Texts, translations & notes Lay a garland Lay a garland on her hearse of [the] dismal yew. Maidens, willow branches wear, say she died true. Her love was false, but she was firm [from her hour of birth.] Upon her buried body lie lightly, thou gentle earth. Francis Beaumont (ca. 1584-1616) John Fletcher (1579-1625) note: The words inside the brackets belong to the original poem by Beaumont and Fletcher, but have been left out in the composition. The word "thou" in the last line has been added in the composition. British composer Robert Pearsall (1795-1856) was trained in and briefly practiced law but, after a mild stroke and following medical advice, moved to Germany where he pursued his interests in history, painting, genealogy, heraldry and, above all, musical composition. There he became absorbed in the Cecilian movement, an effort to return music to a more subservient role in the Catholic church and which held the Renaissance masters of the 15th and 16th century (Palestrina, above all) as ultimate models. He received training in traditional counterpoint and transcribed Renaissance works into modern notation. Soon, the revival of secular styles occurring in England took his interest, as well, and Pearsall began writing madrigals in the style of Morley and other 16th century British composers. Lay a garland, one of his best-known works, is a remarkable synthesis of sure and clear neo-Renaissance counterpoint and an almost constant use of expressive dissonance and a romantically enriched harmonic palette. The Blue Bird The lake lay blue below the hill, O'er it, as I looked, there flew Across the waters, cold and still, A bird whose wings were palest blue. The sky above was blue at last, The sky beneath me blue in blue, A moment, ere the bird had passed, It caught his image as he flew. Mary E. Coleridge Reared in upper-crust Dublin and given an impressive immersion in matters musical and intellectual, Stanford was composing by the age of four. In 1870 he entered Queen’s College, Cambridge as a choral scholar and by 1873 had already achieved the post of organist at Trinity College and conductor of two choral societies. Stanford possessed boundless energy and promoted the highest ideals in music, which drew to him offers for top musical posts in England. He was elected professor of music at Cambridge in 1887, when he was only 35. As Frederick Hudson wrote in The New Grove, Stanford “exercised more influence in the teaching of composition than any other musician in Britain throughout his tenure.” Stanford’s students included Holst, Charles Wood, Vaughan Williams, Ireland, Bridge, Howells, and others. Hudson also notes that Stanford’s partsongs “reached near perfection both in melodic invention and in capturing the mood of the poem.” The blue bird is such a partsong, on a poem by Mary Coleridge. The high soprano solos convey a sense of mind detached somehow from the everyday—a dreamlike state where, as is said in King Lear, “ripeness is all,” much like the effusive headiness of a newly-bloomed peony. Jonathan M. Miller www.chicagoacappella.org Dieu! qu’il la fait bon regarder Dieu! Qu’il la fait bon regarder Lord, what a vision she is, La gracieuse bonne et belle; So gracious, good, and beautiful; Pour les grans biens que sont en elle For her many virtues Chascun est prest de la loüer. All are ready to praise her. Qui se pourroit d’elle lasser? Who could bring himself to tire of her? Tousjours sa beauté renouvelle. Her beauty is ever fresh. Par de ça, ne de là, la mer Whether near or far over the sea, Ne scay dame ne damoiselle There is neither wife nor maiden Qui soit en tous bien par fais telle. Who is so perfect in every respect, C’est ung songe que d’i penser. It is a dream even to think of it. Dieu! Qu’il la fait bon regarder. Lord, what a vision she is. Charles D’Orléans Yver, vous n’estes qu’un villain Winter, you're nothing but a villain. Yver, vous n'estes qu'un villain; Summer is pleasantness and kindness, Esté est plaisant et gentil as we see from May and April, En témoing de may et d'avril which accompany it evening and Qui l'accompaignent soir et main. morning. Esté revet champs, bois et fleurs Summer, by nature's order, clothes De sa livrée de verdure fields, woods and flowers Et de maintes autres couleurs with its livery of green Par l'ordonnance de Nature. and many other hues. Mais vous, Yver, trop estes plein But you, Winter, are too full De nège, vent, pluye et grézil. of snow, wind, rain and sleet. On vous deust banir en éxil. We must send you into exile. Sans point flater je parle plein, I'm no flatterer and I speak my mind. Yver, vous n'estes qu'un villain. Winter, you're