There is also a change in vocabulary and diction: the language is simple and elevated; the syntax is clear and straightforward. The poet, conscious of his new public responsibility, is no longer speaking and writing as though to himself; he is writing to persuade the reader.86 In 1952, the poet was finally able to return to Chile. By then he had achieved national recognition and had amassed a decent amount of wealth. His 1954 publication of Odas elementales (Elemental odes) marked another change of style, one which praised everyday objects. For instance, one of the poems in the book is entitled “Oda a la cebolla” (Ode to the onion).87 In 1959 he published Cien sonetos de amor (One Hundred Love Sonnets) which were dedicated to Matilde.88 Though this publication is not considered a critical part of his oeuvre, it does contain many stunningly beautiful love poems. The book is divided into four main sections: mañana (morning), mediodía (midday), tarde (evening), and noche (night). Each time of day represents a different chapter in a relationship; the poems in mañana are about fresh, child-like

83 Costa, 11.

84 Duran.

85 Ibid.

86 Costa, 13.

87 Duran.

88 Sture.

!28 love, and the poems in noche speak of love that is mature and profound. As the title suggests, each of the poems are in Petrachan sonnet form, but the rhyme schemes tend to be quite free or even nonexistent. There is something about Neruda—about the way he glorifies experience, about the spontaneity and directness of his passion—that sets him apart from other poets. It is hard not to be swept away by the urgency of his language, and that’s especially so when he seems swept away.89 And the poet was certainly swept away when he met Matilde; that much is obvious from his verse. In 1971 Neruda was appointed as diplomat to France where he was awarded the Nobel prize for literature.90 He returned to Chile shortly after due to poor health, and he passed away in 1973, just days after a right-wing coup. While the recorded cause of death was cancer and a related illness, forensic experts have since discovered that the cause of death was some sort of infection, possibly as a result of assassination.91

89 Mark Strand, “The Ecstatist: Pablo Neruda and his passions,” New Yorker, published 8 Sept. 2003, accessed 3 Mar. 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/09/08/the-ecstasist.

90 Sture.

91 Colin Dwyer, “Pablo Neruda Didn’t Die of Cancer, Experts Say. So What Killed the Poet?,” NPR:The Two-Way, published 23 Oct. 2018, accessed 2 Mar. 2018, https://www.npr.org/sections/ thetwo-way/2017/10/23/559522814/pablo-neruda-didnt-die-of-cancer-experts-say-so-what- killed-the-poet.

!29 CHAPTER 6 NERUDA SONGS: A FURTHER EXPRESSION OF LOVE

Peter Lieberson first discovered Neruda’s love poetry by chance in the Albuquerque airport; he was drawn to a little book with a shocking pink cover, Cien sonetos de amor. In the forward to the piano-vocal score the composer says: “As I glanced through the poems, I immediately thought that I must set some of these for Lorraine.”92 Lieberson received a co- commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and on May 20, 2005, Neruda Songs was premiered in Los Angeles under Esa-Pekka Salonen, quickly followed by the Boston premiere on November 25 under James Levine.93 The composer presented the songs to his wife as a finished product. When asked if she had been consulted during the writing process, Lorraine responded: We'd been together a while, so he was really tuned into my voice, and so I didn't really have to say much at all about what he [had] written for me. He was right on, as far as range and technical ease of the vocal lines.94 In 2008, two years after Lorraine’s death, Lieberson was awarded the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in composition for Neruda Songs. The $200,000 award95 is given yearly through the University of Louisville, and the winner is determined by both professional musicians and community members. Dr. Marc Satterwhite, a professor of composition at the University of Louisville stated, “The piece has beauty and surface simplicity, but great emotional depth and intellectual rigor, as well.”96 The orchestration of Neruda Songs is incredibly lush. It is scored for two flutes (the second doubling piccolo), oboe, English horn, two clarinets (the second doubling bass clarinet),

92 Peter Lieberson, Neruda Songs (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2011), 3.

93 Lieberson, Neruda Songs, 2.

94 Lunden.

95 The award is now only $100,000.

96 Huizenga, Tom. “‘Neruda Songs’ Wins Grawemeyer Award.” NPR Music. December 3, 2007, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16835783.

!30 two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, harp, piano, percussion, and strings. The richness of the harmonies stands in stark contrast to Rilke Songs. This may be because Rilke Songs was conceived for piano and voice, and, for the sake of the pianist’s fingers, Lieberson avoided using too many notes sounding at once. However, it seems more likely that this was a choice made based on the poetry, which demands a sultry and often languid orchestration. Just a few instances of Lieberson’s use of dense chords may be seen in Examples 13 and 14.

Ex. 13, Neruda Songs, “Si no fuera porque tus ojos tienen color de luna,” PV score, meas. 58-59.

Ex. 14, Neruda Songs, “Amor, amor, las nubes a la torre del cielo,” PV score, meas. 116.

The orchestra occasionally doubles the vocal line, but not regularly. In fact, for much of the cycle, the orchestra seems to provide a cushion of sound upon which the voice sings. It is as though the orchestra creates the atmosphere in which the mezzo-soprano exists. The orchestra does play melodic material, but it is primarily in introductions, interludes, and postludes.

!31 Neruda Songs also avoids the abundance of large vocal leaps that are so prevalent in Rilke Songs. For the sake of comparison, see Table 2 below.

