Let Evening Come: American Songs Old & New Emily Martin, soprano | Ariana Wyatt, soprano | Richard Masters, piano

Acknowledgments

Recorded March 7-9, 2019 in Rooke Recital Hall, Bucknell University Recording Engineer: Paul Smith Editing and Mastering Engineer: Denver Nuckolls Producer: Ariana Wyatt Acknowledgments: Bucknell University Cover Art: Kathryn Simpson

WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1806 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2020 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WORKS BY ROBERT SPILLMAN | FRANK LA FORGE | LORI LAITMAN WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL.

Martin_1806_book.indd 1-2 12/18/19 3:42 PM The Composers The Performers

Robert Spillman (b. 1936) was chair of the piano faculty and music director of the opera program at the American soprano Emily Martin has regularly received acclaim for her “enchanting University of Colorado at Boulder until his retirement in 2004. Prior to joining the faculty at CU Boulder, he iridescence,” and has been called “dramatically energetic and skillful” for her per- taught piano and accompanying at the Eastman School of Music. Mr. Spillman worked throughout the United forming in opera houses across the US including The Santa Fe Opera, Palm Beach States as accompanist for artists such as Jan DeGaetani, Sylvia Rosenberg, Yehuda Hanani, Paul Sperry, and Opera, Nevada Opera and the Chautauqua Opera. Emily has graced numerous Lucy Shelton, and performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras. His recordings appear on the Bridge, Vox, concert stages around the , and has presented solo recitals across Pro Arte, Musical Heritage and Mercury labels. Since 2010, he has set texts by a wide variety of poets to music, the US, Canada, , and Australia. She has conducted masterclasses for from Jane Kenyon and Sara Teasdale to Raymond Carver and Walt Whitman. His music can be purchased at young singers across North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand including at the University of Toronto, Classical Vocal Reprints (www.classicalvocalrep.com). Iceland University of the Arts, Guildhall School of Music (UK), University of Western Australia, Otago University (NZ), among others. As a founding member of the international trio Women on the Verge, Emily has been Described by Fanfare Magazine as “one of the most talented and intriguing of living composers,” Lori Laitman instrumental in commissioning and supporting new works by female composers, including Cecilia Livingston (b. 1955) has composed multiple operas and choral works, and hundreds of songs, setting texts by classical and Emilie LeBel. For more information, visit www.emilymartinvoice.com. and contemporary poets, including those who perished in the Holocaust. Her music has generated substantial critical acclaim. The Journal of Singing wrote “It is difficult to think of anyone before the public today who Ariana Wyatt’s recent opera engagements include appearances with Gotham equals her exceptional gifts for embracing a poetic text and giving it new and deeper life through music.” For Chamber Opera, Opera on the James, Opera Omaha, Opera Roanoke, Glimmerglass more information, please visit artsongs.com. Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, the Juilliard Opera Center, and the Aspen Opera Theater. Symphonic highlights include appearances with the Roanoke Pianist and composer Frank La Forge (1879-1953) was the first major American collaborative pianist. Musi- and Charleston Symphonies and performances of James Whitbourn’s Annelies in cal partner to some of the greatest performers of his era, La Forge was famous for performing thousands of Israel, Prague, and the Kennedy Center. An avid concert artist, recent appearances accompaniments in a wide variety of keys from memory. He was the first American pianist to record a concerto include those with the Ameropa Festival in Prague, the Parma Festival, the Commixtus Chamber Music Festival movement, and one of the first accompanists to be credited on the record label for his musical contributions. in France, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the New York Festival of Song. An enthusiastic advocate His vocal anthology Pathways of Song remains a valuable resource for young singers and voice teachers even for contemporary and opera, she has premiered and championed chamber works by Alan Louis Smith, today. He began composing while working in Berlin and , and continued to compose and arrange for the Daron Hagen, Gregory Hutter, and Lori Laitman. Ms. Wyatt is a graduate of the Juilliard Opera Center and the voice until the end of his life. University of Southern California. For more information go to www.arianawyatt.com

