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de Hughes, le travail de l’auteur commença à attirer encore Hughes était fier de ces collaborations bien que ses davantage de musiciens dont les compositeurs noirs-américains préférences musicales continuèrent à se porter sur le blues et le Margaret Bonds et William Grant Still. On citera, pour mémoire, jazz et, dans les dernières années de sa vie, sur le gospel. Il inventa la mise en musique par Bonds de plusieurs poèmes de Hughes, d’ailleurs le théâtre musical gospel où une intrigue simple relie AMERICANCLASSICS dont son fameux The Negro Speaks of River (Le Noir parle des entre-eux des gospels émouvants interprétés par d’éminents fleuves) de 1921. William Grant Still collabora avec lui à l’opéra chanteurs. Il connut tant le succès critique que commercial avec Troubled Island, d’après la pièce de Hughes sur la révolution qui des œuvres comme The Prodigal Son et, notamment, Black fut à l’origine de l’avènement de la république noire de Haïti. Nativity. Cette dernière fut peut-être volontairement conçue par L’opéra fut créé en 1949 à New York et reçut des critiques Hughes en réaction au classique de Noël de Gian Carlo Menotti, mitigées. Ahmal and the Night Visitors. DREAMER Les musiciens blancs furent également captivés par les Qu’il s’agisse de formes populaires ou plus exigeantes, tels œuvres de Hughes. La relation la plus étroite qu’entretint Hughes que le jazz ou le répertoire classique, Langston Hughes trouva en tant que librettiste fut sans doute avec le compositeur immigré l’inspiration dans les œuvres des musiciens. Il s’efforça d’origine allemande, Jan Meyerowitz. Ils conçurent ensemble The d’apprendre et de travailler auprès d’eux dès que l’occasion se A Portrait of Langston Hughes Barrier, d’après la pièce de Hughes créée à Broadway en 1935, présentait. Lui-même n’avait qu’une connaissance limitée des Mulatto (Mûlatre), une tragédie qui traite du métissage dans les aspects techniques de la musique : il ne pouvait ni la lire, ni jouer Etats du sud. The Barrier, qui avait d’abord reçut d’excellentes d’un instrument, ni chanter de façon harmonieuse. Cependant, il Songs by W.G. Still, F. Price, K. Weill and Others critiques, connut cependant un échec retentissant à Broadway en adorait la musique et s’enorgueillissait de ce que ses poèmes et 1950. Parmi les autres collaborations entre les deux hommes, il y pièces aient pu inspirer les compositeurs et les interprètes. eut Esther, un opéra inspiré de la Bible qui fut monté à Boston en Darryl Taylor, Tenor • William Warfield, Narrator 1958. Plus tard, Hughes travailla avec David Amram à la cantate Arnold Rampersad Let Us Remember. Commandée pour une convention du Judaïsme Réformé, cette pièce fut créée en 1965 par un chœur de 150 voix Version française : Pierre-Martin Juban accompagné par l’Orchestre Symphonique d’Oakland.