Table 2, Frequency of large intervallic leaps in Neruda Songs.97

Leaps from m6-8ve Leaps over an 8ve “Si no fuera porque tus ojos tienen 7 1 color de luna” “Amor, amor, las nubes a la torre del 10 0 cielo” “No estés lejos de mí, porque cómo” 8 0 “Ya eres mía. Reposa con tu sueño en 6 1 mi sueño” “Amor mio, si muero y tú no mueres” 11 0

“Si no fuera porque tus ojos tienen color de luna” Si no fuera porque tus ojos tienen color de luna, If your eyes were not the color of the moon, de día con arcilla, con trabajo, con fuego, of a day full of clay, of labor, of fire, y aprisionada tienes la agilidad del aire, and imprisoned you have the agility of air, si no fuera porque eres una semana de ámbar, if you were not a week of amber, si no fuera porque eres el momento amarillo if you were not a yellow moment en que el otoño sube por las enredaderas in which autumn climbs through the vines y eres aún el pan que la luna fragante and if you were not still the bread that the fragrant moon elabora paseando su harina por el cielo, prepares, decking the heavens with its flour. oh, bienamada, yo no te amaría! oh, beloved, I would not love you! En tu abrazo yo abrazo lo que existe, In your embrace, I embrace all that exists, la arena, el tiempo, el árbol de la lluvia, sand, time, the tree of rain, y todo vive para que yo viva: and everything lives in order that I may live: sin ir tan lejos puedo verlo todo: without going far I can see all: veo en tu vida todo lo viviente. I see in your life all that is living.

The first song is set to Sonnet VIII, which is from the Mañana portion of Cien sonetos de amor. The song begins with a gentle arpeggiation in the basses and harp, which is transferred to

97 Like Table 1, this table excludes any intervals separated by a rest. It should also be noted that this table includes one augmented fifth.

!32 the bass clarinet and cellos, and then finally to the clarinet. The clarinet plays a longing major sixth leap, which hints at a motive that is repeated throughout the song, seen in Example 15.

Ex. 15, Longing motive in Neruda Songs, “Si no fuera porque tus ojos tienen color de luna.”

This motive is slightly altered in the clarinet; it ends with a major second, causing the line to end on A, which gives it a more resolved feeling than elsewhere in the song. The motive is first heard in its primary form at the end of the first vocal phrase, measures 5-6. This motive creates a sense of longing which is followed by a vocal line that slowly climbs up, getting higher by half-steps before finally coming to a repose on “aire” (air). This word is brought to life in the following clarinet figure (seen in Example 16).

Ex. 16, Neruda Songs, “Si no fuera porque tus ojos tienen color de luna,” clarinet meas. 14.

In measure 31, the voice sings the longing motive again to the word “bienamada” (beloved), but this time it is a diminished fourth higher than before, making it all the more impassioned. This is brought on by a flurry of ascending scales in the woodwinds (seen in Example 17). There is no way to replicate this fury of activity in the piano reduction, so it must rely solely on chord clusters. This occurs again in measures 58-60. The woodwinds build into a frenzy, as the voice sings the longing motive. However, this time the voice begins a decrescendo as it reaches its highest note, once again singing “bienamada.” It is as though the burst of longing has reached its zenith, and now it must gently subside. The piece ends with a soft reiteration of the motive, once

!33 again ending with a major second rather than a minor third, giving the listener a sense of contentment and closure.

Ex. 17, Neruda Songs, “Si no fuera porque tus ojos tienen color de luna,” woodwinds, meas. 58.

“Amor, amor, las nubes a la torre del cielo” Amor, amor, las nubes a la torre del cielo Love, love, the clouds by the tower of the sky subieron como triunfantes lavanderas, climbed like triumphant washerwomen, y todo ardió en azul, todo fue estrella: and all burned in blue, everything became stars: el mar, la nave, el día se desterraron juntos. the sea, the ship, the day, they exiled together.

Ven a ver los cerezos del agua constelada Come see the cherry trees of the constellation-like water y la clave redonda del rápido universo, and the round key of the rapid universe ven a tocar el fuego del azul instantáneo, come touch the fire of the momentary blue, ven antes de que sus pétalos se consuman. come before its petals are consumed.

No hay aquí sino luz, cantidades, racimos, There is nothing here except light, amounts, clusters, espacio abierto por las virtudes del viento space open by the virtues of the wind hasta entregar los últimos secretos de la espuma. until entrusting the final secrets of the foam.

Y entre tantos azules celestes, sumergidos, And among so many heavenly blues, submerged, se pierden nuestros ojos adivinando apenas our guessing eyes scarcely lose

!34 los poderes del aire, las llaves submarinas. the powers of the air, the underwater keys.

The second song of the set takes its text from Sonnet XXIV which, like the previous text, is from the Mañana chapter. This text seems even more childlike and innocent in its ardor, which is heard from the outset of the song. The “light, brilliant” 3/8 meter brings to mind a blissful dance, which is intensified when the voice joins singing energized leaps, as though propelled forth by the intensity of its joy. The voice then breaks into fluttering sixteenth notes which are imitated and intensified in the orchestra before being restored to the vocal line (seen in Example 18).

Ex. 18, Neruda Songs, “Amor, amor, las nubes a la torre del cielo,” PV score, meas. 23-33.