Martin_1806_book.indd 3-4 12/18/19 3:42 PM Richard Masters is a soloist, opera coach, and conductor based in Blacksburg, Silent as women wait for love, Spring Rain Virginia, where he is an assistant professor of piano and collaborative piano on the The world is waiting for the spring. I thought I had forgotten, music faculty at Virginia Tech’s School of Performing Arts. Significant collaborations But it all came back again include concerts with Grammy-winning baritone Donnie Ray Albert, flutist Valerie Summer Night, Riverside To-night with the first spring thunder Coleman, former Juilliard String Quartet violinist Earl Carlyss, saxophonist Harvey In the wild soft summer darkness In a rush of rain. Pittel, and under the baton of Lorin Maazel. Recent performances include recitals at How many and many a night we two together the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Schola Cantorum in Paris, Gallery 345 in Toronto, the Rich- Sat in the park and watched the Hudson I remembered a darkened doorway ard M. Nixon Presidential Library, the Percy Grainger Home and Museum in White Plains, and the San Francisco Wearing her lights like golden spangles Where we stood while the storm swept by, Conservatory. Dr. Masters is a Yamaha Artist. For more information, visit www.richard-masters.com. Glinting on black satin. Thunder gripping the earth The rail along the curving pathway And lightning scrawled on the sky. TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS Was low in a happy place to let us cross, And down the hill a tree that dripped with bloom The passing motor busses swayed, Spring Rain: Seven Poems of Sara Teasdale Spend all you have for loveliness, Sheltered us, For the street was a river of rain, Barter Buy it and never count the cost; While your kisses and the flowers, Lashed into little golden waves Life has loveliness to sell, For one white singing hour of peace Falling, falling, In the lamp light’s stain. All beautiful and splendid things, Count many a year of strife well lost, Tangled in my hair.... Blue waves whitened on a cliff, And for a breath of ecstasy With the wild spring rain and thunder Soaring fire that sways and sings, Give all you have been, or could be. The frail white stars moved slowly over the sky. My heart was wild and gay; And children’s faces looking up Your eyes said more to me that night Holding wonder like a cup. Central Park at Dusk And now, far off Than your lips would ever say. . . . Buildings above the leafless trees In the fragrant darkness Life has loveliness to sell, Loom high as castles in a dream, The tree is tremulous again with bloom I thought I had forgotten, Music like a curve of gold, While one by one the lamps come out For June comes back. But it all came back again Scent of pine trees in the rain, To thread the twilight with a gleam. To-night with the first spring thunder Eyes that love you, arms that hold, To-night what girl In a rush of rain. And for your spirit’s still delight, There is no sign of leaf or bud, Dreamily before her mirror shakes from her hair Holy thoughts that star the night. A hush is over everything – This year’s blossoms, clinging to its coils?

Martin_1806_book.indd 5-6 12/18/19 3:42 PM I shall not care And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, How pure at vesper time When she starts crying, When I am dead and over me bright April Would scarcely know that we were gone. The far bells chiming Say: I come tomorrow! Shakes out her rain-drenched hair, Tho’ you should lean above me broken-hearted, Morning God! Give me hills to climb Erwartung (text by Princess Gabriele Wrede; transla- I shall not care. I went out on an April morning Hills! Hills! tion by Richard Masters) All alone, for my heart was high. In the dark, languishing night, I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful I was a child of the shining meadow, I came with a song (text by Elizabeth Ruggles) The flowers are still lit and burning When rain bends down the bough, I was a sister of the sky. I came with a song on my lips, From the kiss of the day, And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted I came with a rose in my hand, Hot, and sun-drenched. Than you are now. There in the windy flood of morning I came with a void in my heart: Longing lifted its weight from me, O love, do you understand? Her breath is sullen and oppressive, There will come soft rain Lost as a sob in the midst of cheering, Her cup of longing so difficult to bear, There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground, Swept as a sea-bird out to sea. The song has died on my lips; Trembling, expecting his coming, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; You took the rose from my hand; Oh! If it only it were my beloved! Seven Songs (Frank La Forge) The void is still in my heart: And frogs in the pools singing at night, Hills (text by Arthur Guiterman) O Love, do you understand? Schlupfwinkel And wild plum trees in tremulous white, I want my hills! Hills! (text by Princess Gabriele Wrede; The trail that scorns the hollows An einen Boten translation by Richard Masters) Robins will wear their feathery fire So let me hold my way (from Des Knaben Wunderhorn; I fled to my private place Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire; By nothing halted translation by Richard Masters) At the bright midday hour, Until at close of day I stand exalted! When you visit my little love, It is the quietest spot in my house, And not one will know of the war, not one Say: I have received her greetings; And I am wounded to the quick. Will care at last when it is done. High on my hills to dream When she asks, how do I fare? Dear hills that know me Say: I’m all right. I close the window and the doors. Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree I lie silently in the dark. If mankind perished utterly; And then how fair will seem When she asks whether I am sick, Nothing shall calm my pain, The lands below me Say: I died; Suffering is my refuge.