From THE COLLECTED POEMS OF LANGSTON HUGHES by Langston Hughes. Copyright h 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. 8.559136 8 559136 Hughes bk 17/06/2003 4:03 pm Page 3

Langston Hughes and Music The composer Elie Siegmeister once declared of Langston African-American composers such as Margaret BondsMusikkritik and erfolgreich. Das Musical Black Nativity, in dem Musik Bescheid, er konnte keine Noten lesen, spielte kein Hughes (1902-1967) that he was the “most musical poet of the William Grant Still. Bonds set to music several of ChristusHughes’s als Schwarzer geboren wird, war möglicherweise von Instrument und konnte auch nicht besonders gut singen. Aber er twentieth century”. True or false, this judgement underscores the poems, including his signature piece from 1921, TheHughes Negro bewusst als Gegenstück zu Gian Carlo Menottis liebte die Musik über alles, und er war sehr stolz auf die unquestionable facts that much of Hughes’s poetry lends itself Speaks of Rivers. William Grant Still collaborated withWeihnachts-Klassiker him on Amahl and the Night Visitors konzipiert Faszination, die seine Gedichte und Theaterstücke auf Musiker fairly readily to musical setting, and that, for Hughes, music was the opera Troubled Island, based on a play by Hughesworden. about the und Interpreten ausübten. perhaps the primary inspiration, other than the history and culture revolution that led to the foundation of the black republicOb ofUnterhaltungsmusik oder anspruchsvollere Formen des of African-Americans in general, for his writing. Haiti. The opera had its première, to mixed reviews, inJazz 1949 und in der klassischen Musik - Langston Hughes wurde von Arnold Rampersad In the early 1920s, before the blossoming of the Harlem New York City. Musikern und ihrer Arbeit inspiriert, ihm lag viel daran, von Renaissance, the young poet turned away from traditional verse White musicians also found Hughes’s words compelling.ihnen zu lernen und mit ihnen zusammenzuarbeiten, wann immer Deutsche Fassung: Tilo Kittel and boldly linked his literary art to jazz and the blues. His first Perhaps Hughes’s closest relationship as a librettist waser withkonnte. the Er selbst wusste wenig über die theoretische Seite der volume of verse, appropriately enough, was The Weary Blues German-born immigrant composer Jan Meyerowitz. Together (1926). The result of this fusion was a new kind of poetry that they worked on The Barrier, based on Hughes’s 1935 Broadway formed the foundation of Hughes’s later literary career and play Mulatto, a tragedy on the theme of miscegenation in the inspired eventually a new approach to writing by African- South. The Barrier enjoyed excellent reviews but then failed Americans. However, also starting in the 1920s, Hughes lovingly miserably on Broadway in 1950. Other collaborations between created a body of lyrical poems that appealed consistently to the two men include the opera Esther, inspired by the Bible, musicians both white and black, and led to the composition of art which was first performed in 1958 in Boston. Later, Hughes songs, cantatas, and even operas. This breadth of interest and joined David Amram to produce their cantata Let Us Remember. appeal was typical of Langston Hughes. Commissioned for a convention of Reformed Judaism, the piece Born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, Hughes grew up in was first performed in 1965 by a 150-voice chorus and the Oakland Lawrence, Kansas. He spent a year in Lincoln, Illinois, and then Symphony Orchestra. Langston Hughes et la Musique attended high school in Cleveland, Ohio. In high school, between Hughes was proud of these collaborations even though his 1916 and 1920, he published verse and short stories. In the 1920s main interest in music remained tied to the blues and jazzLe compositeurand, in Elie Siegmeister déclara un jour que Langston entre 1916 et 1920, il publia des poèmes et des nouvelles. Au he lived in or travelled to Mexico, New York City (where he the last years of his life, gospel. He virtually invented Hughesthe gospel (1902-1967) était « le poète le plus musical du vingtième cours des années vingt, il se rendit au Mexique, à New York (où il briefly attended Columbia University), Africa, France, and Italy. musical play, in which a limited story-line links performancessiècle ». ofQuelque soit la valeur de cette affirmation, celle-ci traduit étudia brièvement à l’Université de Columbia), en Afrique, en In New York, he helped to lead the Harlem Renaissance with two stirring gospel songs by accomplished singers. Hele enjoyedfait qu’une grande partie de la poésie de Hughes se prête France et en Italie. A New York, il devint l’un des chefs de file de books of verse, a novel, Not Without Laughter (1930), and an critical as well as commercial success with works suchvolontiers as The