This is followed by a slower, “suspended” section in measure 45 which materializes just as the singers says “todo fue estrella” (everything became stars). The tempo relaxes, and the piano and strings play warm, ascending chords. It feels as though the listener has suddenly been plunged underwater.

!35 In measure 51 the opening material returns, and the voice once again sings its joyous leaping line. However this is not a true return to the A section; in measure 96 the song dissolves into a combination of the joyous opening and the slower, suspended section. The voice sings a slightly mutated form of the opening line, while the orchestra returns to the warm, ascending chords of measure 45. The blending of these two contradictory sections creates a feeling of completion. The fluttering sixteenth notes return in the orchestra in a few places, but now they are subdued, as though they too have been plunged underwater in a search for “the final secrets of the foam.” The song ends with a foretaste of the orchestral motive from the following song, seen in Example 19.

Ex. 19, Neruda Songs, “Amor, amor, las nubes a la torre del cielo,” RH piano, meas. 140.

“No estés lejos de mí un solo día, porque cómo” No estés lejos de mí un solo día, porque cómo, Do not be far away from me for a single day, because, porque, no sé decirlo, es largo el día, because, I do not know how to say it, the day is long, y te estaré esperando como en las estaciones and I will be waiting for you, like the trains cuando en alguna parte se durmieron los trenes. which sleep in the stations.

No te vayas por una hora porque entonces Do not go away for even an hour because en esa hora se juntan las gotas del desvelo in that hour the drops of anxiety join together y tal vez todo el humo que anda buscando casa and, like the smoke that wanders searching for a home, venga a matar aún mi corazón perdido. may come to kill my lost heart.

Ay que no se quebrante tu silueta en la arena, Ah that your silhouette may not break on the sand, ay que no vuelen tus párpados en la ausencia: ah that your eyelids may not fly open in the absence: no te vayas por un minuto, bienamada, do not go for a minute, beloved, porque en ese minuto te habrás ido tan lejos because in that minute you will have gone so far away que yo cruzaré toda la tierra preguntando that I will cross all the earth asking si volverás o si me dejarás muriendo. if you will return, or if you will leave me dying.

!36 The third song, which takes its text from Sonnet XLV of the Mediodía chapter, seems to grow right out of the second song. The cello D-sharp of the previous song dies away slowly only to be taken up by the bass clarinet in the third song, and the motive introduced at the end of the second song appears in the oboe in measure 10 of “No estés lejos de mí un solo día, porque cómo.” This connection links the relationships spoken of in the texts. Although the couple has entered a new chapter, “midday,” it is clearly the same relationship. This oboe motive appears again in measures 17 and 63. The linking of songs #2 and #3 is quite important because the third song marks a distinct change in tone, and it would be easy for a listener to disassociate this song from the others. In this song the listener catches the first glimpse of desperation. The orchestra plays simpler chords in a lower register, and the voice sits much lower than before. This creates a more stark texture than used in the previous songs, though it is still lush in comparison to Rilke Songs. The opening vocal melody establishes a melodic motive that returns at several points throughout the song, seen in Example 20.

Ex. 20, Neruda Songs, “No estés lejos de mí un solo día, porque como,” voice, meas. 3.

This motive appears in the voice (always to the same words) at several pitch levels throughout the song.98 Lieberson’s use of repeated text and melodic material is quite free throughout the set, but in this instance the repetition of the opening line of text is very purposeful. It paints a picture of a speaker who is desperate for closeness with their loved one and terrified to let them out of their sight. The motive is ever recurring, much like a mantra. Despite forays into different registers and textures, it always returns. The song finally ends with the melodic motive swiftly followed by the oboe motive, as though the two will never be parted again.

98 It should be noted that one iteration ends with a major third, rather than a minor third. See measure 10-11.

!37 “Ya eres mía. Reposa con tu sueño en mi sueño” Ya eres mía. Reposa con tu sueño en mi sueño. You are mine. Rest with your dream in my dream. Amor, dolor, trabajos, deben dormir ahora. Love, sorrow, labor, should all sleep now. Gira la noche sobre sus invisibles ruedas Above, the night spins its invisible wheels y junto a mí eres pura como el ámbar dormido. and, close to me, you are as pure as sleeping amber.

Ninguna más, amor, dormirá con mis sueños. No one else, my love, will sleep with my dreams. Irás, iremos juntos por las aguas del tiempo. You will go, we will go together through the waters of time. Ninguna viajará por la sombra conmigo, No one will travel through the shade with me, sólo tú, siempreviva, siempre sol, siempre luna. only you, evergreen, ever sun, ever moon.

Ya tus manos abrieron los puños delicados Your hands have already opened their delicate fists y dejaron caer suaves signos sin rumbo, and allowed soft, aimless signs to fall, tus ojos se cerraron como dos alas grises, your eyes shut like two gray wings, mientras yo sigo el agua que llevas y me lleva: meanwhile I follow the water that you carry, and it carries me: la noche, el mundo, el viento devanan su destino, the night, the world, the wind, they all spin their destiny, y ya no soy sin ti sino sólo tu sueño. and now I am no longer without you, even if I am only your dream.