Martin_1806_book.indd 7-8 12/18/19 3:42 PM Sanctuary (text by Sarah Taylor Shatford) Four Songs from Otherwise: Eight Poems of Jane Song with my mate. It might My heart is a sanctuary Kenyon An oriole sings from the hedge have been otherwise. Where together we kneel alone. Briefly It Enters, and Briefly it Speaks and in the hotel Kitchen We ate dinner together A fount refreshing the weary I am the blossom pressed in a book, the chef sweetens cream for pastries. at a table with silver When naught but your love could atone! found again after two hundred years. . . . Far off, lightning and thunder agree candlesticks. It might I am the maker, the lover, and the keeper.... to join us for a few days have been otherwise. Here sacred tapers are burning When the young girl who starves here in the valley. How lucky we are I slept in a bed On the altar of this shrine, sits down to a table to be holding hands on a porch in a room with paintings Where at close of day I kneel to pray she will sit beside me. . . . in the country. But even this on the walls, and And thank God that your love is mine! I am food on the prisoner’s plate. . . . is not the joy that trembles planned another day I am water rushing to the wellhead, under every leaf and tongue. just like this day. Song of the Open (text by Jessica Hawley Lowell) filling the pitcher until it spills. . . . But one day, I know, To your soul is it wine, I am the patient gardener Otherwise it will be otherwise. As it is to mine, of the dry and weedy garden. . . . I got out of bed Faring forth on a night of tumultuous might, I am the stone step, on two strong legs. Let Evening Come Forth in a tempest wildly wet, the latch, and the working hinge. . . . It might have been Let the light of late afternoon After a sun hath sullen set? I am the heart contracted by joy. . . . otherwise. I ate shine through chinks in the barn, moving the longest hair, white cereal, sweet up the bales as the sun moves down. Do you love the play before the rest. . . . milk, ripe, flawless Of the foaming spray, I am there in the basket of fruit peach. It might Let the cricket take up chafing Where mad waves romp on the long low beach? presented to the widow. . . . have been otherwise. as a woman takes up her needles I am the musk rose opening I took the dog uphill and her yarn. Let evening come. To stand just out of their frantic reach, unattended, the fern on the boggy summit. . . . to the birch wood. My hair blown free and the breath of me I am the one whose love All morning I did Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned Caught hard in the passionate breath of the sea, overcomes you, already with you the work I love. in long grass. Let the stars appear With your hand in mine, when you think to call my name. . . . At noon I lay down and the moon disclose her silver horn. It were ecstasy!