à une mise en musique et que, pour l’écrivain, la la Renaissance de Harlem grâce à deux recueils de poésies, un essay, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926), that Prodigal Son and, especially, Black Nativity. The lattermusique was était sans doute sa première source d’inspiration en roman (Not Without Laughter [Non sans rire], 1930) et un essai, became the manifesto of the younger black writers. perhaps conceived by Hughes as a deliberate counterpartdehors to Gian de la culture et de l’histoire afro-américaines. The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926), qui devint le In the 1930s, swinging far to the left politically, he spent a Carlo Menotti’s own Christmas classic, Amahl and the NightDès le début des années vingt, avant que ne se développe le manifeste des jeunes écrivains noirs. year in the Soviet Union as his poetry shifted away from lyricism Visitors. mouvement de la Renaissance de Harlem, le jeune auteur se Durant les années trente, s’engageant politiquement à to propagandistic forms urging class consciousness and From popular forms to the more demandingdétourna jazz and de la poésie traditionnelle pour rattacher son art au jazz l’extrême gauche, il passa une année en Union Soviétique au revolution. With the onset of World War II, however, Hughes classical repertoires, Langston Hughes found inspirationet au in blues. the Son premier recueil de poésie s’intitula d’ailleurs The moment où sa poésie abandonna le lyrisme au profit d’une patriotically supported the war effort and his poetry returned to work of musicians. He sought to learn from them andW earyto work Blues (Le Blues du désespoir) (1926). Cette fusion aboutit à propagande incitant au réveil de la conscience de classe et à la earlier themes and forms. About this time he began to develop an with them whenever he could. He himself knew littleune about nouvelle the forme de poésie qui posa les fondations de la future révolution. Toutefois, lors de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Hughes interest in writing song lyrics. None of his songs was a huge technical aspect of music. He could not read music, carrièreplayed nolittéraire de Hughes puis inspira aux noirs-américains une soutint avec patriotisme l’effort de guerre et revint à ses thèmes de success, but he was ready in 1946 when Kurt Weill and Elmer instrument, and could not sing in any attractivenouvelle way. manière d’aborder l’écriture. Parallèlement, Hughes prédilection et retourna à ses formes littéraires antérieures. A cette Rice invited him to join them as lyricist on their development of a Nevertheless, he adored music and took pride in the fascinationtravailla avec passion à un corpus de poèmes lyriques qui plut époque, il commença à écrire des paroles de chansons. Bien musical version of Rice’s 1929 prizewinning play, Street Scene. that his poems and plays inspired in composers and performers.indifféremment aux musiciens blancs et noirs et fut à l’origine de qu’aucune de ses chansons ne connut un immense succès, elles Following the success of Street Scene on Broadway in 1947, la composition de mélodies, de cantates et même d’opéras. Ce firent de lui un parolier accompli que Kurt Weill et Elmer Rice which brought Hughes the first financial windfall of his career, vaste éventail de centres d’intérêt et de passions était vinrent solliciter en 1946 afin d’élaborer avec eux la version his work began to attract even more musicians. These included Dr. Arnold Rampersadcaractéristique de Langston Hughes. musicale de Street Scene, la pièce de théâtre, lauréate du Prix Né en 1902 à Joplin dans le Missouri, Hughes grandit à Pulitzer, que Rice écrivit en 1929. Lawrence dans le Kansas. Il passa une année à Lincoln dans A la suite du triomphe à Broadway de Street Scene en 1947, l’Illinois puis entra au lycée à Cleveland dans l’Ohio. Au lycée, qui représenta également le premier succès financier de la carrière

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Langston Hughes und die Musik Composers Der Komponist Elie Siegmeister sagte einmal über Langston sich besonders für das Schreiben von Liedtexten zu interessieren.Robert Lee Owens is a native of Denison Texas, where he was texts in 1950. The work is dedicated to Gladys Tiff, who gave the Hughes (1902-1967), er sei der „musikalischste Dichter des Keines seiner Lieder war besonders erfolgreich, dennochborn bekam in 1925. After a public school education in Berkeley, set its première at Cleveland’s Karamu Theater, with which Smith zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts”. Ob das so stimmt, sei dahingestellt; er im Jahre 1946 von Kurt Weill und Elmer Rice das Angebot,California, an he went to Paris, working for four years as a piano had been active in earlier days. The first of the three is March Moon, auf jeden Fall unterstreicht