L’ultima canzone (The Last Song) They told me that tomorrow, Nina, you will be a bride. epartment of usic heatre yet still I sing my serenade to you! D M & T Up on the barren plateau, down in the shady valley, Oh, how often I have sung it to you!

Rose-petal, O flower of amaranth, though you marry, I shall be always near.

Tomorrow you'll be surrounded by celebration, smiles and flowers, and will not spare a thought for our past love; yet always, by day and by night, with passionate moan my song will sigh to you.

Mint-flower, O flower of pomegranate, Senior Recital Nina, remember the kisses I gave you!

Francesco Cimmino (1862-1938) Translated by Antonio Giuliano Joel Williams tenor Tom Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter and mathematician. He was born in Manhattan and began learning to play the piano at age seven. He gravitated more towards popular music than classical and Jodi Goble soon began writing songs, strongly influenced by musical theater composers like Cole Porter. Lehrer gained popularity in the 1950s and piano 1960s for his comedic and satirical songs and parodies.

In addition to being a talented musician, Lehrer was a gifted mathematician. He enrolled at Harvard University at 15 to study mathematics, earnings Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. He spent most of his career teaching at various universities, including Harvard, MIT, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

This recital is given in partial fulfillment of the April 18, 2020 Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance. 7:30 pm Joel is a student of Chad Sonka. Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall Program

Non t’amo più (I don’t love you anymore) Do you still remember the day that we met; If music be the food of love (3rd version), Z. 379 Henry Purcell Do you still remember your promises? (1659-1695) Crazy from love I followed you, we were enamored with arr. Benjamin Britten each other (1913-1976) And I dreamed next to you, crazy from love. I dreamed, happily, of caresses and kisses A chain fading away into the sky: Feldeinsamkeit Johannes Brahms But your words were misleading, Wie bist du, meine Königin (1833-1897) Because your soul is made of ice. Botschaft Do you still remember? Do you still remember?

Lamento Henri Duparc Now my faith, my immense desire; Phidylé (1848-1933) My dream of love isn’t you anymore: I don’t search for your kisses, I don’t think of you. I dream of another ideal; I don’t love you anymore. INTERMISSION In the dear days that we spent together I scattered flowers at your feet You were the only hope of my heart On This Island, Op. 11 Benjamin Britten You were the only thought in my mind Let the florid music praise (1913-1976) Now the leaves are falling fast You watched me beg, turning pale Seascape You watched me cry before you Only to satisfy your desire, I Nocturne Had given my blood and my faith. As it is, plenty Do you still remember? Do you still remember? Non t’amo più Paolo Tosti L’ultima canzone (1846-1916) Now my faith, my immense desire; My dream of love isn’t you anymore: I don’t search for your kisses, I don’t think of you. I dream of another ideal; I don’t love you anymore. Poisoning pigeons in the park Tom Lehrer (b. 1928) Carmelo Errico (1848-1892) Translated by Madeleine Gotschlich Program Notes and Translations

Henry Purcell was one of the most important English composers of the Baroque Era. He was born into a family of professional musicians employed by the royal court. Purcell spent much of his career as the organist at Westminster Abbey, writing a great deal of sacred music as a result of his employment. Singers know him for his many songs, most of which were written as incidental music for plays, and for his opera Francesco Paolo Tosti began studying music in Ortona and Dido and Aeneas, an adaptation of the ancient Greek tragedy. Naples, Italy, at a young age. He struggled as a music teacher and composer, fighting illness and poverty during his early career. This version of “If music be the food of love” is the last of three settings Tosti began having more success after moving to Rome, where he Purcell composed to this text by poet Henry Heveningham. The piano became the voice teacher of Princess Margherita and a resident accompaniment was realized by 20th century English composer musician in the royal court. He then moved to London, where he Benjamin Britten, Purcell’s with original accompaniment simply being an made important connections and became a popular composer with outline of chords to be played on the harpsichord along with the singer. the British royal family and in London salons. He also worked as a professor at the Royal Academy of Music. Johannes Brahms was a prominent German composer during the Romantic Period. The son of a professional bassist, he began learning to Tosti is best remembered for his songs, both in English and Italian. play the piano at age seven and spent his teenage years playing gigs for His songs were well liked because of their singable and expressive extra money and beginning to compose music. Brahms became a relevant melodies. The texts he chose to set to music were often quite name in German music when he was praised in the writings of Robert straightforward and relatable. “L’ultima canzone” was composed Schumann, a prominent composer and music critic who later became in 1870 while Tosti was working in Rome, and “Non t’amo più” Brahms’ mentor. Brahms spent his adult life working as a conductor and was written in 1884 during his time working for the royal family in traveling musician, mainly performing his own compositions. London. Brahms was a melody-oriented composer and enjoyed playing with ways to put his melodies a little off-balance, which he does by altering phrase length or shifting the pulse away from the bar line. The texts of these three songs have to do with nature and longing, both popular themes in German poetry of the 19th century. Feldeinsamkeit (Solitude in a field) I rest quietly in the tall green grass And for a long time send my gaze aloft, Surrounded by the unceasing whirr of crickets, Enfolded wondrously by blue sky.

The lovely white clouds drift by Through the deep blue, like beautiful, silent dreams; I feel as though I am long dead And drift blissfully along through eternal space.