The fourth song, set to Sonnet LXXXI from the Noche chapter, begins with an impassioned downbeat in the cellos followed by a chord in the strings (with a triplet figure in the violins) and an exultant vocal line proclaiming “Ya eres mia” (you are mine). This triumphant opening escalates as the strings play sweeping lines (all beginning with the triplet figure) and the voice ascends in pitch, still proclaiming that first line of text. (Seen in Example 21.) This leads into the most rhythmically active section of the entire set. In measure 13 the maracas enter playing a “bossa nova rhythm,” an indication which is only notated by a fill line, seen in Example 22. The introduction of a consistent non-pitched percussion instrument keeps the whole section firmly grounded rhythmically, unlike much of the rest of the set which is more rhythmically free. In addition to the maracas, the orchestra plays syncopated rhythms under the chromatic vocal line, coloring the section with a Latin dance feel. The interplay between the sweepingly lyrical sections and the more syncopated sections is ongoing throughout the song, and one of the most beautiful moments in the entire set occurs in the exultant orchestral interlude from measure 74-90. Here the orchestra swells to a fortissimo playing segments of melodic material that were introduced earlier in the voice, often in multiple octaves with rich harmonies underneath. It is as though the speaker, reveling in the fact that their

!38 love now belongs to them, is torn between dancing for joy and proclaiming their love from the rooftops.

Ex. 21, Neruda Songs, “Ya eres mía. Reposa con tu sueño en mi sueño,” PV score, meas. 1-5.

Ex. 22, Neruda Songs, “Ya eres mía. Reposa con tu sueño en mi sueño,” percussion, meas. 13.

“Amor mío, si muero y tú no mueres” Amor mío, si muero y tú no mueres, My love, if I die and you do not,

!39 amor mío, si mueres y no muero, My love, if you die and I do not, no demos al dolor más territorio: let’s not give sorrow more territory: no hay extensión como la que vivimos. it does not have as much space as the place we live now.

Polvo en el trigo, arena en las arenas Dust in the wheat, sand in the desert, el tiempo, el agua errante, el viento vago time, wandering water, the vague wind, nos llevó como grano navegante. it carried us away like sailing grain. Pudimos no encontrarnos en el tiempo. We could not find one another in time.

Esta pradera en que nos encontramos, This prairie in which we find one another, oh pequeño infinito! devolvemos. oh little infinity! we return. Pero este amor, amor, no ha terminado, But, my love, this love has not ended, y así como no tuvo nacimiento and just like it had no birth no tiene muerte, es como un largo río, it has no death, it is like a large river, sólo cambia de tierras y de labios. only changing lands and lips.

This leads to the final song which takes its text from Sonnet XCII, also from the Noches portion of Cien sonetos de amor. The song begins with a peaceful swaying in the strings much like a lullaby (seen in Example 23).

Ex. 23, Neruda Songs, “Amor mío, si muero y tú no mueres,” strings, meas. 1-2.

Unlike the previous songs, which are full of drama and desire, this song exudes contentment. Echoes of the past songs are sprinkled subtly through the final song, as though the

!40 speaker is looking back on a long, happy life with their loved one. Measures 20-24 hearken back to song #4 with its syncopated rhythms and its chromatic line. Furthermore, the orchestral tremolos under the free vocal line in the subsequent eleven measures recall the ending of the fourth song (specifically measures 119-125). This is followed several measures later by an altered version of the longing motive from the first song (see Example 15). More specifically, measures 39-44 call to mind the impassioned “bienamada” from the first song (see Example 24). The orchestra swells to a forte as the voice sings a fervent ascending major sixth (though with a passing B-flat) followed by a descending line. This time it is set to the phrase “oh pequeño infinito” (oh little infinity) and sung twice, as though it is a memory that truly deserves savoring. While it is not an exact replica of the motive, it is certainly similar enough to bring the first song to mind.

Ex. 24, Neruda Songs, “Amor mío, si muero y tú no mueres,” PV score, meas. 41-44.

!41 This is followed by a section that is reminiscent of the third song, more specifically the melody which accompanies the phrase “no te vayas,” seen in Example 25. This can be seen most clearly in Example 26 where the melodic material of the motive appears twice in quick succession (though the quality of some intervals is altered). However, this melodic return brings none of the desperation of the third song with it.

Ex. 25, Neruda Songs, “No estés lejos de mí un solo día, porque cómo,” PV score, meas. 47-48.

Ex. 26, Neruda Songs, “Amor mío, si muero y tú no mueres,” PV score, meas. 57.

The song ends with a return to the peaceful, swaying strings that opened the song as the voice reaffirms that this love has no end, rather it will only change “tierras” (lands) and “labios” (lips).