dieses Urteil die unbestreitbare einer Musicalversion von Rice’s preisgekröntem Schauspielstudent of Alfred Cortot. Although he has had several academic readily designed for an accomplished singer, posing challenges of Tatsache, dass sich Hughes’ Gedichte für eine Vertonung Street Scene mitzuarbeiten, was Hughes gern annahm. positions in the United States, he has been particularly active meter and range. geradezu anbieten, und dass die Musik für Hughes wohl die Nach dem Erfolg von Street Scene am Broadway throughout1947 (der Europe, and moved to Munich in 1962. Margaret Allison Bonds (1913-1972) secured her musical wichtigste Inspirationsquelle war, neben der Geschichte und Hughes zum ersten Mal in seiner Karriere auch finanzielleHeart is the first of five songs within Heart on the Wall, written education in her native Chicago and at the Juilliard School, counting Kultur der Afroamerikaner im allgemeinen. Anerkennung einbrachte) begannen immer mehr byMusiker, 1968. The style is totally tonal, with triads coloured by sevenths among her teachers Roy Harris, William Dawson, and Florence Anfang der 1920er Jahre, vor der Blütezeit der Harlem Hughes’ Schaffen für sich zu entdecken, so die Afroamerikanerand sixths. Published in Munich, the text is offered in both English Price. In turn, she was one of Ned Rorem’s first teachers. Her career Renaissance, wandte sich der junge Hughes von der traditionellen Margaret Bonds und William Grant Still. Margaret Bondsand German. zum was launched quickly in both composition and performance. She Lyrik ab und verband kühn seine literarische Kunst mit Blues und Beispiel vertonte mehrere Gedichte Hughes’, darunterJohn sein Musto was born in Brooklyn in 1954. He attended the received a Wanamaker award before she was twenty and was soon Jazz. Sein erster Gedichtband hieß bezeichnenderweise The „Erkennungsstück” The Negro Speaks of Rivers aus Manhattandem Jahr School of Music where he was a piano student of after engaged in solo piano recitals, as part of a duo piano team, as Weary Blues (1926). Ergebnis dieser Verschmelzung war eine 1921. William Grant Stills Oper Troubled Island entstandSeymour in Lipkin, working subsequently with Paul Jacobs. In vocal accompanist, and as a concerto soloist. neue Art Dichtung, die das Fundament bildete für Hughes’ Zusammenarbeit mit Hughes, sie basiert auf einem Theaterstückaddition to his major career as a pianist, he has secured many Throughout her life, she was engaged in composition, but spätere literarische Karriere, und die dem Schaffen der des letzteren über die Revolution, die zur Gründungprestigious der awards as a composer of vocal music, an area in which several of her most frequently performed works come quite early in afroamerikanischen Autoren neue Impulse verleihen sollte. schwarzen Republik Haiti führte. Die Oper wurde 1949he isin self-taught.New her life. Minstrel Man is the first song of Three Dream Portraits and Hughes schuf aber auch mit Hingabe liedhafte Gedichte York City uraufgeführt; die Musikkritik war geteilter MeinungShadow of the Blues, a cycle of four songs, is represented here was written when she was only nineteen. The Negro Speaks of (ebenfalls beginnend in den zwanziger Jahren), die bei Musikern, über das Werk. by the second and third of the set. The first, Silhouette, relates to a Rivers was composed only three years later. Hughes was also only schwarzen wie weißen, großen Anklang fanden und zur Auch weiße Musiker waren fasziniert von Hughes’lynching, Texten. the second, Litany, to love for those rejected, and the last, nineteen when he wrote the latter poem. The irony of the former is Komposition von Kunstliedern, Kantaten und sogar Opern Die wohl engste Beziehung als Librettist hatte Hughesfor zua misseddem opportunity with love. Island is metrically complex, suggested initially by a carefree, though melancholy melody and anregten. Diese Bandbreite seiner Interessen und seiner Komponisten Jan Meyerowitz, der aus Deutschland inwith die aUSA perpetual-motion figure in the pianist’s right hand, to be rhythm that are transformed into sadness as the text reveals its truth. Ausstrahlungskraft war typisch für Langston Hughes. eingewandert war. Gemeinsam arbeiteten sie an The Barrierplayednach “fast and fleeting.” Ricky Ian Gordon’s love of theatre, music, and dance was Hughes, geboren im Jahre 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, wuchs Hughes’ Theaterstück Mulatto, einer Tragödie um das ThemaWilliam Grant Still (1895-1978) is one of the most esteemed largely nurtured at New York’s Lincoln Center, where he became a in Lawrence, Kansas, auf. Er verbrachte ein Jahr in Lincoln, Rassenmischung im Süden. Zunächst bekam Theof Barrierall African American composers. One of his cultural heroes was frequent visitor starting at the age of eight in 1964. This interest has