Hermann Allmers (1821-1902) Translated by Elisabeth Siekhaus

Wie bist du, meine Königin (How blissful you are, my queen) How blissful you are, my queen, When you are gentle and good! Merely smile, and spring fragrance wafts As it is, plenty Through my spirit blissfully! As it is, plenty; As it’s admitted The brightness of freshly blooming roses, The children happy Shall I compare it to yours? And the car, the car Ah, soaring over all that blooms That goes so far Is your bloom, blissful! And the wife devoted: To this as it is, Wander through dead wastelands, To the work and the banks And green shadows will be spreading, Let his thinning hair Even if fearful sultriness And his hauteur Broods there without end... blissfully! Give thanks, give thanks. All that was thought Let me die in your arms! As like as not, is not It is in them that Death itself, When nothing was enough Even if the sharpest pain But love, but love Rages in my breast... is blissful! And the rough future Of an intransigent nature Georg Friedrich Daumer (1800-1875) And the betraying smile, Translated by Emily Ezust Betraying, but a smile: That that is not, is not; Forget, forget. Let him not cease to praise Botschaft (Message) Then his spacious days; Blow, breeze, gently and lovingly Yes, and the success about the cheeks of my beloved; Let him bless, let him bless: play tenderly in her locks, Let him see in this do not hasten to flee far away! The profits larger If perhaps she is then to ask, And the sins venal, how it stands with poor wretched me, Lest he see as it is tell her: “Unending was his woe, The loss as major highly dubious was his condition; And final, final. However, now he can hope magnificently to come to life again. For you, lovely one, are thinking of him!”

Georg Friedrich Daumer Translated by Emily Ezust Henri Duparc was a French composer of the late Romantic Period. In Seascape 1871,he, along with other important composers of the time, founded Look, stranger, at this island now the Société National de Musique, an organization dedicated to The leaping light for your delight discovers, celebrating and promoting French music. Many of his songs set texts Stand stable here written by his contemporaries. “Lamento” is a setting of poetry by And silent be, Théophile Gautier and “Phydilé” is a poem written by Leconte de That through the channels of the ear Lisle, both active poets in 19th century France. May wander like a river The swaying sound of the sea. Throughout his life, Duparc struggled with mental illness. He stopped Here at the small field’s ending pause writing music at the age of 37 and destroyed most of his own Where the chalk wall falls to the foam, and its tall ledges compositions. Duparc is known for the little remaining music of his Oppose the pluck that still exists, namely his 17 surviving art songs. And knock of the tide, And the shingle scrambles after the sucking surf, and the gull lodges A moment on its sheer side. Far off like floating seeds the ships Diverge on urgent voluntary errands; Lamento (Lament) And the full view Do you know the white tomb Indeed may enter Where floats with plaintive sound, And move in memory as now these clouds do, The shadow of a yew? That pass the harbour mirror On the yew a pale dove, And all the summer through the water saunter. Sad and alone under the setting sun, Sings its song.

One would say that an awakened soul Is weeping under the earth in unison Nocturne With this song, Now through night’s caressing grip While the splendid and the proud And from the misfortune of being forgotten, Earth and all her oceans slip, Naked stand before the crowd Moans its sorrow in a cooing Capes of China slide away And the losing gambler gains Quite soft. From her fingers into day And the beggar entertains: And the Americas incline May sleep’s healing power extend Oh! never again near the tomb Coasts towards her shadow line. Through these hours to our friend. Shall I go, when night lets fall Now the ragged vagrants creep Unpursued by hostile force, Its black mantle, Into crooked holes to sleep: Traction engine, bull or horse To hear the pale dove Just and unjust, worst and best, Or revolting succubus; Sing on the limb of the yew Change their places as they rest: Calmly till the morning break Its plaintive song! Awkward lovers like in fields Let him lie, then gently wake. Where disdainful beauty yields: Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) Translated by Emily Ezust Let the florid music praise Phidylé Let the florid music praise, The grass is soft for slumber beneath the fresh poplars, The flute and the trumpet, on the slopes by the mossy springs, Beauty’s conquest of your face: which, in the meadows flowering with a thousand plants, In that land of flesh and bone, lose themselves under dark thickets. Where from citadels on high Her imperial standards fly, Rest, o Phidylé! the midday sun shines on the foliage Let the hot sun and invites you to sleep! Shine on, shine on. Among clover and thyme, alone, in full sunlight O but the unlov’d have had power, hum the fickle honeybees. The weeping and striking, Always; time will bring their hour: A warm fragrance circulates about the turning paths, Their secretive children walk the red cornflower tilts, Through your vigilance of breath and the birds, skimming the hill with their wings, To unpardonable death, search for shade among the wild roses. And my vows break But when the sun, turning in its resplendent orbit, finds its heat abating, let your loveliest smile and your most ardent kiss recompense me for waiting! Now the leaves are falling fast Now the leaves are falling fast, Leconte de Lisle (1818-1894) Nurse’s flowers will not last; Translated by Emily Ezust Nurses to the graves are gone, And the prams go rolling on. Whisp’ring neighbours, left and right, Pluck us from the real delight; And the active hands must freeze Benjamin Britten was an English composer and pianist in the Lonely on the separate knees. mid-20th century. Influenced by Mahler, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Dead in hundreds at the back other inventive composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Follow wooden in our track, his music stays rooted in tonality while using new and unusual Arms raised stiffly to reprove harmonies and textures like some of the more experimental In false attitudes of love. composers of the Modern Era. Some of his best-known works are his Starving through the leafless wood operas Peter Grimes and Billy Budd, as well as his War Requiem and Trolls run scolding for their food; The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. And the nightingale is dumb, And the angel will not come. On This Island is a setting of five poems by poet W. H. Auden, a Cold, impossible, ahead contemporary and close friend of Britten in the late 1930s. Auden’s Lifts the mountain’s lovely head outgoing and cheerful personality countered Britten’s more reserved Whose white waterfall could bless nature, and their friendship helped Benjamin Britten in coming to Travellers in their last distress. terms with his homosexuality. The evocative personal and political themes of Auden’s poems resonated deeply with Britten, and he set quite a number of them throughout the years they worked together.