!42 CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION

Rilke Songs and Neruda Songs are undeniably different. Neruda Songs are intensely romantic and emotional, while Rilke Songs are contemplative and cerebral. However, Lieberson still considered Rilke Songs to be “love songs.” While the texts are not overtly about love, they represent the coming together of disparate forces, and there is certainly something romantic in that. Furthermore, Rilke Songs was closely tied to Lieberson’s world view, so in some ways the composer was offering himself as a gift to his wife. Nevertheless, the two sets show two entirely different faces of love, and this is reflected in the different compositional elements. Lieberson embraces the esoteric quality of Rilke’s texts by using stark textures and disjunct melodies. The piano plays an important role throughout the set, and, with the exception of the opening of “Blumenmuskel,” the piano and voice are very closely linked. And, perhaps in an attempt to ground an eclectic, intellectual text, the composer uses a fair amount of text painting. The immediacy of the Neruda texts, on the other hand, calls for lush orchestration, and as a result Lieberson wrote many sweeping, step-wise gestures in both the voice and orchestra. The orchestra plays melodic material in interludes, but when the voice is active it tends to simply create an atmosphere, rather than acting as an equal partner with the voice. The vivid, colorful text does not require further illustration, and as a result the listener hears many powerful emotions but practically no text painting. It is interesting that both textual sources happen to be books of sonnets. Though, given the abundance of romantic sonnets written throughout history, it may have been an inevitable choice. It is also interesting that both sets link the second and third songs, although for very different reasons. Rilke Songs links the two due to their similar themes, while the second and third Neruda songs are forcibly linked in order to create a feeling of continuity. And perhaps this is how the two cycles should be viewed. Just like the second and third Neruda songs, the cycles show two different phases of love, but it is undoubtedly the same love that links them. Rilke Songs may be more restrained than Neruda Songs, but it comes from a very

!43 early stage in Lieberson and Lorraine’s relationship. In many ways, Neruda Songs represents the culmination of their romance. Lieberson himself said: We had a very short time together. In some sense, we only had nine years. But, in many other ways, it was very full, because we were together almost continuously. And, after I heard these pieces [Neruda Songs] and the way she sang them, there was a sense of completion. A sense that I finally had done what I really wanted to do and I was able to express my love for Lorraine in music.99

99 Lunden.

!44 APPENDIX A RILKE SONGS: WORD FOR WORD

O ihr Zärtlichen, tretet zuweilen Oh you gentle ones, tread occasionally in den Atem, der euch nicht meint, in the breath, that for you is not meant, laßt ihn an eueren Wangen sich teilen, Let it on your cheeks itself divide, hinter euch zittert er, wieder vereint. Behind you trembles it, again united

O ihr Seligen, o ihr Heilen, O you blessed ones, o you whole ones, die ihr der Anfang der Herzen scheint, that you the beginning of hearts seem, (you seem to be the beginning of hearts,)

Bogen der Pfeile und Ziele von Pfeilen, Bow of the arrows and targets of arrows, ewiger glänzt euer Lächeln verweint. forever shines your smile tear-stained.

Fürchtet euch nicht zu leiden, die Schwere, fear you not to suffer, the difficulties, (Do not fear to suffer the difficulties,) gebt sie zurück an der Erde Gewicht; give them back to the earth weight; (Give the weight of them back to the earth;) schwer sind die Berge, schwer sind die Meere. heavy are the mountains, heavy are the seas.

!45 Selbst die als Kinder ihr pflanztet, die Bäume, even the ones as children you planted, the trees, (Even the trees you planted as children,) wurden zu schwer längst; ihr trüget sie nicht. became too heavy long ago; you could carry them not

Aber die Lüfte… aber die Räume… But the breezes… but the spaces…

Atmen, du unsichtbares Gedicht! Breathing, you invisible poem

Immerfort um das eigne Constantly around the own

Sein rein eingetauschter Weltraum. Gegengewicht, Existence purely exchanged universe. Counterbalance,

In dem ich mich rhythmisch ereigne. In which I myself rhythmically occur

Einzige Welle, deren Only wave, whose allmähliches Meer ich bin; gradual sea I am sparsamstes du von allen möglichen Meeren, - most frugal you of all possible seas, -

Raumgewinn. Space gain.

Wieviele von diesen Stellen der Räume waren schon How many of these places of the spaces were already innen in mir. Manche Winde

!46 inside me. Some winds sind wie mein Sohn. are like my son.

Erkennst du mich, Luft, du, voll noch einst meiniger Orte? Recognize you me, air, you, full still of once mine places? (Do you recognize me, air, you, still full of places that were once mine?)

Du, einmal glatte Rinde, You, once smooth bark,

Rundung und Blatt meiner Worte. Curve and leaf of my words.

Wolle die Wandlung. O sei für die Flamme begeistert, Desire the change. O be for the flame enraptured, drin sich ein Ding dir entzieht, das mit Verwandlungen prunkt; inside itself a thing of you retreats, that with transformations is resplendent; (Something from inside of it retreats from you, resplendent with transformation;) jener entwerfende Geist, welcher das Irdische meistert, that creating spirit, which the earthly life masters (That creating spirit, which masters earthly life) liebt in dem Schwung der Figur nichts wie den wendenden Punkt. loves in the swing of the figure nothing as the inverting point. (Loves nothing in the swing of the figure as much as the inverting point.)

Was sich ins Bleiben verschließt, schon ists das Erstarrte; What itself in remaining locks away, already is the frozen one; (What locks itself in remaining is already frozen;) wähnt es sich sicher im Schutz des unscheinbaren Grau’s? imagines it itself safe in the protection of the inconspicuous grays? (Does it imagine itself safe in the protection of the inconspicuous grayness?)

Warte, ein Härtestes warnt aus der Ferne das Harte.

!47 Wait, a most difficult warns of from the distance the hardness. (Wait, from the distance the most difficult warns of difficulty.)

Wehe -: abwesender Hammer holt aus! Careful -: absent hammer swings up!

Wer sich als Quelle ergießt, den erkennt die Erkennung; Who himself as source pours out, him recognizes the recognition; (He who pours himself out as a source, recognition recognizes him;) und sie führt ihn entzückt durch das heiter Geschaffne, and it leads him delighted through the cheerful creation das mit Anfang oft schließt und mit Ende beginnt. that with beginning often concludes and with end begins.