Illinois, und besuchte anschließend, in den Jahren 1916 bis 1920, hervorragende Kritiken, am Broadway aber, im JahreSamuel 1950, Coleridge-Taylor, the brilliant Afro-British composer whose been manifested by his output of compositions, a large number of die Highschool in Cleveland, Ohio. Während dieser Zeit scheiterte das Werk kläglich. Hughes und Meyerowitz threearbeiteten visits to the United States helped lay the foundation for the which are vocal, and of these, more than two dozen employ texts by veröffentlichte er erste Gedichte und Kurzgeschichten. In den weiter zusammen, unter anderem an der biblischen OperHarlem Esther Renaissance., A young Still wished to imitate Coleridge- Langston Hughes. A series of these were staged by a vocal quartet, 1920er Jahren lebte er in (oder reiste er nach) Mexiko, New York die im Jahre 1958 in Boston uraufgeführt wurde. EinigeTaylor, Jahre even attempting to train his hair to grow in a similar fashion. two dancers, and orchestra in 2001 as Only Heaven, a memorial City (wo er kurzzeitig die Columbia University besuchte), Afrika, später schrieb Hughes den Text für David Amrams KantateHis mother’s Let hopes for her son’s professional career lost out in his tribute to Gordon’s companion. Frankreich und Italien. Mit seinen zwei Gedichtbänden, seinem Us Remember, ein Auftragswerk für eine Konferenzcollege der days to his ardent love of music. He had a variety of Florence Price (1888-1953) came from Little Rock. She Roman Not Without Laughter (1930) und seinem Aufsatz The Reformierten Judaisten. Die Kantate wurde im Jahre experiences1965 von by 1930, including editorial work for W. C. Handy, studied at the New England Conservatory and in Chicago where she Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926), der zu einem einem 150 Mann starken Chor und dem Oakland Symphonyarranging for jazz ensembles, and performance as a pit musician. spent much of her adult life. Several historic events took place as Manifest der jüngeren schwarzen Autoren wurde, gehörte Hughes Orchestra uraufgeführt. This was the year that he addressed the goals of the Harlem she neared mid-career. In 1932, her first symphony won the zu den Köpfen der Harlem Renaissance in New York. Hughes war stolz darauf, mit diesen Musikern arbeitenRenaissance zu by the idealisation of the folkloric with his first Wanamaker award and the next year, Frederick Stock conducted In den 1930er Jahren schwenkte Hughes zur extremen können, wenn auch sein Hauptinteresse in musikalischensymphony. Dingen this work with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (as part of the politischen Linken um, er verbrachte ein Jahr in der Sowjetunion, weiterhin dem Blues und dem Jazz, in seinen letztenHale Smith was born in Cleveland in 1925. Before his move World’s Fair events). Her songs entered into the repertoires of such und seine Dichtung bewegte sich weg von der Lyrik hin zu Lebensjahren auch dem Gospel, galt. Hughes hat dasto Gospel-New York in 1958, he supplemented his education at the artists as Roland Hayes, Leontyne Price, Marian Anderson, and propagandistischen Formen, in denen er Klassenbewusstsein und Musical quasi „erfunden”, eine Form, in der anrührendeCleveland und Institute of Music with rich experiences that provided the Hilda Harris. Revolution forderte. Als der Zweite Weltkrieg ausbrach, mitreißende Gospelsongs, dargeboten von exzellentenbackground Sängern, for his work in New York as a music editor. His greatest Less than a month before the death of William Grant Still, unterstützte er jedoch, ganz Patriot, die Kriegsanstrengungen durch eine begrenzte, überschaubare Handlung miteinandermark has been as a totally professional composer, capable of music lost Howard Swanson. He had been born in Atlanta in 1907, seines Landes; in seinem dichterischen Schaffen kehrte er zu verknüpft werden. The Prodigal Son oder Blackworking Nativity with serial techniques, writing his own texts, arranging jazz but moved with his parents in 1916 to Cleveland. He saved enough früheren Themen und Formen zurück. Um diese Zeit begann er beispielsweise waren sowohl kommerziell als auchtunes, bei order composing jingles. money to enroll at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he Beyond the rim of day is a cycle of three songs, set to Hughes studied with Ward Lewis and Herbert Elwell. A grant made it

