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Megan Magsarili Sunday, May 14, 2017 • 4:00 p.m Megan Magsarili Senior Recital DePaul Recital Hall 804 West Belden Avenue • Chicago Saturday, May 14, 2017 • 4:00 p.m. DePaul Recital Hall Megan Magsarili, mezzo-soprano Senior Recital Gregory Shifrin, piano PROGRAM Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) “Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust”, BWV 170 (1726) Gregory Shifrin, piano Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) Banalités (1940) Chanson d’Orkenise Hôtel Fagnes de Wallonies Voyage à Paris Sanglots Gregory Shifrin, piano Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) Без солнца (1874) I. В четырёх стенах II. Меня ты в толпе не узнала III. Окончен праздный, шумный день IV. Скучай VI. Над рекой Gregory Shifrin, piano Megan Magsarili • May 14, 2017 Program Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Three Songs, Op. 45 (1972) Now Have I Fed and Eaten Up the Rose A Green Lowland of Pianos O Boundless, Boundless Evening Gregory Shifrin, piano Megan Magsarili is from the studio of Jo Rodenburg. This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of the degree Bachelor of Music. As a courtesy to those around you, please silence all cell phones and other electronic devices. Flash photography is not permitted. Thank you. Megan Magsarili • May 14, 2017 PROGRAM NOTES Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) “Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust”, BWV 170 Duration: 7 minutes The theme of Cantata BWV 170 is centered around the necessity to renounce sin in order to achieve inner peace and deliverance in heaven. “Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust,” the first aria in the cantata, evokes this internal elation one experiences in the salvation of God. Its 12/8 time signature gives the music a dignified sensation, sustaining the singer’s “delightful rest” in the arms of God. The aria does not mention sin, a subject that strongly prevails in the following recitative, which dramatically presents the temptations and evils that scourge the earth. Though this aria mainly focuses on the pleasantries of a gratifying relationship with God, hints of darkening chromaticism allude to the depths of hell. Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) Banalités Duration: 11 minutes In a series of interviews spanning from October 1953 to April 1954, Poulenc proclaims: “The setting of music to a poem must be an act of love, and never a marriage of convenience.” Poulenc examined every aspect of a poem, often taking months to begin setting it to music. Banalités is a wartime song cycle using poems by Guillaume Apollinaire. Pierre Bernac, a renowned interpreter of French art song and lifelong friend of Poulenc, points out that Banalités does not constitute a cycle in the true sense of the word, for they have no connection with one another, poetically or musically. The two shortest texts, “Hôtel” and “Voyage à Paris,” were among seven fragments first published by Apollinaire under the title, Banalités. The remaining three songs also embrace life’s trivialities, but in vastly different ways. “Chanson d’Orkenise” is a mock folksong about a tramp who leaves his heart behind the gates of a fictional town while a wagon driver enters through them, hoping to give his away. The brisk Megan Magsarili • May 14, 2017 Program Notes accompaniment and vocal line from “Fagnes de Wallonie” imitates the west wind blowing through a damp bog in the south of Belgium. “Sanglots,” starkly contrasts with the ridiculous Parisian gaiety that precedes it in “Voyage à Paris.” Apollinaire did not believe in the necessity of punctuation, which is one of the reasons “Sanglots” is so difficult to grasp. Certain lines of the poem are in parentheses, which link together in meaning. If these lines were omitted, the general idea of the poem would remain intact, though some of its most captivating elements would be lost. “Sanglots” reflects on the pain of those throughout history who died for love. Apollinaire suggests that though we, the living, suffer from this same pain, we must leave it with the dead and “hide our sobs,” otherwise our existence would be too difficult to bear. Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) Без солнца Duration: 17 minutes One of Mussorgsky's many literary friends was the poet Arseny Golenishchev- Kutuzov. Mussorgsky drew on Golenishchev- Kutuzov's poetry for his song cycle, Sunless. This was a bleak period in the composer's life, which followed the hostile critical reception given to his opera, Boris Godunov. Also at this time, Mussorgsky worked as a clerk in the Russian Forestry department, a job he found numbingly boring. Unsurprisingly, a spirit of pessimism pervades all six songs in the Sunless cycle, and Mussorgsky's affinity for drama is almost entirely absent. In the first three songs, “Within Four Walls,” “You have not recognized me in the crowd,” and “Over is the idle and clamorous day,” Mussorgsky uses the accompaniment very sparingly, limiting it mostly to single chords and octaves, including some fierce dissonances in “Within Four Walls.” Midway through “Over is the idle and clamorous day” Mussorgsky introduces an accompaniment figure of falling sixths that is vaguely modal; this motive inspired Claude Debussy to borrow it for “Nuages,” the first of his three orchestral Nocturnes. “Be bored” is in strophic form. It mirrors the text, Megan Magsarili • May 14, 2017 Program Notes returning mercilessly three times to the opening statement and title of the song. Yet, with each new verse, the music is not repeated exactly, but modified to reflect the changes in the text. Lastly, “On the river” produces accompaniment that is more in line with what is expected from a Member of the “Mighty Five,” though its texture is light, with gently rolling thirds in the bass of the piano, while the treble supports the melody of the singer. The song comes to a chilling end, with a voice calling to the poet from the water. Though paralyzed in fear he feels the urge to jump in. Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Three Songs, Op. 45 Duration: 9 minutes Samuel Barber discovered his calling to compose at a very early age, which he communicated to his mother in a letter at the age of nine: “To begin with I was not meant to be an athlet [sic]. I was meant to be a composer, and will be I'm sure. I'll ask you one more thing.—Don't ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football.—Please—Sometimes I've been worrying about this so much that it makes me mad (not very).” Barber’s aunt and uncle, contralto, Louise Homer, and composer, Sidney Homer, were the ones who nurtured his prodigious talent for vocal and instrumental works. Barber achieved recognition as a composer beginning in his twenties, which continued throughout his long and illustrious career. Despite his success, he was no stranger to criticism, which ultimately caused him to withdraw into isolation after critics rejected his opera, Antony and Cleopatra. It was during this time that Barber composed Op. 45 for German baritone, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, a singer he admired greatly. Barber maintained the belief that the integrity of any text could be preserved when translated between languages, including music. This idea is foundational to his Three Songs, each translated from their original languages into English and then again through music. No. 1, from the Swiss poet Gottfried Keller’s cycle Gedanken eines Lebendig-Begrabenen (“Thoughts of one buried alive”) is an English translation by James Joyce. Megan Magsarili • May 14, 2017 Program Notes A dead man, astonished by the fact that his life has come to an end, wonders whether the rose his beloved placed in his grave had been white or red. “A Green Lowland of Pianos,” translated from the Polish surrealist writer, Jerzy Harasymowicz, is a humorous number in which pianos personified as cows return from their vacation in the green meadow for their “artistic milking” in the concert hall and behave imprudently. In “O boundless, boundless evening,” the text by Impressionist poet, Georg Heym depicts the dusky hues on a rolling landscape. Notes by Megan Magsarili. 804 West Belden Avenue Chicago, IL 60614 773.325.7260 music.depaul.edu.
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