Jeder glückliche Raum ist Kind oder Enkel von Trennung, Each happy space is child or grandchild of separation, den sie staunend durchgehn. Und die verwandelte Daphne which they astonished go through. And the transformed Daphne will, seit sie lorbeern fühlt, daß du dich wandelst in Wind. wants, since she laurels feels, that you change yourself into wind. (since feeling the laurels, desires that you change yourself into wind.)

Blumenmuskel, der der Anemone Flower muscle which of the anemone

Wiesenmorgen nach und nach erschließt, Meadow morning little by little opens up, (which little by little opens up to reveal the meadow morning) bis in ihren Schooß das polyphone until in her lap the polyphonic

Licht der lauten Himmel sich ergießt, Light the loud heaven pours out (heaven pours forth polyphonic light)

!48 in den stillen Blütenstern gespannter, in the silent blossom star tensed,

Muskel des unendlichen Empfangs, muscle of the infinite receipt, manchmal so von Fülle übermannter, sometimes so from abundance overpowered daß der Ruhewink des Untergangs that the quiet signal of the setting kaum vermag die weitzurückgeschnellten barely able the far back shot

Blätteränder dir zurückzugeben: petals edges you return (The quiet signal of the setting sun is barely able to return the far-flung back petal edges.) du, Entschluß und Kraft von wieviel Welten! you, determination and strength of how many worlds!

Wir, Gewaltsamen, wir währen länger. We, violent ones, we last longer.

Aber wann, in welchem aller Leben, But when, in which all life, sind wir endlich offen und Empfänger? are we at last open and recipient? (receiving)

Stiller Freund der vielen Fernen, fühle, Silent friend of the many distances, feel, wie dein Atem noch den Raum vermehrt. how your breath still the space expands

!49 (how your breath still expands the space.)

Im Gebälk der finstern Glockenstühle In the beam of the grim belfries laß dich läuten. Das, was an dir zehrt, let yourself ring. That, which on you preys, wird ein Starkes über dieser Nahrung. becomes a strong one through this nourishment.

Geh in der Verwandlung aus und ein. Go in the transformation out and in.

Was ist deine leidendste Erfahrung? What is your most suffering experience?

Ist dir Trinken bitter, werde Wein. Is to you drinking bitter, become wine.

Sei in dieser Nacht aus Übermaß Be in this night of excess

Zauberkraft am Kreuzweg deiner Sinne, Magic power on the crossroad of your senses, ihrer seltsamen Begegnung Sinn. of their strange encounter sense. (sense of their strange encounter).

Und wenn dich das Irdische vergaß, And when you the earthly has forgotten (And when earthly things have forgotten you,) zu der stillen Erde sag: Ich rinne. to the quiet earth say: I flow.

Zu dem raschen Wasser sprich: Ich bin. To the rushing water say: I am.

!50 APPENDIX B NERUDA SONGS: WORD FOR WORD

Si no fuera porque tus ojos tienen color de luna, If not apart from the fact your eyes hold color of moon, (If your eyes did not hold the color of the moon,) de día con arcilla, con trabajo, con fuego, of day with clay, with labor, with fire, y aprisionada tienes la agilidad del aire, and imprisoned you hold the agility of air si no fuera porque eres una semana de ámbar, if not apart from the fact you are a week of amber (If you were not a week of amber,) si no fuera porque eres el momento amarillo if not apart from the fact you are the moment yellow (If you were not a yellow moment) en que el otoño sube por las enredaderas in which the autumn climbs through the vines y eres aún el pan que la luna fragante and you are yet the bread that the moon fragrant elabora paseando su harina por el cielo, prepares walking its flour through the heavens, (And you are yet the bread that the fragrant moon prepares, decking the heavens with its flour,) oh, bienamada, yo no te amaría! oh, beloved, I would not love you!

En tu abrazo yo abrazo lo que existe, in your embrace I embrace that which exists, la arena, el tiempo, el árbol de la lluvia, the sand, the time, the tree of the rain,

!51 y todo vive para que yo viva: and all lives in order that I may live: sin ir tan lejos puedo verlo todo: without to go so far I can see it all: (without moving far I can see it all:) veo en tu vida todo lo viviente. I see in your life all that living. (I see in your life all that is living.)

Amor, amor, las nubes a la torre del cielo Love, love, the clouds by the tower of the sky subieron como triunfantes lavanderas, climbed like triumphant washerwomen, y todo ardió en azul, todo fue estrella: and all burned in blue, all became star: el mar, la nave, el día se desterraron juntos. the sea, the ship, the day they exiled together.

Ven a ver los cerezos del agua constelada come to see the cherry trees of the water constellated y la clave redonda del rápido universo, and the key round of the rapid universe, ven a tocar el fuego del azul instantáneo, come to touch the fire of the blue moment, ven antes de que sus pétalos se consuman. come before of which its petals are consumed. (come before its petals are consumed.)

!52 No hay aquí sino luz, cantidades, racimos, It does not have here except light, amounts, clusters, (There is nothing here except light, amounts, clusters,) espacio abierto por las virtudes del viento space open by the virtues of the wind hasta entregar los últimos secretos de la espuma. until to entrust the final secrets of the foam.