Martin_1806_book.indd 9-10 12/18/19 3:42 PM Let the fox go back to its sandy den. my skilled embroidery, sorrow, only sorrow. Why I Have a Crush on You, UPS Man Let the wind die down. Let the shed and you shall grow, the daughter of I’ve heard our minister (Robert Spillman, text by Alice N. Persons) go black inside. Let evening come. a love kept secretly. went out before the dawn you bring me all the things I order Our prison door thrown open, love, and may return along this path. are never in a bad mood To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop we shall step into the light, Oh may it be the end always have a jaunty wave as you drive away in the oats, to air in the lung and though I bear the letter here of sorrow. look good in your brown shorts let evening come. over my breaking heart, My love, what have you made? we have an ideal uncomplicated relationship nothing will come to harm you, Pearl, A toy of justice. you’re like a cute boyfriend with great legs Let it come, as it will, and don’t as long as I’m alive. And do you know, my love, who always brings the perfect present be afraid. God does not leave us This lullaby I sing to you. why your mother wears (why, it’s just what I’ve always wanted!) comfortless, so let evening come. May you live long and thrive. this letter on her breast? and then is considerate enough to go away You are my Pearl beyond all price. The man you saw me speaking to oh, UPS Man, let’s hop in your clean brown truck Two Arias from The Scarlet Letter Sleep on, my love, sleep on. believes he knows the answer. and elope! (Lori Laitman, text by David Mason) More worthy than all sacrifice, Our minister is seen to touch ditch your job, I’ll ditch mine sleep on, my Pearl, sleep on. the same place on his heart. let’s hit the road for Brownsville Beyond All Price Just so. and tempt each other (Hester’s Lullaby, Act I, Scene 2, “The Prison”) This Canopy of Trees The judgment of the world with all the luscious brown foods— By medicine or alchemy (Hester’s Aria, Act II, Scene 1, “The Forest”) descends. roast beef, dark chocolate, sleep on, my child, sleep on. How was it I once loved But now, my love, brownies, Guinness, homemade pumpernickel, A daughter of adultery a man so full of hate? now is a time to play. molasses cookies adored, my child, sleep on. Sometimes I fear I’ll burn Run and catch the sun I’ll make you my mama’s bourbon pecan pie You are the Pearl beyond all price. to death of it. before the coming fall. we’ll give all the packages to kind looking strangers Sleep on, my love, sleep on. But I feel only sorrow. This canopy of trees live in a cozy wood cabin More worthy than all sacrifice, This canopy of trees, once sheltered us in love. with a brown dog or two sleep on, my Pearl, sleep on. these spots of sunlight on the earth, Why must we suffer here? and a black and brown tabby I’ll earn our bread by handiwork, the light and shadow of our life— What must we prove? I’m serious, UPS Man. Let’s do it. Where do I sign?

Martin_1806_book.indd 11-12 12/18/19 3:42 PM LET EVENING COME: AMERICAN SONGS OLD & NEW Let Evening Come: American Songs Old & New

Robert Spillman Robert Spillman Spring Rain: Seven Poems of Sara Teasdale (2018) Four Songs from 1 Barter [2:18] Otherwise: Eight Poems of Jane Kenyon (2016) 2 Central Park at Dusk [2:22] 17 Briefly it Enters, and Briefly it Speaks [4:18] 3 Summer Night, Riverside [4:01] 18 Song [1:10] 4 Spring Rain [2:40] 19 Otherwise [2:18]

TROY1806 5 I shall not care [2:11] 20 Let Evening Come [4:40] 6 There will come soft rain [2:36] Emily Martin, soprano | Richard Masters, piano 7 Morning [1:33] Emily Martin, soprano | Richard Masters, piano Lori Laitman Two Arias from The Scarlet Letter (2014)

Frank La Forge (text by David Mason) Two Pieces for Piano (1912) 21 Beyond All Price 8 Improvisation [3:21] (Hester’s Lullaby, Act I, Scene II: The Prison) [3:38] 9 Gavotte & Musette [3:05] 22 This Canopy of Trees Richard Masters, piano (Act II, Scene 1, The Forest) [4:50] Emily Martin, soprano | Richard Masters, piano Frank La Forge

Seven Songs (1906-1925) Robert Spillman 10 Hills (text by Arthur Guiterman) [2:34] 23 Why I have a crush on you, UPS Man (2015) 11 I came with a song (text by Elizabeth Ruggles) [1:31] (text by Alice N. Persons) [2:34] 12 An einen Boten (from Das Knaben Wunderhorn) [1:31] Emily Martin, soprano | Richard Masters, piano 13 Erwartung (text by Princess Gabriele Wrede) [1:16] TROY1806 14 Schlupfwinkel (text by Princess Gabriele Wrede) [2:04] Total Time = 60:47 15 Sanctuary (text by Sarah Taylor Shatford) [2:34] 16 Song of the Open (text by Jessica Hawley Lowell) [1:32] Ariana Wyatt, soprano | Richard Masters, piano

WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1806 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2020 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. LET EVENING COME: AMERICAN SONGS OLD & NEW

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