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possible for him to continue his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Four Songs, using Hughes texts, come from 1951.Darryl Carolina Taylor France, but this was terminated by the Nazi invasion. Swanson left Cabin is the third of these and follows Berger’s determinationDarryl Taylor’s only repertoire extends from Bach to Britten, and beyond. Darryl Taylor has appeared with orchestras in the United States and in Paris by foot, leaving his music behind, one day before the city fell to write tonal music. In a quasi-strophic setting, the openingEurope. piano His operatic credits include leading rôles in The Magic Flute, Albert Herring, Così fan tutte, H.M.S. Pinafore, Highway One, USA (Still), to the Nazis. It took him over a year of travels through Spain and figure migrates to the bass and returns to introduce the Porgybrief second and Bess, and Falstaff. Taylor’s New York Recital début took place at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. His recitals have regularly Portugal to make his way back to the United States. verse. introduced audiences to works of composers like William Grant Still, George Walker, Adolphus Hailstork, John Musto, Deon Nielsen Price, Lena Swanson was virtually unknown until Marian Anderson From Hughes’ The Dream Keeper comes LovelyMcLin, Dark Tedand Wiprud, Leslie Adams, and Hale Smith. Founder of the African American Art Song Alliance, he is much sought after as a lecturer on included his setting of The Negro Speaks of Rivers at Carnegie Hall Lonely One, set by Harry Burleigh in 1934. The composerAfrican-American had Art Song, having given lecture-recitals at the Juilliard School, and at leading universities throughout the United States. A native in 1949, and then the New York Critic’s Circle decided American been a voice student at the National Conservatory of Music,of Detroit, where Michigan, he holds degrees from the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan. He is a member of Mu Phi composers were now well enough advanced that they could bestow he studied with Christian Fritsch. His association withEpsilon Antonín Music Fraternity, Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honors Society, and the National Association of Negro Musicians. their annual award on a local composer. Swanson was selected, and Dvorˇák provided the stimulus for a major career as vocal his Short Symphony was acclaimed the best new work performed in composer, both of totally original works and of settings of the New York during the 1950-51 season. It was during this period that spirituals. As music editor subsequently, he secured publication of Joy was composed, soon becoming known by the recordings of these essays, which he featured in his own performances.William At theWarfield Helen Thigpen, and of Phalese Tassie, and often performed by same time, he provided repertoire for recitals by others,Acclaimed such as throughout the world as one of the great vocal artists of our time, William Warfield is a star in every field open to a singer’s art. baritone Ben Holt. Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, and Roland Hayes inHis the recitalHarlem début of 19th March, 1950, in New York’s famous Town Hall put this artist overnight into the front ranks of concert artists. Kurt Weill (1900-1950) was branded as an entartete Renaissaance, and even for Ezio Pinza, Nelson Eddy, Wandilliam Herbert Warfield was born in West Helene, Arkansas on 22nd January, 1920, the eldest of five sons. He won first place in the St. Louis (degenerate) composer the same year the Nazis came to power, and Witherspoon. For 52 years, Burleigh was baritone soloistFinals, at withNew a scholarship to any American music school of his choice. Warfield chose the Eastman School of Music at the University of he was also Jewish. He moved quickly to Paris, then London, and York’s St George’s Church and for almost half that time,Rochester, sang on in his home city. There he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, and after four years in military service, he returned to Eastman to in 1935 to the United States. He continued to write operatic social Saturdays at Temple Emanu-El (often performing hisstudy setting for hisof Masters, with an engagement to sing the lead in the national touring company of the Broadway hit Call Me Mister. The commentaries, with the flavors of jazz and popular songs, using the Deep River in Hebrew). intervening years have seen his career expand and deepen without interruption in countless concerts and recitals, with many impressive techniques of the times, including atonality and polytonality. He Erik Santos and Darryl Taylor met while theyhonors were andboth awards in recognition of his important contribution to the arts. For a good many years, William Warfield has dedicated time and secured great success with Lost in the Stars (1949, after Cry the engaged in graduate studies at the University of Michigan.devotion When to the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM). In March 1984 he was the winner of a Grammy Award in the “Spoken Beloved Country), Lady in the Dark (with Moss Hart), and Die Darryl Taylor first heard one of his works, he was resolvedWord” that, category in for his outstanding narration of Aaron Copland’s