Y entre tantos azules celestes, sumergidos, And among so many blues heavenly, submerged, se pierden nuestros ojos adivinando apenas they lose our eyes guessing scarcely (our guessing eyes scarcely lose) los poderes del aire, las llaves submarinas. the powers of the air, the keys underwater.

No estés lejos de mí un solo día, porque cómo, Do not be far from me a single day, because why, porque, no sé decirlo, es largo el día, because, I do not know to say it, it is long the day, (because… I do not know how to say it, the day is long,) y te estaré esperando como en las estaciones and you I will be waiting for like in the stations (and I will be waiting for you, like in the stations) cuando en alguna parte se durmieron los trenes. when in any part they slept the trains. (where the trains sleep.)

No te vayas por una hora porque entonces Do not go for an hour because then en esa hora se juntan las gotas del desvelo

!53 in that hour they join the drops of the anxiety (in that hour, the drops of anxiety join together) y tal vez todo el humo que anda buscando casa and such place all the smoke that walks searching for home venga a matar aún mi corazón perdido. may come to kill still my heart lost. (the smoke that walks in search of a home may come to kill my heart, which is still lost.)

Ay que no se quebrante tu silueta en la arena, Ah that not break your silhouette in the sand, (Ah that your silhouette may not break on the sand,) ay que no vuelen tus párpados en la ausencia: ah that not may fly your eyelids in the absence: (ah that your eyelids may not fly open in the absence:) no te vayas por un minuto, bienamada, Do not go for a minute, beloved, porque en ese minuto te habrás ido tan lejos because in that minute you will have gone so far away que yo cruzaré toda la tierra preguntando that I will cross all the earth asking si volverás o si me dejarás muriendo. if you will return or if me you will leave dying.

Ya eres mía. Reposa con tu sueño en mi sueño. Now you are mine. Rest with your dream in my dream.

Amor, dolor, trabajos, deben dormir ahora. Love, sorrow, labor, should to sleep now.

Gira la noche sobre sus invisibles ruedas Spins the night above its invisible wheels

!54 y junto a mí eres pura como el ámbar dormido. and nearby to me you are pure like the amber sleeping.

Ninguna más, amor, dormirá con mis sueños. Not one more, love, will sleep with my dreams.

Irás, iremos juntos por las aguas del tiempo. You will go, we will go together through the waters of time.

Ninguna viajará por la sombra conmigo, Not one will travel through the shade with me, sólo tú, siempreviva, siempre sol, siempre luna. only you, evergreen, always sun, always moon.

Ya tus manos abrieron los puños delicados Now your hands opened the fists delicate y dejaron caer suaves signos sin rumbo, and allowed to fall soft signs without direction, (Your hands have already opened their delicate fists and allowed soft, aimless signs to fall,) tus ojos se cerraron como dos alas grises, your eyes themselves shut like two wings gray, mientras yo sigo el agua que llevas y me lleva: meanwhile I follow the water that you carry and me it carries: la noche, el mundo, el viento devanan su destino, the night, the world, the wind they spin their destiny, y ya no soy sin ti sino sólo tu sueño. and now I am not without you if not only your dream. (and now I am no longer without you, even if I am only your dream.)

Amor mío, si muero y tú no mueres, Love mine, if I die and you do not die,

!55 amor mío, si mueres y no muero, love mine, if you die and I do not die, no demos al dolor más territorio: let’s not give to the sadness more territory: no hay extensión como la que vivimos. It does not have expanse like it in which we live. (It does not have the expanse, like the place in which we live.)

Polvo en el trigo, arena en las arenas Dust in the wheat, sand in the sands el tiempo, el agua errante, el viento vago the time, the water wandering, the wind slow nos llevó como grano navegante. us it carried away like grain sailing. (It carried us away like a sailing grain.)

Pudimos no encontrarnos en el tiempo. We could not find ourselves in the time. (We could not find one another in time.)

Esta pradera en que nos encontramos, This prairie in which us we find, (This prairie in which we find one another,) oh pequeño infinito! devolvemos. oh little infinity! we return.

Pero este amor, amor, no ha terminado, But this love, love, has not ended, y así como no tuvo nacimiento and just like it did not hold birth (and just like it had no birth) no tiene muerte, es como un largo río,

!56 it does not hold death, it is like a long river, sólo cambia de tierras y de labios. only it changes of lands and of lips. (it only changes lands and lips.)

!57 REFERENCES

Blue Mandala. “Shambhala: Making Enlightened Society Possible: Boston.” Accessed 8 Feb., 2018. https://boston.shambhala.org/.

Blyth, Alan. "Hunt-Lieberson [Hunt], Lorraine." Grove Music Online. Accessed 1 Mar. 2018. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/ 9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000046063.

Branscombe, Peter. "Rilke, (René) Rainer (Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef) Maria." Grove Music Online. Accessed 30 Jan. 2018. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/ grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630- e-0000049390.

Costa, René de. The Poetry of Pablo Neruda. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979.

Duran, Manuel E. and Roberto González Echeverría. “Pablo Neruda: Chilean Poet.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Published 15 Nov. 2017. Accessed 2 Mar. 2018. https:// www.britannica.com/biography/Pablo-Neruda.