nothing but a villain. Charles D’Orléans Charles D’Orléans (1394-1465) was a French Duke who was captured by the English in the Battle of Agincourt. During his 25 years in prison, he was a particularly prolific poet, both in French and in English. Debussy set two of his texts in 1898 and one in 1908. While Dieu! qu’il la fait bon regarder! (1898) praises a fair and virtuous woman, Quant j’ai ouy le tabourin (1908) – not performed this evening – describes the narrator’s desire to stay in bed rather than joining the May Day celebrations. Yver, vous n’estes qu’un villain (1898) is about the unpleasantness of winter. It is unclear who Debussy might have had in mind when he set this love poem. In 1899, he married Lilly Texier, but he was most likely much less devoted to her than to the love interests preceding and following this marriage. In 1904, he divorced Lilly to be with Emma Bardac, the mother of his illegitimate daughter. -- Sarah Riskind ‘09 Im Herbst In Autumn Ernst is der Herbst, Somber is autumn, Und wenn die Blätter fallen, And when the leaves fall, Sinkt auch das Herz zu trübem Weh The heart also sinks into melancholy herab. woe. Still ist die Flur, Quiet is the field, Und nach dem Süden wallen And southward travel Die Sänger stumm, The silent songsters, wie nach dem Grab. as if going to the grave. Pale is the day, Bleich ist der Tag, And pallid mists veil Und blaße Nebel schleiern The sun as well as hearts. Die Sonne wie die Herzen ein. The night comes early; Früh kommt die Nacht: Then all vigor lies fallow Denn alle Kräfte feiern, And our being, enfolded deeply inward, Und tief verschlossen ruht das Sein. rests. Sanft wird der Mensch. People become meek; Er sieht die Sonne sinken, They see the sun setting, and Er ahnt des Lebens wie des Jahres They foresee the end of life, as well as of Schuß. the year. Feucht wird das Aug, Their eyes become moist, Doch in der Träne Blinken, But in the glistening of their tears Entströmt des Herzens seligster Erguß. Streams the heart’s most blissful outpouring. Klaus Groth Im Herbst (In the Autumn), composed originally in 1886 and revised in 1888, is widely considered the culmination of Brahms’s secular choral writing. The Op. 104 choral cycle was his last statement in the medium and was written very near the end of his compositional career. Many streams collect here: the composer’s mastery of the a cappella texture based on, among other things, his early years conducting choirs in Hamburg and Detmold; his years of study of the Renaissance masters; his increasing sense of nostalgia and emotional isolation; a growing chromaticism and compactness; and his long-standing and increasingly strong friendship with the poet, Klaus Groth, with whom he had years earlier shared a flame for a young woman. Brahms reworked the third verse in 1888, a remarkably bold statement (in harmonic terms unlike any other a cappella work he composed) of deep sorrow, sadness and ultimately blissful catharsis – all contained in 23 bars. Der bucklichte Fiedler Es wohnet ein Fiedler zu Frankfurt am Main, Der kehret von lustiger Zeche heim, Und er trat auf den Markt, was shaut’ er dort? Der schönen Frauen schmausten gar viel an dem Ort! Du bucklichter Fiedler, nun fiedle uns auf, Wir wollen dir zahlen des Lohnes voll auf! Einen feinen Tanz behende gegeigt! Walpugisnach wir heuer gefei’rt. Der Geiger strich einen fröhlichen Tanz, Die Frauen tanzten den Rosenkranz; Und die Erste sprach: Mein lieber Sohn, Du geigtest so Frisch, hab nun deinen Lohn! Sie griff ihm behind unter’s Wamms sofort, Und nahm ihm den Höcker vom Rücken fort: So gehe nun hin, mein schlanker Gesell, Dich nimmt nun jedwede Jungfrau zur Stell! Rheinisches Volkslied The hunchbacked fiddler There once lived a fiddler in Frankfurt-am-Main, who was on his way home from a merry celebration; he arrived at the market, and what did he see? Fair women feasting - there were so many in that place. "You! Hunchbacked fiddler, if you fiddle for us now we will pay you a handsome reward! Fiddle nimbly a fine dance, for we celebrate Walpurgis Night tonight!" The fiddler scratched out a vivacious dance, and the ladies danced with wreaths of roses, and then the first one spoke: "My dear son, you play so merrily - have now your reward!" At once she grasped him agilely under his jerkin and removed the hump from his back: "Go forth now, my tall young man, now any maiden would take you on the spot!" Translation by Emily Ezus Brahms had composed earlier settings of the Lower Rhenish folksong Der Bucklichte Fiedler (The Hunchbacked Fiddler) whose source was his favorite collection Kretzschmer and Zuccalmaglio’s Deutche Volklieder.