ALincoln Portrait. In 1975, he accepted an appointment as Professor of Dreigroschenoper (1928, known as The Threepenny Opera with time, he would commission a work for his performance.Music atThat the University on Illinois (Champaign-Urbana Campus), and since 1994, he has served as a professor at Northwestern University. Marc Blitzstein’s English text). resulted in the cycle, Dreamer, the composer’s initial essay for Street Scene dates from 1946, and employs a text by Hughes voice. It received its first performance at New York City’s Merkin and Elmer Rice. Lonely House is a lament of solitude. A riff that Concert Hall in January 2001, with the pair joined by harpist appears in the piano, before the monotonous line that starts the Patricia Terry Ross. Maria Corley vocal part, unifies the piece. The reiterated figure that drones The first of the five songs in Dreamer cautionsThe thatJamaican-born the pianist Maria Corley gave her first public performance at the age of eight. Since then, she has appeared on radio, through the opening returns in the last moments of the song. Sandman “abroad each night, has a dream in his sacktelevision, to fit each and concert stages in Canada, the United States, Central America, Bermuda, and Europe as both soloist and collaborative artist. Harriette Davison (1923-1978) was trained as a violinist at child just right”, while the undulating bass of the Ofpiano special plays note are performances in Budapest at the Liszt Academy and in New York at Carnegie, Aaron Davis, and Alice Tully Halls. Corley the Oberlin Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and against figures in the harp that reflect either the pianocompleted or voice her undergraduate work at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and received both master of music and doctor of music degrees Columbia University. She was a member of the Harlem Symphony lines. Bound No’th Blues is a deploration of a wearyin and piano lonely performance from the Juilliard School where she was a pupil of the distinguished Hungarian pianist György Sándor. Maria Corley is and the Symphony of the New World, in both instances joining her traveler whose complaints appear over syncopateda composer, obstinate arranger of music, conductor, and a published author. Having formerly taught at Florida A&M University, she currently serves husband, Julius Burton Watkins, a horn player who had extensive patterns, with the harp joining in the middle section (“slow,on the sultryfaculty of Millersville University in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. work in jazz on horn and trumpet. swing”), and offering after-beats for the restatement of the initial From Hughes’ Fields of Wonder (1947) comes In Time of idea. The third song, To Artina, is a passionate declaration of Silver Rain, set here in harmonies often based on a fourth. consuming love, expressed with great intensity. Down where I am Jean Berger, born in Germany in 1909, came to the United is marked “dark, tough blues, really drag the beat” andPatricia obligates Terry-Ross States in 1941, following work in his native country, France, and percussive activity from the pianist, with the final measuresPatricia to Terry-Ross be began studying the harp with Velma Froude at Cass Technical High School in Detroit. She received her Bachelor and Brazil as opera and choral conductor. While on the faculty of the improvised by the singer in blues style. The cycle endsMaster with ofThe Music degrees at the University of Michigan. While there, she studied the harp with Ruth Dean Clark, and also with Lucile University of Colorado (1961-1968), he established his own John Dream Keeper. Interspersed among the five songsLawrence are two at Tanglewood Institute in Massachusetts. Currently, Patricia Terry-Ross teaches harp and voice at Cass Technical High School Sheppard Music Press, although other firms have also published additional poems, Birth and Bouquet, spoken by the singer.and is affiliate professor of harp at Wayne State University. Additionally, she is principal harpist for the Michigan Opera Theatre. his compositions. Dr. Dominique-René DeLerma Erik Santos Erik Santos is a composer whose special interest is illuminating the connection between music and magic: how mundane elements, musical and non-musical, are galvanized into powerful poetic and ecstatic experience. On the faculty at the University of Michigan School of Music, Santos teaches composition and music technology. He has been the recipient of numerous prizes and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), the MacDowell Colony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Rackham Graduate School of the University of Michigan, and was named the 1999 Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year by the Music Teacher’s National Association.