Dwyer, Colin. “Pablo Neruda Didn’t Die of Cancer, Experts Say. So What Killed the Poet?” NPR:The Two-Way. Published 23 Oct. 2018. Accessed 2 Mar. 2018. https://www.npr.org/ sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/23/559522814/pablo-neruda-didnt-die-of-cancer-experts- say-so-what-killed-the-poet.

Frenz, Horst, editor. Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967. Elsevier Publishing Company: Amsterdam, 1969. https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1945/ mistral-bio.html.

Görner, Rüdiger. “Rilke: a biographical exploration.” In The Cambridge Companion to Rilke, edited by Karen Leeder and Robert Vilain. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Higgins, Charlotte. “Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.” Guardian, Published 6 Jul. 2006. Accessed 1 Mar. 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jul/06/guardianobituaries.usa.

Huizenga, Tom. “‘Neruda Songs’ Wins Grawemeyer Award.” NPR Music. December 3, 2007, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16835783.

“Intro to Tibetan Buddhism,” Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism, accessed 13 Feb. 2018, https://www.sakya.org/introtibetanbuddhism.html.

!58 Kozinn, Allan. “Portrait Reveals a Collage of Influences.” New York Times. Published 28 Sept. 2008. Accessed 10 Feb. 2018. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/arts/music/ 29lieb.html.

Ledbetter, Steven. "Lieberson, Peter." Grove Music Online. Accessed 7 Feb. 2018. http:// www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/ 9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000042681.

Lieberson, Peter. Neruda Songs. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2011.

Lieberson, Peter. Rilke Songs. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2007.

“Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: American Opera Singer.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Published 22 Feb. 2018. Accessed 28 Feb. 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lorraine- Hunt-Lieberson.

“Lorraine Hunt Lieberson,” Naxos Records, accessed 1 Mar. 2018, https://www.naxos.com/ person/Lorraine_Hunt_Lieberson/1833.htm.

Lunden, Jeff. “Lieberson’s ‘Neruda Songs,’ Tracing Love’s Arc.” NPR Music. Published 30 Dec. 2006. Accessed 10 Feb. 2018. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=6696483.

Martinec, Thomas. “The Sonnets to Orpheus.” In The Cambridge Companion to Rilke, edited by Karen Leeder and Robert Vilain. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Mitchell, Stephen. Introduction to The Sonnets to Orpheus. By Rainer Maria Rilke. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.

Oestereich, James R. “Music; Staging Unstagable Bach, Again.” New York Times. Published 4 Mar. 2001. Accessed 1 Mar. 2018. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/04/arts/music- staging-unstageable-bach-again.html.

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“Peter Lieberson.” Musical Sales Classical. Last modified Sept. 2012. Accessed 8 Feb., 2018. http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/long-bio/Peter-Lieberson.

Peters, H. F. Rainer Maria Rilke: Masks and the Man. New York: University of Washington Press, 1960.

!59 Ross, Alex. “For Peter Lieberson.” Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise. Published 23 April 2011. Accessed 10 Feb. 2018. http://www.therestisnoise.com/2011/04/for-peter-lieberson.html.

Schweitzer, Vivien. “Sounds of a Composer Given Voice by His Muse.” New York Times. Published 29 July 2010. Accessed 10 Feb. 2018. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/ arts/music/01peter.html?mcubz=0.

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Tommasini, Anthony. “Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Luminous Mezzo, Dies at 52.” New York Times. Published 5 July 2006. Accessed 28 Feb. 2018. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/arts/ music/05hunt.html.

Woolfe, Zachary. “Peter Lieberson, Composer Inspired by Buddhism, Dies at 64.” New York Times. Published 23 April 2011. Accessed 9 Feb. 2018. http://www.nytimes.com/ 2011/04/24/arts/music/peter-lieberson-64-composer-inspired-by-buddhism-dies.html.

Young, David. Introduction to Sonnets to Orpheus, vii-xv. By Rainer Maria Rilke. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1987.

!60 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Emily Howes, mezzo-soprano, received both her undergraduate and Master’s degree from the University of Louisville where she studied with Edith Davis Tidwell. While pursuing her doctorate at Florida State, she studied with both Shirley Close and Marcy Stonikas. Ms. Howes has a great love of contemporary American compositions. This past summer with Chautauqua Opera she covered the mezzo-soprano role in the Philip Glass opera Hydrogen Jukebox, and she will be returning this coming summer to cover Hannah After in Laura Kaminsky’s As One. In 2016, she premiered Quinn Dizon’s 12 Haiku for mezzo-soprano and orchestra at the University of Louisville’s New Music Festival in 2016, and she has premiered several roles with Thompson Street Opera, a small opera company that promotes the works of emerging contemporary composers. At Florida State University she has been seen in many roles, including Ruggiero (Handel’s Alcina), Angelina (Rossini’s La Cenerentola), and Nero (L’incoronazione di Poppea). Previous roles include Maurya (Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea), Ms. Todd (Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief), Zerlina (Mozart’s Don Giovanni), and Mother Marie (Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites). Ms. Howes has been the winner of various awards and competitions including the Glenys Gallaher Award (FSU, 2017), the Bill Fabris Award (Chautauqua Opera, 2017), the Hannah J. Beaulieu Competition (FSU, 2016 and 2017), the Carnegie Hall Competition (FSU, 2017), and the University of Louisville Concerto Competition (2014). She graduated from both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees with highest honors, and she has maintained a 4.00 GPA throughout both of her graduate degrees.

!61