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Playing Time: DREAMER 67:18 A Portrait of Langston Hughes h broadcasting and copying of this compact disc prohibited. translations reserved. Unauthorised public performance, All rights in this sound recording, artwork, texts and 8.559136

& Darryl Taylor, Tenor

g AMERICAN CLASSICS DREAMER: A Portrait of Langston Hughes 2002 HNH International Ltd. Made in E.C. William Warfield, Narrator 1 My People 0:22 The composer Elie Siegmeister once declared of 2 “Heart” from Heart on the Wall (Robert Owens) 1:34 Langston Hughes (1902-1967) that he was the 3 “Island” from Shadow of the Blues (John Musto) 1:31 “most musical poet of the twentieth century”. 4 The Weary Blues 2:10 True or false, this judgement underscores the 5 “Litany” from Shadow of the Blues (John Musto) 3:26 unquestionable fact that much of Hughes’s poetry 6 “A Black Pierrot” lends itself fairly readily to musical setting, and from Songs of Separation (William Grant Still) 2:05 that, for Hughes, music was perhaps a principal 7 “March Moon” from Beyond the Rim of Day (Hale Smith) 2:25 inspiration behind his writing. From popular 8 Negro 1:02 forms to the more demanding jazz and classical 9 The Negro Speaks of Rivers (Margaret Bonds) 4:24 repertoire, Langston Hughes found inspiration 0 “My People” from Genius Child (Ricky Ian Gordon) 3:28 in the work of musicians. He adored music and ! Song to the Dark Virgin (Florence Price) 2:08 took pride in the fascination that his poems @ Evil 0:13 and plays inspired in composers and performers. # Joy (Howard Swanson) 0:51 This collection of songs written by 20th Century $ “Lonely House” from Street Scene (Kurt Weill) 3:48 American composers on the poet's texts celebrates % “Minstrel Man” from Three Dream Portraits (Margaret Bonds) 2:15 the centenary of his birth. ^ Sunday Morning Prophecy 1:11 Tracks 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, 19, 21 & 27 & “In Time of Silver Rain” from Fields of Wonder (Harriette Davison) 1:16 Narrated by William Warfield Tracks 2, 3, 5-7, 9-11, 13-15, 17, 18, and 20 * “Carolina Cabin” DDD from Four Songs of Langston Hughes (Jean Berger) 2:08 Performed by Darryl Taylor and Maria Corley ( Madam and the Census Taker 0:50 Tracks 22-26 Performed by Erik Santos, Patricia Terry Ross and Sandy Nordahl ) Lovely, Dark and Lonely One (Harry T. Burleigh) 2:02 ¡ Sylvester’s Dying Bed 1:16 Booklet notes in English www.

DREAMER: A Portrait of Langston Hughes DREAMER: A Portrait Kommentar auf Deutsch ™-§ Dreamer (Erik Santos) 24:37 naxos.com 8.559136 Commentaire en français Sandman/Birth • Bound No’th Blues • To Artina • Down Where I Am • The Dream Weaver/Bouquet

¶ Still Here 0:35 8.559136 Recorded at the studios of WFMT Radio, Chicago, IL, July 23, 2001 and at Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, Great Hall, December 18-21, 2001 Producers: Darryl Taylor, Peter Nothnagle and Erik Santos Engineers: Mark Travis and Peter Nothnagle 6836943 91362 Cover Art: Artist Portaits compiled by Elizabeth LaVelle • American flag, folk artist, 1880s.